NP: Harmonica

[Michael D. Workman]

At 06:07 PM 8/4/99 -0700, you wrote:
>"Jew's harp or Jews' harp" n : a small lyre shaped instrument that when
>placed between the teeth gives tones from a metal tongue struck by the
>finger. (dictionary, any old dictionary)

Sorry, I was usin' the P-dictionary. Such as:

Weisenburger writes in his _Gravity's Rainbow Companion_ (263): "With his
harp [Slothrop] is Orpheus, the dismembered Greek god. He embodies the
acceptance of pain in Rilke's _Sonnets to Orpheus_, with their climatic
expression of being and flux--`To the rushing water I speak: I am.'"

And from _GR_ (622.22-26): "It is still possible, even this far out of it,
to find and make audible the spirits of lost harpmen. Whacking the water
out of his harmonica, reeds singing against his leg, picking up the single
blues at bar 1 of this morning's segment, Slothrop, just suckin' on his
harp, is closer to being a spiritual medium than he's been yet, and he
doesn't even know it."

I like to entertain myself with the notion that Slothrop is a variation on
the Wandering Jew. And, I think there are enough similarities to
*figuratively* call it a Jew's Harp. Here's what I came up with:

OED Search

mouth-organ. 

1. A musical instrument operated by the mouth. 

a. = pan-pipe; 

b. = harmonica, -on; 

c. dial. = Jews' harp.

AND, the specific definition:

harmonica harmo(hook).nika. Also 8 armonica. fem. of L. harmonicus
harmonic, used subst.

1. Name of several different musical instruments.

a. An instrument invented by Dr. B. Franklin, consisting of a row of
hemispherical glasses fitted on an axis turned by a treadle
and dipping into a trough of water, played by the application of the
finger; an improvement of the earlier `musical glasses'. Also
applied to other forms in which the tones are produced in various ways from
graduated glass bowls or tubes. 

b. An instrument consisting of a row of glass plates mounted on a
resonance-box and struck with hammers. 

c. A kind of mouth-organ; also applied to other wind-instruments with
reeds. (See also harmonicon.)

>Whew< I shoulda listened to my daddy when he said 'never complain, never
explain.' God-damned epistemological gaps. Eventually, they'll makes ya
wanna talk so's nobody'll understand ya.

>Derived from "jaw harp" perhaps?  Not much in common with the
>harmonica.  Try some of those GIANT FIVE NOTE CHORDS!

I know I got a big mouth...but five note chords?!? Y-yowza.


Cheers,

Michael Workman, Proprietor
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