Free reed aerophone
These rapid, periodic interruptions of the air flow create the audible vibrations perceived by the listener.
In a free-reed instrument, it is generally the physical characteristics of the reed itself, such as mass, length, cross-sectional area, and stiffness, which determine the pitch of the musical note produced.
Of secondary importance to the pitch are the physical dimensions of the chamber in which the reed is fitted, and of the air flow.
As an exception, the pitch of the Chinese bawu and hulusi are determined by fingering recorder-like tone holes along the instrument body.
The most likely precursor to free reed aerophones is the Jew's harp,[4] an instrument known to many cultures throughout the world, and by many names (e.g., k'uang in ancient China).
Among the ancient instruments, the khene of Laos, the shēng of China and the later shō version of Japan have survived to modern times.
A free reed organ was invented in the Arab world in the 13th century, while the German Heinrich Traxdorf (fl.
[6] In 1780 Kirsnick moved to Saint Petersburg improved these new organ pipes to an adjustable pitch with a hook.
From there, Mälzel went to Regensburg and Vienna, where he constructed a new Panharmonicon and the mechanischer Trompeter; after that he went on tour again to Paris, London and other places; maybe he went for the first time to Boston and New York as well, but up to now we don't know of any notice in a newspaper about it.
Friedrich Kaufmann, a clock maker, went back home to Dresden and copied Mälzel's machines.
He tells that he worked in 1810 to 1812 with Johann Nepomuk Mälzel's Pan Harmonicon that was sent to Boston and then exhibited in several towns.
In an article in " The Musical World and Times " […] the invention of this class of instruments is claimed for Mr. James H. Bazin, an ingenious musician and mechanic, of Canton, Mass.
They had borrowed this pipe from a singing-master in Boston, and wished to have Mr. Bazin repair it, […] We have a legend, in which it is asserted that the free reed was the invention of a German shoemaker [Maelzel], who, captivated with the sweet sounds produced by it,[…],[10][11] From 1833, Prescott built similar instruments.
These features were so attractive that by 1840 there were forty melodeon builders in the United States, with an annual product of $646,975, but reports listed only twenty pipe organ builders, with an annual product of $324,750 [13,p.132]"[15]Cyrill Demian's (see below) patent of 1829[16] however states that the reeds in his instrument "were known for more than 200 years as Regale, Zungen, Schnarrwerk, in organs."
By the 1880s, the list included Oryol, Ryazan, Moscow, Tver, Vologda, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Simbirsk and others, and many of these places created their own varieties of the instrument.
The bandoneon (Spanish: bandoneón), a slightly larger concertina, was named by German inventor Heinrich Band; by the late 1800s, the instrument was significantly popular across parts of South America, notably Argentina and Uruguay; compared to the standard concertina, which was and is widely utilised in various genres of folk and traditional music, the bandoneon's original intended use was to only be played for Christian devotional or religious ceremonies, such as masses (liturgy), weddings, and other related holy or sacred events.
