A mouth organ is a generic term for free reed aerophone with one or more air chambers fitted with a free reed. Though it spans many traditions, it is played universally the same way by the musician placing their lips over a chamber or holes in the instrument, and blowing or sucking air to create a sound. Many of the chambers can be played together or each individually.
The mouth organ can be found all around the world and is known by many different names and seen in many different traditions. The most notable variations include the harmonica, the pan flute, and Asian free reed wind instruments consisting of a number of bamboo pipes of varying lengths fixed into a wind chest; these include the sheng, khaen, lusheng, yu, Shō, and saenghwang. The melodica, consisting of a single tube that is essentially blown through a keyboard, is another variation.
Famous quotes containing the words mouth and/or organ:
“Between my chin and throat
his mouth slipped over and over.
Still between my arm and shoulder,
I feel the brush of his hair.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“And this mighty master of the organ of language, who knew its every stop and pipe, who could awaken at will the thin silver tones of its slenderest reeds or the solemn cadence of its deepest thunder, who could make it sing like a flute or roar like a cataract, he was born into a country without literature.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)