DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

HAEMOXIU.M HARMOXIUM 303
(Paris, 1S29). Returning to Germany, Reich of
Fiirth, near Nuremberg, produced at ^lunich
in 1820 timbre registers imitating the clarinet
and bassoon. The 16-l'oot or octave-deeper
register Fetis attributes to Fourneaux pere of
Paris, 1836. The Melophone came out at the
Paris Exhibition of 1834, and was probably
made by Jacquet, whom the same authority
quotes as the only maker of melophonesin 1855.
Elsewhere we read of an jEolodicon with bent
tongues, and of a Terpodion with tongues of
wood ; of an .lEolophone, an Adelphone, an
Adiaphonon, an Harmonikon, and a Harnionine ;
of Jlelodiums, yEolians, and Panorgues ; of the
Poikilorgue of M. Cavaille-Coll, etc. In England
keyboard harinonicas with bellows were
known by the name of Serapihine, which was
not a harmonium, for it had no channels for the
tongues. The oldest English piatent for a seraphine
is that of Myers and Storer, dated July 20,
1839.
It must be remembered that nearly all these
instruments had but one complete setof vibrators
to a keyboard. Tlie Organino, a tentative instrument
of Alexandre Debain (born 1809, died
1877), had two notes an octave aptart on each
key. To this remarkable mechanician was due
the gathering up the work of all his predecessors
and uniting four stopis on one keyboard to produce
the Harmonium. His first patent for this
instrument, in Paris, is dated August 9, 1840
(Notability de la Fadure Tiistruraentale , Paris,
1857). Inventor or improver, Debain had the
great merit of opening the path to contrasts in
colour of free-reed tone, by means of various sized
channels to the vibrators, submitted in different
registers, to one keyboard. It was, however, unfortunate
that in the defence of his rights he was
induced to secure to himself the sole privilege
of using the name Harmonium in France, thus
forcing other makers to use the name Organ,
and thus to add another stone to the cairn of
confusion in musical instrument nomenclature.
More recently, the name Reed-organ has been
used to express both the harmonium and the
American organ, and is, perhaps, the best way
out of a difficulty. The next great invention after
Debain—attributed by Fetis to the Alexandres,
father and son— was the Expression, already
mentioned, the creation of a new and ;esthetically
more valuable harmonium. Another major invention
was that of Martin, who gave the harmonium,
touse a technical term, 'quicker speech,'
i,c. made the sound more quickly follow the
descent of the key. The invention is known as
' percussion,' and is an adaptation of the piianoforte
escapement, bywhichalittle hammerstrikes
the tongue at the same moment that it receives
the impact of the wind. Another invention
of Martin's termed ' prolongement, ' enables the
player to prolong certain notes after the fingers
have quitted the keys. Martin governed tins
by knee pedals, but it is now usually effected
by a stop, and knocked oflf at will by a little
heel movement. The ' melody-attachment ' of
William Dawes, patented in London, 1864, has
the effect of making the melody-note, or air,
when in the highest P'art, predoininate, b}' a
contrivance that shuts off all notes below the
highest in certain registers of a combination.
In the 'pedal-substitute' of Dawes and Ramsden
this is reversed, and the lowest notes can be
made to predominate over the other notes of a
left-hand chord. An imjiortant invention, and
curious as bringing the pianoforte touch to a
certain extent upon the harmonium keyboard,
is the 'double touch,' invented by an English
musician, Augustus L. Tamplin, before 1855,
and introduced systematically in the famous
harmoniums of Mustel of Paris, and producing
emphasised or strengthened tones by a greater
depression of the key. Another important
invention of the greatest delicacy is Mustel's
'pneumatic balance' (French Double Expression)
—valves of delicate construction acting in the
wind reservoir, and keeping the pTcssure of air
in it practically equal, so that it cannot possibly
be overblown.
Proceeding now to the structure of the harmonium
it is sufficient to notice externally the
keyboard and treadles as prominent features
(see Fig. 1). The latter (a), moved by the feet
of the filayer, feed the bellows (h) ; the air is by
them forced up the wind-trunk (