Reed organs joined square pianos as inexpensive music makers, and replaced them as machine tools refined.1 After Carhart and Prince, American design operates on suction where springs push against atmosphere to open a large bellows when pressure is reduced by smaller foot powered bellows.2 Pressed keys open spring loaded valves to let air through one or more thin brass reeds which are riveted to pierced brass bars and held in slots cut in a wood board fixed on top of the wind chamber. The slots are graduated for reed length and air flow and align with valve stems, 3 and secondary ranks can be arranged with opposite or superimposed slots to share valves.

They were popular microtonal instruments - U.S. patents were issued to Joseph Alley and Henry Poole, James Bazin, Adam Storck, Colin Brown, Shohei Tanaka, Johannes Mueller and Levi Orser; Allan includes instruments by A.R. McClure (modified Carpenter), T. Perronet Thompson, Marchand, and Robert Snell.4 Gellerman shows harmoniums by Lindholm (Borna) and Yamaha (Hamamatsu),5, 6 Willi Moellendorff had Friedrich Reul (Kassel) make one for him and describes one built by Jörg Mager (Aschaffenburg),7, 8 and Pietro Blaserno had one made by Georg Apunn (Hanau) that Tanaka (Traeyser, Stuttgart) lists along with one by Joachim Steiner.9, 10, 11 F.W. Opelt, Hermann Helmholtz (J & P Schiedmayer, Stuttgart), A.-J.-H. Vincent (Alexandre, Paris), G. Guéroult (Debain, Paris), H. Goltsch (Berlin), Johannes Kewitsch (Berlin), Arthur von Öttingen (Schiedmayer), Ivan Wyschnegradsky (Straube, Berlin), Alois Haba (August Foerster, Georgswald), Jeronimas Kacinskas, and Puhlmann each owned one.12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 J. M. Petval, T. W. Saunders (of E. Lachenal's, London), J. P. White (with A. O. Alden), Eivind Groven and Percy Grainger (with Howard Cross) each built one;22, 23, 24, 25, 26 Partch mentions one in Stockholm (Peter Samuel Munck af Rosenschöld, Lund), Berlin (Carl Eitz, Schiedmayer),27, 28, 29 instruments associated with R. Bosanquet (T. A. Jennings, London), Alexander Ellis (Moore & Moore, London), Max Meyer, Ferrucio Busoni (Schiedmayer),30, 31, 32, 33 and an instrument built by Wilfrid Perrett besides his own. Max Planck, von Bülow, Krohn, Preyer, and Sachs are supposed to have each owned one.34, 35, 36, 37, 38 Werner Herbers (Foerster) has one,39 and retuned instruments are being played by Kraig Grady (Estey, Brattleboro), Newband, SYZYGYS (Yamaha) and the Gongs.40, 41, 42, 43

In this instrument the microtonal scale is set out in alternating and opposite rows of reeds with mitered and nested pallet valves. The large wind chest and bellows are constructed using cross laminated panels.44 The hard wood playing surfaces of the hexagonal keys are rounded and are inclined forward.45 Heights of the more than one hundred keys are individually adjustable with screws and octaves span about 16.5 cm. Knee levers operate split swells but it has no additional speaking or mechanical stops. The case is butternut or light walnut with walnut or mahogany crossbanding and panels, mostly with beech and poplar secondary woods.46 The pedals are wooden.

  1. Obituary, Jeremiah Carhart. Scientific American, September 2, 1868
    Carhart invented and sold machines automating the manufacture of reed-boards, the most complicated part of a reed organ - in the early 1860s reed organs sold from $40 to $1,000, compared to pianos at $450 to $1,500. (Edmunds, J. M. Manufactures of the United States in 1860, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 1865; Parton, James. The Piano in the United States" The Atlantic Monthly, vol. XX, July 1867. Ticknor & Fields, Boston)
  2. Presley, Horton. Restoring & Collecting Antique Reed Organs. Tab Books, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, 1977.
  3. Usual arrangement allows only 2.5mm between grooves holding reeds, and "each groove is an exact fac-simile of the other, and those made years ago will fit any reed-block made to-day." Concerning Melodeons and their manufacture. Scientific American, July 2, 1864.
  4. Enharmonic Harmonium. The Free-Reed Organ in England. Allan, R. J. 2003-2004.
    http://tardis.dl.ac.uk/FreeReed/English/organ_book/node14.html
  5. p253. Gellerman, Robert. The American Reed Organ and the Harmonium. The Vestal Press, NY, 1996.
  6. nr 3070, 3184. Gellerman, R. The Reed Organ Database
    http://sponsor.globalknowledge.nl/gellerman/Default.htm
    0194 4443215 Enharmonium (Junseicho orugan) Japan, Shizuoka Pref. Hamamatsu Nippon Gakki 1936
    Kunitachi College of Music, Tokyo JP. http://www.gs.kunitachi.ac.jp/collectiondb/e_catrn02.html
  7. "...the Straube company in Berlin will gladly and within a short time build the exact same instrument...(for Austria and Hungary, the K. u. K. Hof-Harmoniumfabrik Teofil Kotzkiewicz in Vienna supplies [Moellendorff's] harmoniums)." Moellendorff, W. Music with Quarter-Tones. Leipzig. 1917
    http://tonalsoft.com/monzo/moellendorf/book/contents.htm
    Straube "[1873-4] insbesondere Harmoniums in Reinstimmung ...[1927] Bau des ersten Viertelton-Harmoniums..."
    http://dgmweb.net/genealogy/FGS/Stra/StraubeJohann-of-Berlin.shtml
  8. Szendy, Peter. De la harpe éolienne à la "toile": fragments d'une généalogie portative. Lire l'Ircam, 1996, et Tr@verses nº 1, juillet 1996
    http://mediatheque.ircam.fr/articles/textes/Szendy96d/
    Stange-Elbe, Joachim. Elektrische Musikinstrumente. 5.Teil: Sphärenklänge - Jörg Magers "Neue Epoche der Musik durch Radio" ZeM Heft, 1993
    http://www.zem.de/heft/14_emu5.htm
  9. Armonium, 113x72x127 cm. Appunn, Hanau (Germania). 1887.
    http://www.phys.uniroma1.it/DipWeb/museo/acu34.htm
    "Appunn ... had worked for Helmholtz" Autobiography of Carl Stumpf. Murchison, Carl (Ed.). History of Psychology in Autobiography. Clark University Press, Worcester, 1930.
    http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Stumpf/murchison.htm
  10. Tanaka, S. Studien im Gebiete der reiner Stummung. Vierteljahrsschrifft fuer Musikwissenshaft. ed F. Chrysander, Spitta & Adler. Breitkopf & Haertel, Leipzig. 1890
    http://anaphoria.com/Shohe.PDF
  11. "Harmonium und Enharmonium," Musica Sacra. Friederich Pustet, Regensburg, 1890. p.175
  12. "Temperatur." Nordisk familjebok. Uggleupplagan, 1919. http://runeberg.org/nfch/0437.html
  13. Helmholtz, Hermann von. Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als Physiologische Grundlage für die Theorie der Musik. F. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig. 1863. p485
    http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/cgi-bin/psview?document=/wasbleibt/27162822&search=/wasbleibt/27162822
  14. Ruelle, C.-E, Éléments harmoniques d'Aristoxène. Librairie musicale ancienne et moderne, Paris. 1871. p.75.
  15. Guéroult, G. Sur un harmonium à double clavier. Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Sciences, Tome LXXIV (Janvier - Juin 1872), Gauthier-Villars, Paris. 1872.
  16. Schröder, Herm. "Berliner Tonkünstler-Verein" Der Klavier-Lehrer. Wolf Peiser Verlag, Berlin, 1890. p.37
  17. Breslaur, Emil. "Die Musikinstrumente der Berliner Gewerbe-Ausstellung." Der Klavier-Lehrer. Wolf Peiser Verlag, Berlin, 1896. p.278
  18. Reimann, Hugo. Ideen zu einer 'Lehre von den Tonvorstellungen' (Historischer Beitrag)
    http://www.8ung.at/fzmw/1999/1999_1.htm
    von Oettingen, Arthur Joachim. Das duale Harmoniesystem. Verlag von C. W. F. Siegels
    ref. Manuel Op de Coul, tuning digest 10.1994
  19. Biography, Ivan Wyschnegradsky (1893-1979) http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~franck/iw/bio-en.htm
  20. Alois Haba http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/english/haba.html
    A branch was organized in Bohemia close to the A. Foerster factory in Loebau in 1900 to avoid paying Austrian import duties.
    http://www.august-foerster.de/Englisch/geschichteenglisch.htm
    "zum 1.5.1923 Übernahme durch die Firma Nicolaus & Pappe GmbH., Übersiedlung nach Lich, Oberhessen...; Nicholaus & Pappe im Juni 1927 aufgelöst, weitergeführt Gemeinsam mit Förster & Nicholaus...; ab 14.6.1927 Firma Straube wieder selbständig, weitergeführt von Otto Pappe"
    http://dgmweb.net/genealogy/FGS/Stra/StraubeJohann-of-Berlin.shtml
  21. Summary appendix. A biography of Jeronimas Kacinskas published in Lithuania in 1997 by Danute Petrauskaite
    http://www.channel1.com/users/gsilvis/jk/summary.htm
    Hába, Alois. Schönberg und die weiteren möglichkeiten der musikentwicklung, 1934
    http://sonic-arts.org:80/monzo/haba/schoenbergbook.htm
  22. Haluska, Jan, Darina Halasova, Haluska Haluska. The Mathematical Theory of Tone Systems. Marcel Dekker, New York, 2004. p216.
  23. Ellis, A. On Musical Duodenes. Proc. Roy. Soc. 23, 1875. p10.
  24. White, James Paul. "Is Perfect Intonation Practicable? (III)". Music, A Monthly Magazine, vol. 8, May-Oct. 1895. p.65
    http://www.geocities.com/threesixesinarow/white.htm
  25. Skorpen, Leif Bjørn. Matematikk i musikken - musikk i matematikken. Høgskulen i Volda, Møreforsking Volda. 2003
    http://www.hivolda.no/attachments/site/group15/arb_148.pdf
  26. Burt, Warren. Percy Grainger's Work with Music Technology. 2005
    http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/02/87624.php
  27. Partch, Harry, "Genesis of a Music", The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1949.
    Corporeal Meadows - An Incremental Instrumentarium http://www.corporeal.com/art_inst/incrinst/index.html
  28. Harmonium, Invnr: M369 Tillverkare: Peter Samuel Munck af Rosenschöld, Ca. 1850
    http://stockholm.music.museum/samlingar/detalj.php?l=sv&mmcss=l&iid=96&v=20050112223139
  29. Max Planck, Autobiografía Científica.
    http://www.clubdelprogreso.com/index.php?sec=04_05&sid=43&id=1899
  30. Bosanquet, Robert Holford Macdowall. On the Theory of the Division of the Octave. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 1874.
    http://geocities.com/threesixesinarow/onthethe.htm
  31. x965 Moore & Moore, London, 1885, Ellis Harmonical. The Clarendon Laboratory, Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, Oxford.
    http://www.bate.ox.ac.uk/Resources/checkList063.pdf
  32. Music played on a quadratone harmonium. Tape of a phonograph recording, 1939: Loc. A5. The Archives of the History of American Psychology. University of Akron.
    http://www3.uakron.edu/ahap/lichte_w.htm
  33. Battan, Suzette Mary. Alois Haba's 'Neue Harmonielehre des diatonischen, chromatischen, viertel-, drittel-, sechstel-, und zwölftel-tonsystems'. Ph.D. dissertation, Eastman School of Music. 1980.
    http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/tuning/message/61745
  34. Max Planck http://zyx.org/Planck.html
  35. Monzo, Joseph L. A Century of New Music in Vienna: from Beethoven to Webern and featuring Mahler and Schoenberg, 2005.
    http://www.tonalsoft.com/enc/v/vienna.htm (very large page)
  36. Krohn, Ilmari "Das akustische Harmonium der Univ. zu Helsingfors." cited in Bakers Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. G. Schirmer, NY. 1919.
  37. Pikler, A. G. Experiments on the Musical-Interval Sense. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. November 1966.
  38. Enharmonie. Dictionnaire pratique et historique de la musique. Librairie Armand Colin, Paris. 1926.
    http://dictionnaire.metronimo.com/term/53ac5da457a2abaca8,,xhtml
  39. Manuel Op de Coul, Tuning Digest 05.2000
  40. http://anaphoria.com
  41. http://www.newband.org
  42. http://www.ne.jp/asahi/syzygys/official/eindex.html
  43. http://www.imomus.com/thegongs.html
  44. Mason & Hamlin used 3-ply spruce sounding boards by 1860, and the first patents for celluloid key coverings illustrate harmoniums.
  45. Hexagonal key tops: FR. 1, 624. T. Dreschke. 1846
    Keyboard for regular cyclic temperaments. R. Bosanquet and T. Jennings, 1872-3
    Rounded over and inclined keys: U.S. 360, 255. P. Janko. Key Board for Musical Instruments. 29.03.1887
    In combination: DE 604,495. H. Luedtke. Tastatur fuer Zwecke der Klangausloesung, der Klangaufzeichnung und fuer Registrierzwecke, insbesondere bei orgelartigen Instrumenten. 1934.10.23
  46. Wood species identified are aspen, beech, birch, butternut, chestnut, ebony, elm, hophornbeam, lilac, luaun, mahogany, rosewood, sugar maple, sweetgum, sycamore, walnut, white fir, white pine, white spruce and yellow poplar, equal in number to a late 1700s English grand piano.
    Koster, John. Woods In Early American Keyboard Instruments as Evidence of Origins. WAG Reprints, St. Paul, MN. 1995.
    http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/wag/1995/WAG_95_koster.pdf

    Supplemental bibliography
    (A more general bibliography concerning reed organs is compiled at the Smithsonian Institute
    http://www.si.edu/resource/faq/nmah/reedorg.htm)

  1. Akai, R. Dr. Tanaka's Enharmonium. Reed Organ Quarterly, 1992-1, p16-17
  2. Appunn, Anton. Letter to Pietro Blaserna about 48-tone harmonium, Hanau, 12 June 1887.
  3. Bazin, James A. First Reed Organs in America. The Musical and Sewing Machine Gazette, New York. Feb. 14, 1880.
  4. Blaserna, Pietro. The Theory of Sound in its Relation to Music, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1892.
  5. Brown, Colin. Music in a Sound and Music in Figures (Music in Common Things, parts I and II). William Collins & Sons Ltd., London, 1885.
  6. Busoni, Ferruccio. "Bericht über Dritteltöne", Melos vol. 3, August 1922, p. 198.
  7. Cottingham, James P. Free reed acoustics: Experimental and theoretical studies of the American reed organ. Harmonium und Handharmonika, Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein. 1999
    http://www.public.coe.edu/~jcotting/SKMjpc1.pdf
  8. Eitz, Carl A. Das mathematisch-reine Tonsystem. Leipzig, 1891
  9. Engel, Gustav. Das mathematische Harmonium: Ein Hilfsmittel zur Veranschaulichung der reinen Tonverhältnisse. Verlag von Carl Habel, Berlin, 1881
  10. Faust, Oliver Cromwell. A treatise on the construction, repairing and tuning of the organ, including also the reed organ, the orchestrelle and the player-piano. 1949
  11. (?) Fluke, P&P. Harmoniums, by Klaus Gernhardt. Reed Organ Quarterly, 1985-1, p26
  12. (?) Fluke, P&P. Two new instruments in Fluke Collection. Reed Organ Quarterly, 1987-2, p4
  13. Fourneaux, Napoléon. Instrumentologie: traité théorique et pratique de l'accord des instruments a sons fixes. Repos, Paris, 1867
  14. Geddes, R. An enharmonic harmonium discovered. Reed Organ Quarterly, 1987-3, p23
  15. Groven, Eivind: Temperering og renstemning, Dreyers Forlag, Oslo 1948
  16. Mager, Jörg. Vierteltonmusik. Aschaffenburg, 1915.
  17. Mclaren, et al. Tuning & temperament bibliography http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/doc/bib.html (large file)
  18. Meyer, Max F. The Musician's Arithmetic. Oliver Ditson and Company, Boston, 1929. University of Missouri Studies vol. 4 no. 1, 1929, Columbia.
  19. Munck af Rosenschöld, Peter Samuel. Försök att grundlägga ett nytt tonsystem. Vet. akad:s handlingar, 1847
  20. Perrett, Wilfrid. Some Questions of Musical Theory. ... How Olympos found his New Scale .... The Olympion.
  21. Planck, Max. "Ein neues Harmonium in natürlicher Stimmung nach dem System von C. Eitz", Berlin Physikalische Ges. Verhandlungen, 1893
  22. Opelt, F.W. Allgemeine Theorie der Musik auf den Rhythmus der Klangwellenpulse gegründet. Leipzig, 1852
  23. Owen, B. An enharmonic harmonium by Joseph Alley. Reed Organ Quarterly. 1987-3, p23
  24. (?) Rodenburg, J. Dominion Organ Comp memorabilia found. Reed Organ Quarterly 2004-4, p21
  25. Stein, Richard H. "Vierteltonmusik", Die Musik vol. 15, July 1923,
  26. Steiner, Joachim. Grundzüge einer neuen Musiktheorie. Vienna, 1891.
  27. Thompson, Thomas Perronet. On the Principles and Practice of Just Intonation. E. Wilson, London, 1868.
  28. Wyschnegradsky, Ivan. "Quartertonal music, its possibilities and organic sources", Pro Musica Quarterly, New York, October 1927, pp. 19-31.
  29. The third Saltaire convention 1988, Reed Organ Quarterly 1988-3, p13-17


(An outdated version of this page is appended to an unsubmitted entry written for the Fitchburg Art Museum that is online at http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/new_instruments/files/keyboard/22rorg.zip. Tuning concepts are presented from the perspective of temperament and keyboards with simple outlines of keyboard design principles.)


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