The German Harmonica and African-American Blues

Herbert Quelle

For about a century, the German harmonica or mouth organ was one of the most popular musical instruments in the United States. About one billion harmonicas were imported from Germany between the 1870s and 1980s. Cheap and portable, it was the pocket-sized companion of European immigrants, and—once introduced to the American South—it became the instrument of choice for many African-American musicians. They developed a totally new way of playing it, ‘bending’ the harmonica’s notes to fit their traditional musical scale, and making the little instrument an integral part of the emerging and increasingly popular ‘blues.’