[Harp-L] Re: Hohner "Band"



About five years ago a former neighbor of mine, who was about ninety
years old yet still living on her own, asked if I was the one she
heard playing the mouth organ.  It turned out she had grown up on a
farm in sparsely populated western Nebraska, and when she was a
senior, around 1930, she and her high school had gone to the state
championships in harmonica band.  IIRC she recognized my soloist-tuned
364 MB as closely related to what they'd used in the band; I don't
think they used a full range of harmonica types like bass, chord,
etc.  The1950 Hohner catalog shows their School Band soloist in C
tenor and C soprano tunings, but I don't know which was an octave
higher or lower than the current C soloist.

I hope I can be forgiven for wishing she'd still had her band
instrument and been willing to part with it, but mostly what she had
from back then was memories of starting every childhood day by
carrying five-gallon cans of water up the hill from the creek to the
farmhouse, schoolteachers leading a line of children through the white-
out to a nearby business with more food and water when a blizzard hit,
and so on.  Some of my great-grandparents lived at the eastern edge of
that region, so it was quite a window on their world, whether she
still had the harmonica or not.  I didn't think to ask her whether
harmonica band programs were primarily in small rural schools, sort of
like six-man football today, or a statewide practice.

Stephen Schneider

On Jul 28, 3:53 pm, Emj...@xxxxxxx wrote:
> I was at a harp-playing friend's house recently and I found a harp in his  
> collection unlike any other that I have ever seen or heard of. It was called a  
> Hohner, just simply, "Band". It is an awesome harp. It is shaped like one  of
> Jason Ricci's custom harmonicas (a marine band comb w/ special 20  
> coverplates). The opening in the back was completely rounded. like the edge of  the harp
> looked kinda like this (the comb)- [( -(the back opening). If that makes any
> sense. The wood of the comb did  not seem like normal maple it was darker and
> harder, maybe that was the age. It  also had the star of David on the back. It
> was also a joy to play. Easy to bend,  loud, and reminiscent of a harmonica
> that was airtight (due to it's age  it's a tad leaky). The point of this article
> is to ask my fellow reed whackers  (i like that 1) if they've heard of this
> harp. So uh, have you?
>
> Jay Gaunt
>
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