[Harp-L] Roots in Ancient China

["Henderson, Peter" <Henderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FREE-REED INSTRUMENTS

The harmonica, accordion, concertina, melodeon (pump reed organ) and the
like are all members of the free-reed instrument family. 

A free-reed instrument is any type of wind instrument on which each note
is produced by air being forced through a narrow channel, either by
blowing in or sucking out, to strike a thin strip of bamboo or metal
tuned to a specific note. The strip, called a reed, then vibrates freely
within its slot, in a greater frame of reeds, to produce the given note,
hence the name free-reed.

Roots in Ancient China

The free-reed concept originated in China, probably sometime in the 14th
century BCE. It was during this period that we find, on bone
inscriptions written by ancient oracles, the first documented references
to two different types of free-reed mouth organ, he and yu. Both these
instruments had gourd bodies into which bamboo tubes were inserted. Each
bamboo tube housed an individual bamboo reed tuned to a specific note
and served as the air channel to its given reed. The he was a small
mouth organ, usually with 13 reeds, while the yu was much larger, with
anywhere from 23 to 36 reeds and pipes.

The he and yu were the forbearers of the sheng, the principal mouth
organ in China's rich musical heritage. It was through the sheng that
the free-reed concept was spread-- first, throughout Asia, and then,
centuries later, to Europe.

In the 7th century BCE, the term sheng first appears in the Shijing
('Classic of odes'). The earlier he and yu-- as well as another
prototypical gourd mouth organ, the medium-sized chao-- were described
as being various types of sheng in later classic Chinese texts. 

Alan R. Thrasher in his article on the sheng for Grove Music Online
writes: "Recent archaeological finds have shed additional light on these
early instruments. The tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng (Hubei province),
dating to about 433 bce, contains five small mouth organs with gourd
wind-chests, varying numbers of pipes (12, 14 and 18) in two parallel
ranks and bamboo reeds. The Han tombs 1 and 3 of Mawangdui (Hunan
province), dating to the 2nd century bce, contain two large yu with
wind-chests of wood and 22 long bamboo pipes in two parallel ranks, one
instrument with reeds of metal similar to those in use today. It seems,
therefore, there was considerable regional diversity in construction of
these ancient mouth organ types."