Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann
Encyclopedia
Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann (17 June 1805 – 1 October 1864) was a German
musical instrument maker, often credited with inventing the harmonica
and sometimes the accordion
.
, Thuringia
. His father, Johann Buschmann, was a passementier
, who later started to fix musical Instruments and in 1816 developed the uranion later called terpodion
, a friction instrument played with a piano-like keyboard, based on the same principle as the glass harmonica
. From 1819 Johann took Friedrich with him on his frequent journeys.
, accompanied by his son Friedrich, and agreed to a £1,000 contract with a Mr. Löschmann besides taking other orders for terpodions. On their return the Buschmanns set up a workshop in Berlin
, Eduard did stay in Berlin and Friedrich was on a tour through Germany up to 1829 or even a bit longer. He was already skilled and experienced enough at musical instrument construction to begin building terpodions and aeolins as the letters written by him and his Father make clear. The first evidence of the word Aeoline we find in a letter dated 28 December 1828.
Altogether, 25 terpodions were built, most of them by Friedrich. His brother Eduard worked mainly on the wooden cases and inlays, and was in charge of the appearance of the instruments, though the brothers lived and worked in different German cities. Nearly all the terpodions ever built are still in existence in different European museums.
Johann and Friedrich meanwhile continued their advertising journeys throughout Europe. Besides their performances, they had to service the instruments they had already sold, as they did not function very reliably over a longer period. This may well have been a principal reason why Friedrich was looking for other methods of reliable sound generation for tuning purposes.
Aachen
, Barmen
(is a Village of Wupperthal), Eberfeld, Lüdenscheid
, Werben, Altena
, Breckerfeld
, Vörde, Langenberge, Düsseldorf
, Köln
, Preuß-Minden
and Rinteln
.
Wile still in Vörde near Barmen and on tour with his Father in 1828 Friedrich built an instrument, originally intended only for use as accompaning Instrument, which at first consisted of 21 different metal free reeds
fastened to a wooden block in such a way that it was possible to blow the reeds individually. He fastening the reeds inside a small box "4 inches square and equally high" (in other words a cubic box with 4" sides), each of which could be made to vibrate by blowing through 21 individual "tone chambers" (Tonlochkanzellen). This instrument he named an aeoline.
The earliest experiments with the aeoline may have taken place in 1824, when it has been claimed that Buschmann built a tuning aid named an aura, about 4 inches long and equipped with 15 reed tongues. (The name Aura was also then in use in German
to mean a jaw harp). But no written evidence can be fond about this.
Wile still in Rinteln
, in Buschmann's letters to his sun Eduard, it appears that Friedrich built a bigger version of an aeoline in 1829, with bellows and piano keyboard of two octaves, which, being about the size of a small writing desk, was still much smaller than any comparable fixed key instrument they had built previously.
It is certain that they must have become aware of all kinds of modern developments in this area as they travelled through different countries, which contributed to Friedrich's further refinement of the physharmonica
.
The Buschmanns knew of an instrument built at about this time by Johann Caspar Schlimbach, an instrument maker trained in Vienna, and his cousin Bernhard Eschenbach in Königshofen
in Bavaria
: this was a pianoforte with an aeoline register. Schlimbach made no attempt to protect his invention, but freely showed the instrument to everyone who wanted to see it, with the inevitable result that a number of people patent
ed very similar instruments in Vienna. Indeed, Buschmann's father Johann wrote in a letter of 30 October 1829 that he was thinking of taking out a patent for the new instrument in Bavaria.
Friedich and Sophie moved to Hamburg
, where he opened a new workshop of his own. There he made mostly physharmonica
s, bellows-operated wind instruments, each of which also had a large manual keyboard. For a physharmonica with built-in terpodion he won the Great Gold Medal at the Hamburg Arts and Trades Exhibition of 1838. Terpodions, tuningadds and pianofortes ware also built.
He died in Hamburg in 1864.
(and the accordion
) but this cannot be substantiated. Buschmann states in a letter of 1828 that he had just invented a new instrument, but the manufacture of harmonicas had begun some years previously in Vienna: "There is documentary evidence that harmonicas were being sold in Vienna in 1825..."
Nor, in his impressively well-documented family history, was Buschmann able to confirm the story (see Sources).
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
musical instrument maker, often credited with inventing the harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
and sometimes the accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
.
Thuringia
Buschmann was born in FriedrichrodaFriedrichroda
Friedrichroda is a town in the district of Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the north foot of the Thuringian Forest, 21 km by rail southwest of the town of Gotha. It is surrounded by fir-clad hills and possesses numerous handsome villa residences, a Kurhaus and a sanatorium...
, Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
. His father, Johann Buschmann, was a passementier
Passementerie
Passementerie or passementarie is the art of making elaborate trimmings or edgings of applied braid, gold or silver cord, embroidery, colored silk, or beads for clothing or furnishings....
, who later started to fix musical Instruments and in 1816 developed the uranion later called terpodion
Terpodion
The Terpodion or Uranion is a keyboard instrument, it works on the same principle as the Glass Harmonica or the Clavicylinder friction for producing the sound....
, a friction instrument played with a piano-like keyboard, based on the same principle as the glass harmonica
Glass harmonica
The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, bowl organ, hydrocrystalophone, or simply the armonica , is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical tones by means of friction The glass harmonica, also known as the glass...
. From 1819 Johann took Friedrich with him on his frequent journeys.
Berlin
In the first half of 1821 Johann Buschmann travelled to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, accompanied by his son Friedrich, and agreed to a £1,000 contract with a Mr. Löschmann besides taking other orders for terpodions. On their return the Buschmanns set up a workshop in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Eduard did stay in Berlin and Friedrich was on a tour through Germany up to 1829 or even a bit longer. He was already skilled and experienced enough at musical instrument construction to begin building terpodions and aeolins as the letters written by him and his Father make clear. The first evidence of the word Aeoline we find in a letter dated 28 December 1828.
Altogether, 25 terpodions were built, most of them by Friedrich. His brother Eduard worked mainly on the wooden cases and inlays, and was in charge of the appearance of the instruments, though the brothers lived and worked in different German cities. Nearly all the terpodions ever built are still in existence in different European museums.
Johann and Friedrich meanwhile continued their advertising journeys throughout Europe. Besides their performances, they had to service the instruments they had already sold, as they did not function very reliably over a longer period. This may well have been a principal reason why Friedrich was looking for other methods of reliable sound generation for tuning purposes.
On Tour
Mentioned towns or Villages wile on Tour, are:Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
, Barmen
Barmen
Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which in 1929 with four other towns was merged with the city of Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. Barmen was the birth-place of Friedrich Engels and together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the...
(is a Village of Wupperthal), Eberfeld, Lüdenscheid
Lüdenscheid
Lüdenscheid is a town in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Sauerland region. Lüdenscheid is seat of the administration of the Märkischer Kreis district...
, Werben, Altena
Altena
Altena is a town in the district of Märkischer Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The town's castle is the origin for the later Dukes of Berg. Altena is situated on the Lenne river valley, in the northern streches of the Sauerland.-History:...
, Breckerfeld
Breckerfeld
Breckerfeld is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, . It is located in the southeastern-most part of the Ruhr area in northern Sauerland. The town is a member of Regionalverband Ruhr .-Geography:...
, Vörde, Langenberge, Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
, Köln
KOLN
KOLN, digital channel 10, is the CBS affiliate in Lincoln, Nebraska. It operates a satellite station, KGIN, on digital channel 11 in Grand Island. KGIN repeats all KOLN programming, but airs separate commercials...
, Preuß-Minden
Minden
Minden is a town of about 83,000 inhabitants in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The town extends along both sides of the river Weser. It is the capital of the Kreis of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detmold. Minden is the historic political centre of the...
and Rinteln
Rinteln
Rinteln is a small town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the banks of the Weser river above the Porta Westfalica. Population: 28,500.It is accessed by the A2 autobahn .-History:...
.
Wile still in Vörde near Barmen and on tour with his Father in 1828 Friedrich built an instrument, originally intended only for use as accompaning Instrument, which at first consisted of 21 different metal free reeds
Free reed aerophone
A free reed aerophone is a musical instrument where sound is produced as air flows past a vibrating reed in a frame. Air pressure is typically generated by breath or with a bellows.- Operation :...
fastened to a wooden block in such a way that it was possible to blow the reeds individually. He fastening the reeds inside a small box "4 inches square and equally high" (in other words a cubic box with 4" sides), each of which could be made to vibrate by blowing through 21 individual "tone chambers" (Tonlochkanzellen). This instrument he named an aeoline.
The earliest experiments with the aeoline may have taken place in 1824, when it has been claimed that Buschmann built a tuning aid named an aura, about 4 inches long and equipped with 15 reed tongues. (The name Aura was also then in use in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
to mean a jaw harp). But no written evidence can be fond about this.
Wile still in Rinteln
Rinteln
Rinteln is a small town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the banks of the Weser river above the Porta Westfalica. Population: 28,500.It is accessed by the A2 autobahn .-History:...
, in Buschmann's letters to his sun Eduard, it appears that Friedrich built a bigger version of an aeoline in 1829, with bellows and piano keyboard of two octaves, which, being about the size of a small writing desk, was still much smaller than any comparable fixed key instrument they had built previously.
It is certain that they must have become aware of all kinds of modern developments in this area as they travelled through different countries, which contributed to Friedrich's further refinement of the physharmonica
Physharmonica
The physharmonica is a keyboard instrument fitted with free reeds, a kind of harmonium much used in Germany. It resembles a small harmonium, but is differentiated from it by having no stops; being without percussion action, it does not speak readily or clearly...
.
The Buschmanns knew of an instrument built at about this time by Johann Caspar Schlimbach, an instrument maker trained in Vienna, and his cousin Bernhard Eschenbach in Königshofen
Bad Königshofen
Bad Königshofen im Grabfeld is a small spa town in the Rhön-Grabfeld district, in the north east of Lower Franconia, Bavaria, Germany on the Franconian Saale a few kilometers from the border with Thuringia.Several smaller villages exist within the town limits:...
in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
: this was a pianoforte with an aeoline register. Schlimbach made no attempt to protect his invention, but freely showed the instrument to everyone who wanted to see it, with the inevitable result that a number of people patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
ed very similar instruments in Vienna. Indeed, Buschmann's father Johann wrote in a letter of 30 October 1829 that he was thinking of taking out a patent for the new instrument in Bavaria.
Hamburg
In 1833 Friedrich Buschmann marred Sophie Volkmar. Her brother Gustav Hermann Joseph Philipp Volkmar was a well known music theoretician in Germany and later in Switzerland. The Family and her Father Adam Valentin Volkmar lived in Rinteln from 1917 on.Friedich and Sophie moved to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, where he opened a new workshop of his own. There he made mostly physharmonica
Physharmonica
The physharmonica is a keyboard instrument fitted with free reeds, a kind of harmonium much used in Germany. It resembles a small harmonium, but is differentiated from it by having no stops; being without percussion action, it does not speak readily or clearly...
s, bellows-operated wind instruments, each of which also had a large manual keyboard. For a physharmonica with built-in terpodion he won the Great Gold Medal at the Hamburg Arts and Trades Exhibition of 1838. Terpodions, tuningadds and pianofortes ware also built.
He died in Hamburg in 1864.
The harmonica
There is a persistent legend that Buschmann invented the harmonicaHarmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
(and the accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
) but this cannot be substantiated. Buschmann states in a letter of 1828 that he had just invented a new instrument, but the manufacture of harmonicas had begun some years previously in Vienna: "There is documentary evidence that harmonicas were being sold in Vienna in 1825..."
Nor, in his impressively well-documented family history, was Buschmann able to confirm the story (see Sources).