Re: [Harp-L] Echo harps - a few corrections

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

While the term "Richter tuning" remains in common usage, it has been deprecated in favor of the term "German major tuning" since Pat Missin pointed out a few years back on harp-l that Richter, Wiener, and Knittlinger are construction types that are independent of how the notes are laid out on a harmonica. For instance, you could take something like a Marine Band and retune to a whole tone scale and it would still be a Richter harp.

Knittlinger construction, just to be complete, divides holes into upper and lower chambers as does Wiener construction. However, instead of placing each reed in a separate cell, Knittlinger construction has a blow and a draw reed side by side in the same cell. Most chromatic harmonicas use Knittlinger construction, as do octave-tuned diatonics such as the Hohner Auto Valve and Marine Band Concert, and the Seydel Concerto.

Winslow

--- On Wed, 8/6/08, Vern Smith <jevern@xxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Vern Smith <jevern@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Echo harps - a few corrections
To: winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx, "Mary Cooper" <rtlemurs@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "Harp-L" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 3:26 PM

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Winslow Yerxa
To: Mary Cooper ; Harp-L ; Vern Smith
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 1:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Echo harps - a few corrections


> I have to disagree with a couple of Vern's statements about Echo
harps.

I stand corrected!  It has been a long time since I have owned a double-reed 
harp. Although I qualified my statement with "probably", I should
have made 
no statement at all.

> Richter is a type of construction, not a tuning.

 Isn't "Richter tuning" a commonly-used term?   Is there another
name for 
the usual diatonic tuning with no "fa" and "la" in the low
octave to 
facilitate the draw dominant chord?

> Also, playing music that uses a diatonic scale does not of necessity limit

> the tunes to being simple. Some fairly intricate diatonic music is played 
> both on tremolo harmonicas and on similarly tuned diatonic accordions.

All of the previous discussion was about the number of scale degrees, not 
the timing.  I certainly agree that timing can be intricate.

Vern