Various free reed instruments appear to have been invented since antiquity. The most likely precursor to free reed aerophones is the
Jew's harp, an instrument known to many cultures throughout the world, and by many names (e.g., ''k'uang'' in ancient China). In this instrument, the main sound producer is the vibrating reed tongue itself, rather than the air flow. Among the ancient instruments, the
khene of
Laos, the
shēng of
China and the later
shō version of
Japan have survived to modern times. The sheng was traditionally made with
bamboo pipes, and was first mentioned in the
Shi Jing (11th to 7th centuries BC) of the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1050–256 BC). A free
reed organ was invented in the
Arab world in the 13th century, while the German
Heinrich Traxdorf (fl. 15th century) of
Nuremberg built one around 1460 AD. In Copenhagen, one of these instruments with brass pipes and free reeds in-caved into the sides of the pipes inspired the organ builder Kirsnick to fit similar reeds into portable organs. In 1780 Kirsnick moved to
Saint Petersburg improved these new organ pipes to an adjustable pitch with a hook.
Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein also built his speaking machine in Copenhagen and he was in contact with Kirsnick.
Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein got an award for the machine in Petersburg but he never moved to Petersburg. His machine or a copy of this machine came to Paris very shortly after 1780.
Georg Joseph Vogler put all his effort to get this new type of organ pipes in use in church organs so he started with changing organs in
Rotterdam (1790),
London (1790),
Frankfurt (1791),
Stockholm (1791),
Paris (1796),
Berlin (1800),
Prague (1802),
Vienna (1804),
Salzburg Munich (1805), – up to 30 documented rebuilds of organs with new free reed type organ pipes. He also held lessons at universities and did all to promote this new type of reeds, not only in German-speaking regions of Europe. The actual work was done by different organ builders, and very many people were involved, so it is nearly impossible that any organ builder in Europe did not know about free reeds after 1800. In the two years from 1802 to 1804 in Vienna, he spent time with
Johann Nepomuk Mälzel and Mälzel changed the type of reeds used in his
Panharmonicon to free
reed pipes. Vogler, Maelzel and Friedrich Kaufmann were then at the same time in Paris in 1807. 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. The
mechanischer Trompeter still can be seen in a museum in Munich.
Free reed aerophones in the United States In the
United States, organ builder
William M. Goodrich is often claimed to have invented the free reed. 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. Mälzel had a very good relationship to Vogler while in Europe so his Pan Harmonicon used free reeds. It is not known with certainty whether Mälzel was personally in America around 1811. What is clear is that he arrived New York on February 7, 1826, which might have been either his first or his second visit to the New World. He also visited Boston around that time. 1823 Pan Harmonicun copied; There is a story that in 1821 James H. Bazin repaired a free reed pipe and used this type of reeds for constructing, in 1836, the "lap organ". From 1833, Prescott built similar instruments.
Melodeons in 1840 By 1840, there were 40
melodeon builders in America.
Europe Cyrill Demian's
(see below) patent of 1829 however states that the reeds in his instrument "were known for more than 200 years as Regale, Zungen, Schnarrwerk, in organs." He compares the reeds used by him with beating reeds.
The accordion in Russia The earliest history of the accordion in Russia is poorly documented. Nevertheless, according to Russian researchers, the earliest known simple accordions were made in
Tula, Russia by from 1820, and from 1830. By the late 1840s, the instrument was already very widespread; together the factories of the two masters were producing 10,000 instruments a year. By 1866, over 50,000 instruments were being produced yearly by Tula and neighbouring villages, and by 1874 the yearly production rate was over 700,000. By the 1860s,
Novgorod,
Vyatka and
Saratov Governorates also had significant accordion production. 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 first chromatic piano-like accordions in Russia were built in 1871 by Nikolay Ivanovich Beloborodov. In 1907, St. Petersburg master accordion maker V. S. Sterlingov created a chromatic button accordion for the player Ya. F. Orlandskiy-Titarenko featuring 52 melody keys and 72 chords of the
Stradella bass system. Orlandskiy-Titarenko called his new instrument the
bayan (after the legendary bard
Boyan), and it was the ancestor of the modern instrument with that name. However, its layout on the melody side was different from the layout of the modern bayan. The modern bayan's B-system layout (or "Moscow system") became more popular than the early instrument's "Leningrad system" (which was more similar to the Khromka
garmon) around 1930–35. Between 1953 and 1968, the yearly production of button accordions (
garmons and
bayans) in the Soviet Union ranged between 597,307 and 921,674 instruments, while the yearly production of piano accordions ranged between 7,124 and 120,313 instruments (averaging around 50,000).
Examples • Querhammerflügel with Aeoline, circa 1810, made by Johann Kasper Schlimbach at Königshofen Bayern, using steel reeds and frames made in one part. • The
accordion, patented in 1829 by
Armenian-
Austrian inventor
Cyrill Demian. • The
concertina, patented in two forms (perhaps independently) by: •
Sir Charles Wheatstone, in 1829 and 1844; •
Carl Friedrich Uhlig, 1834. • The
harmoneon, patented in 1952 by
Pierre Monichon, a French
musicologist and accordionist. Additionally, there are other free-reed instruments, such as the well-known and versatile
harmonica (one of the smallest free reeds). The
harmonium, or pump-organ, has numerous forms, including the
orthotonophonium and the peti or
samvadini (the Indian floor harmonium, used often as accompaniment in
Indian classical music performances). The
martinshorn hails from Germany, while the
melodica has seen many applications across numerous styles of music, including
reggae and
Caribbean music. 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. == Related instruments ==