(In the background you can hear the sound of the wind harmonica)
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Aeols -Instrumente
The
idea is old and known around the world, the basic principle can be seen in our
nature. When wind makes a material vibrate, it produces a certain sound.
In
the case of our wind harmonica, the wind is the soloist for this instrument, by
letting little blades in the wind harmonica vibrate. The aeol or wind harmonica
is one of the first autophone, only much later followed the mechanical
instruments – like the pianolas, which were controlled by punched paper.
The
time of the wind harmonica was the romantic age, but even until the beginning of
the 20th century they were still made by a handful of instrument
makers.
A
description of the wind harmonica was in a catalog of Adolf Klinger, in
Reichenberg/Bohemia, from 1912:
“Aeol
instruments are those, which are not controlled by the hands of a musician, but
make music by using the wind. The thereby made music creates a special
enchantment for every receptive mind, and sounds, depending on the kind of aeol
instrument, more like congenial accords
of distant chorals or like a sweet, melodic chime.”
Instruments
of this kind were built in Markneukirchen between 1920-1930 from the company “Seckendorf”.
After
more than 60 years, the wind harmonica was rediscovered by us. We used old
catalog pictures and the memory of some old folks, and thus designed and made in
2 years work a new and well-functioning instrument. Since then many a roof in Germany
is adorned by our unusual instrument, one of them is the roof of the museum of
musical instruments in Markneukirchen, another one the old tower in Großschirma.
The
wind harmonica makes, depending on the wind force, from a buzzing sound like a
distant organ, which seems to come nearer up to full harmonic accords.
The
sheet metal is cut by hand, rounded and soldered. The wing which turns the
instrument automatically to the wind, is handmade too. Made from a special brass
alloy, the blades are produced exclusively for us in a show-factory in
Klingenthal. They are sanded and riveted on a sheet metal, therefore only
reacting to pressure and not to pressure and suction like a mouth organ. The
intricate tuning is done by hand. Because of the sensibility of the individual
blades, the deep tones sound by weak wind first.
The
instrument is fitted in a weather proof aluminium case. The corpus is of
titanium-zinc, is polished to mirrorfinish, and coated with instrument paint,
while the other metal pieces are chromed.
Wind harmonica Nr. 2000
Corpus
of titanium-zinc sheet metal, 66 cm long, diameter 31 cm, weight 4,8 kg, height
max. 107 cm.
The
wind harmonica can be fitted with different caps. The standard cap is the lyra.
Possible
also are following caps: pennant with year or initials, dragon, wind rose, or
motives after personal wishes.