Mélophone

This article is about the portable free reed instrument. For the brass instrument, see Mellophone.

The mélophone is a portable free reed instrument first constructed by Parisian watchmaker Pierre Charles Leclerc in 1837.^[1] After persuasion from Leclerc, composer Fromental Halévy included the instrument in his 1838 opera, Guido et Ginevra and briefly popularized the instrument.^[2] However, by 1855, the novelty had worn off and the instrument faded into relative obscurity.^[3]

A mélophone with its lid on from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

References

1. Libin, Laurence (2015). "Mélophone". The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199743391.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-974339-1.
2. Lavoix, Henri Marie François (1878). Histoire de L'instrumentation: Depuis le Seizième Siècle Jusqu'à Nos Jours (in French). Firmin Didot. p. 155. OCLC 751505.
3. Snoeck, Cesar Charles (1894). Catalogue de la Collection D'instruments de Musique Anciens ou Curieux (in French). Vuylsteke. p. 18. OCLC 902879877.

External links

• Media related to Mélophone at Wikimedia Commons
• Details from the Metropolitan Museum of Art