Their instruments commonly had keyboards of four or five octaves, two small horizontal bellows, and modest foot treadles to pump the bellows. Warren and the Guelph, Ont, brothers William and Robert Bell were other pioneer reed organ makers. Williams (Toronto, mid-1850s), and probably Abner Brown (Montreal, fl 1848-74). The small reed organs built in Canada about the middle of the 19th century were called melodeons or cottage organs the larger models, introduced after 1860, were known as harmoniums, cabinet organs, parlour organs, and, popularly, pump organs.Īmong the first melodeon builders in Canada were William Townsend (Toronto, late 1840s, Hamilton 1853-5), R.S. The first reed organs used the air compression principle, but the suction method, developed in France about 1835, was refined in the USA some 20 years later, and the 'American organ' became the dominant type in North America. ![]() All have a common ancestor in the ancient Chinese sheng or cheng, a mouth organ with bamboo pipes and freely vibrating reeds.Īlthough the 15th-to-17th-century regal was a type of reed organ, the modern instrument originated in France as the orgue expressif (1810). Related instruments are accordions, bagpipes, concertinas, and mouth organs. ![]() ![]() The vibration is caused by air forced into or out of a set of two bellows. ![]() Keyboard instruments which produce sounds by means of vibrating metal tongues ('reeds'), one for each note.
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