From: dijk~orldaccess.nl Date: Sun, 06 Oct 96 16:08:52 GMT Subject: HUANG Compact Chord 48 and related information.
This week I received the very interesting fall 1996 issue of The Harmonica Educator. Although for me it was very nice to see the photographs of both Harp-L members Pat Missin and Siegfried Naruhn, the article about the new chord instrument immediatly took my attention.
It starts with introducing the author himself, Mr. Huang. In the second alinea, Mr. Huang gives his oppinion about the important role of the chord instrument in ensemble playing. His intention is great: "Unfortunately, the professional 48 chord harmonica, which consist of all the major, minor, dominant 7th, diminished and augmented chords, is not available at an affordable price. Therefore, I have tried to construct a chord harmonica with a better design, and at an affordable price. This will certainly provide an incentive for many players to form trios, quartets, and larger ensemble groups."
Ofcourse it is not true that the professional 48 chord harmonica consists of all the diminished and augmented chords, but lets say this is the freedom of the author and helps to make his intention clear and the text readable.
On page nr. 7, the chords are written out completely. Although there are some mistakes in the chart, like the Gdim7 chordsymbol with the pitches of the Gaug chord; F#m, C#m and G#m while the major and dominant chords are named Gb, Db and Ab, but I am aware of these mistakes and already are very happy with the publication of such a chart. For the composer are these chart very valuable.
But, a problem arises. Mr. Huang's intention is to make a better designed chord instrument, but what he did was changing the octaves of some of the chords. So, not every chord has its root as the highest voice!
The major chords Gb, Ab, Bb, F, C, G, A and B are voiced 1,3,5,8 But major chords Db, Eb, D, and E are voiced: 1,8,10,12!! The minor chords Gb, Ab, Bb, F, C, G, A and B are voiced 1,b3,5,8 But minor chords Db, Eb, D and E are voiced: 1,8,10,12!! The V7 chords are ALL in root position 1,3,5,b7 The augmented triads Bb, G and A are in root position: 1,3,#5,8 But augmented triads Db, Eb and E are voiced: 1, 8,10,#12!!
All diminished chords are in normal root position: 1,b3,b5,bb7
As an arranger/composer, there arise some problems while trying to write as melodicaly as possible for this kind of chord instruments, because some of the pitches of the upper voices are doubled. While the chords of the normal Polyphonia 267/384 anable a complete chromatic scale starting from c up to b, the Huang Compact Chord 48 does not have this ability. The notes Ab, Bb, A and B are doubled in both the major and minor chords. This makes this instrument less melodical than the polyphonia.
The doubled roots in the bottom of the chords will also make these chords more root dependend than the polyphonia chords. While the polyphonia in combination with the bass can play very nice chords like Bb/C = C7/9sus4 or Ebaug/C=CmMaj7 etc., the HUANG will not be as fexible because of the doubled roots in the bottom of the voicings.
Composers will have to check wether they want to use the polyphonia or the HUANG.
Because the Huangs chords are 4 note chords, the melodic possibilities for the solo instruments and bass are much better than using the polyphonia with its very large 2 octave chords!
My conclusion: the Huangs sound will function much better than that of the polyphonia because of its more compact chords (most within an octave), but because of the doubled roots in the bottom of the voicings the melodic possibilities are a diminished. Polyphonia parts that are written with the intenstion to be as melodical as possible will not sound the same when played on the Huang chord instrument.
A very important feature is the reduced size of the holes (because of the 4 reeds instead of 8) which makes it possible to play the Huang much more accurate than the polyphonia. Phrasing and articulating will become better on this new instrument and I hope that some players will develop a melodic and rhythmicaly more interesting playing than most of the chord players who use their instrument primarily as a rhythm-a-ning-thing.
Also very interesting is the new chord instrument, developed by YAMAHA and distributed in Europe by Mr. Walt Miller. I saw it a couple of weeks ago when I was in Basel, but don't know the price yet.
Looks like there is going on something in this very little harmonica manufacturers world!
Practical chord/bass combinations and their related chordsymbols: (little roman numerals are used to indicate minor chords!)
