- This topic has 2 voices and 3 replies.
-
Posts
-
I went to chat with my grandmother today and caught her playing the piano. My dad also plays and was trying to learn that particular song. She began humming along. (I didn’t know she could sing too) I asked her what other instruments she could play. She said she used to play the guitar too. I have an acoustic but haven’t learned how to play it.
Grandma then started talking about her father. (Goody!!):p She said he could play the guitar and sing, that he had a singing band/group that went to different churches. Then she mentioned a “jusehaup”…that he used to play. The way she moved her hands near her mouth, I thought she meant a harmonica. But after her explaining that it was like a teeny, tiny banjo or something that you blew into, I thought I had some idea of what it probably looked like.
I did some internet searching this evening and finally saw what they looked like on ebay. So my question is (finally:rolleyes:), has anybody ever seen a juiceharp in person like in their family? Is it an ndn instrument? I saw online that it was played in very early America, but wondered if it was something the English traded with the ndns, or no? (Great-grandpa was Mattaponi and/or Pamunkey ndn)
Just curious………:o
In old records they would ordinarily be called Jew’s harps, not necessarily capitalized. Yes, they were commonly items in the Indian trade, like beads, buttons, booze, cookware, cloth, and weapons of Euro-American origin. The archaeology labs of Yorktown Battlefield and (I think) of Colonial Williamsburg, Inc. have many eighteenth century examples that have been dug up. Metal detectors find them; the body is cast iron and the tongue (the part you twang on, with one finger) would have been something like spring steel — invariably rusted away, in these old examples.
Come to think of it, I believe there were one or two found at Occaneechi Town. Those would have been trade items to the Saponi, around 1700.
You can find one at your local music store, where it is probably called a jaw harp. This terminology came in, as I dimly recall, in the 1950s. Modern ones tend to be about four inches long. Some of the early ones I’ve seen are less than two inches long. And I have a huge blacksmith-made one from Delaware that is more like seven inches long.
I think I have mentioned this instrument, maybe on Dovelady’s material culture thread about what crafts we practice, when I was discussing the mouth bow (a native instrument that is played much like a Jew’s harp).
PS: I have an old cell phone with a retractable springy antenna about three inches long. I used to entertain my grandsons — briefly — by playing it like a Jew’s harp. A more modern cell phone doesn’t have much of an antenna (and the boys are also getting harder to entertain). Anyway, this was kind of a parlor trick. I’d say, “Would you like to hear me play a tune on my cell phone?” And most people, even little ones, would think that meant with the beep tones of the keypad.
Well, it works — once.
Thanks you for the history lesson, Pappydick! I’ll stash that interesting info away into my mental genealogical database. I wish I could see my ggrandfather playing one right now! What a sight it would be….him jus’ a pluckin’ and a blowin’ away, stumping his foot in tune to the beat. I wish we still had that Old-Day entertainment….we sure could use it. My 1yo nephew would really enjoy dancing to both yesteryear’s authentic juiceharp playing and today’s cell-phone ringtones. lol
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
