The invention of the harmonica is usually credited to Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann (Berlin, c. 1821). A few decades later Matthias Hohner in Germany turned it into a mass product — the Hohner company remains the best-known maker to this day.
Types of harmonica: diatonic (10 holes, the most common — used in blues); chromatic (with a slide button that raises each note by a semitone — for classical and jazz); tremolo (doubled chambers for a beating effect); octave (with parallel octaves). Each row of holes plays different notes on inhale vs. exhale.
Harmonica legends: Little Walter (Chicago blues), Sonny Terry, Toots Thielemans (jazz on chromatic), Bob Dylan (the 1960s folk revolution), Stevie Wonder (famous R&B solos). In film music, Ennio Morricone made the harmonica iconic in the Sergio Leone westerns (Once Upon a Time in the West). In Ukraine the harmonica is used by ethno-folk bands and solo street performers.
