The Mouth Organ: from the M'Buat to the Harmonica (part I)
By Alain Leclerc (aka Harmo)
Trad John Galvin

Early Mouth Organ

I should begin by saying a word or two about the free reed without which nothing would have happened. What I want to do is dispense with the question, "What is a free reed?" Well, let's say that you whittle the end of a reed into a flexible tab so that it can vibrate. Without this precious vibratory movement, no sound would be produced by any of the various wind instruments! And if you want to understand how the harmonica works, you should try and imagine the rather poetic image of the wind blowing through the reed patch. That was probably the origin of the idea for using our breath to get music from a vibrating free reed while holding it by one end or the other. The idea, as it developed over time, seems to have found its first audible, harmonious application in the northern mountains of the Indochinese peninsula: the M'BUAT (the great-great-grandfather of the harmonica, dating from the 3rd millennium BCE!)

Photo n° 1: Instruments that descended from the M'buat

Let's look a little closer at this gadget and its remarkable sound. The instrument, which uses a free reed from an actual reed plant, is comprised of a calabash (a resonant chamber created from a gourd or gourd-like vegetable) into which 6 bamboo pipes of unequal length are stuck, using bee's wax, and aligned in a bundle, i.e., vertically. Now that I think of it, the metal reed that replaces the botanical one goes back to 2700 BCE according to some writers. But you'll begin to recognize a burgeoning similarity to the "modern" harmonica; you play it by inhaling and exhaling. It is the first instrument in the world-to my knowledge-to function that way. I have a replica, rather faithfully made but, alas, it came with no user's manual. Still, I can get a few sounds and notes out of it, sounds and notes that make cats scurry and dogs bark within a sizeable 100-meter radius. What's more, I have a friend who collects antique instruments and who plays them to perfection, in as much as that's possible!

Audio: orgue sheng

The Jaw Harp

Since we're talking about metal reeds, let's talk, for a moment, about the Jaw Harp. It deserves a chapter all by itself. So, I'll say a little something in behalf of fans of country music. The jaw harp works according to the same principle as the vibrating reed. However, there is a fundamental difference between the jaw harp and early wind instruments: the reeds vibrate due to finger, and not air, pressure.

In passing, I want to recommend that harmonica players force themselves to play the jaw harp. It's a good "tool" for working on articulation and for aiding in the search for tone.

The Mouth Organ: How does it Work?

It's really quite simple-at least in theory! Sound is produced continuously while you inhale and exhale. Blocking one of the finger holes (from 2.5 to 3mm in diameter), drilled exactingly into the bamboo, starts the vibration of the reed. For musical pieces requiring the use of a bourdon (a closed pipe), you simply block the whole of the desired pipe with the same bee's wax, thereby ensuring the performance and air-tightness of the pipe-work on the calabash.

A: When the finger hole is not covered, there is insufficient air pressure mounting in the tube to start the reed vibrating (because the air escapes from the open hole).
B: When the finger hole is covered, there is sufficient air pressure mounting in the tube to start the reed vibrating (because the air can no longer escape through the closed hole).

Admittedly, this is very speculative, but it has worked this way since a period 3000 years prior to the appearance of the star over Bethlehem.

Photo n°2 : Reed

A Little Geography

You'll find this instrument in several countries under various names, shapes and latitudes. In China, the SHENG (under the reign of emperor HANG-SI), usually equipped with 17 pipes, no longer aligned vertically but raft-like (side by side as in a panpipe), is largely used in classical music. In Central Laos, Northern Burma and Vietnam, under the name KHENE, FULU or KEYN (the last of which may have as many as 26 pipes). It is also known as the SIAN in Korea (with 13 to 17 pipes), as the SHÔ in Japan and as the KLEDI in Borneo (with 1 to 6 pipes, depending on the province). In the 6th century, there are reports of a related instrument in Persia, called the "CHINESE MUSTAQ ".

You can find the first representation of the SHENG, dating from 551 CE, at the University of Philadelphia.

For devotees of music theory, let me add that the SHENG is the only instrument tuned in semi-tones, quarter tones and fifths. The range goes from A to Eb: i.e., about an octave and a half. It's a pentatonic scale (e.g.: A, B, D, E, F#).

Harmo grappling with a Sheng

The Making of the Instrument

Despite its apparent simplicity, the making of the early mouth organ conceals highly sophisticated techniques based on a knowledge of acoustics-rather surprising for the time. The presence of an expert hand, guided by centuries of reflection, is a given. There was obviously a mouth organ maker. It would be interesting to ask what these pre-Christian craftsman did to tune the instrument? As a matter of fact, the traditional tuning for A (at a frequency of 440 Hertz) only dates from the 1950's, and so, at the time, there was no tuner! Tuning was done by ear while putting a bit of wax on the reed in order to adjust its tuning. You may not know it but this technique is still used today by repairers of accordions (another descendent instrument). And just so were square, that's the way that I work on my out-of-tune harmonicas, although, I use Super-Glue instead of wax. In my opinion, it's preferable to using a file. Try it and see for yourself

Bending?

On these early instruments!? What for? Playing the mouth organ didn't include Western musical styles; so, torquing the reed with your breath was ill-understood since it served no purpose. In fact, the note being played is true and in tune, chords are obtained by placing your fingers over the holes.

Import

Curiously, the mouth organ arrived somewhat late in the West. It wasn't imported until the second half of the 18th century. There are hints of a Chinese musician playing the instrument in the dazzling salons of Saint-Petersburg, in a book whose author and title escape me. And, in this same city, there was considerable work done on the free reed by a physicist named Kratzenstein. We're now approaching 1800, a year that marks the beginning of another stage in history: that of the industrial age.

So, not long from now, I promise to continue the winding tale of my favorite toy!

Alain LECLERC (aka Harmo) is a harp player from Nantes and president of the Blues society, Blues qui Roule (http://www.bluesquiroule.com). Alain would like to thank the following illustrious persons for their invaluable help in the writing of this article: P. Kersalé (musicologist, expert in "Chinoiserie") and Joël Briand (collector of instruments in Nantes).