Speaker(s):
Herbert Quelle
Location:
UW-Madison, Pyle Center
Co-sponsor(s):
Center for German and European Studies; Departments of Afro-American Studies, German-Nordic-Slavic, Comparative Literature and Folklore Studies; Mead Witter School of Music; Mills Music Library; CSUMC; Friends of MKI
Description:
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.’
Herbert Quelle has been the German Consul General for the Midwest in Chicago since 2014. His postings abroad included Los Angeles, Pretoria, Havana, Warsaw, London, Boston, and Baku, Azerbaijan, where he served as Ambassador. Before joining the German Foreign Service, he studied Political Sciences and Musicology. He has done extensive research on the history of the harmonica around the world.
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