from ten or twelve to two or three hundred
francs.  They extend from one octave to four
and a half octaves in compass.

But there is a formidable rival to the accordion,
although belonging to the same group
in respect to its harmonious blacksmithery.
This is the concertina, a really beautiful
invention by Professor Wheatstone. As now
generally made in England the concertina
has two hexagonal ends, about six inches in
diameter, and the bellows enable the instrument
to stretch out to about a foot in length.
There are not keys like those of the accordion,
but little studs to be pressed in by the tips
of the fingers. With a single-action, there is
one spring or tongue to each stud, yielding a
sound only when the bellows are pressed
inward; but the double-action has a provision
of two springs for each note, whereby the
same sound may be produced whether the
bellows be pressed inward or drawn
outward. Since the expiration of the first patent
for concertinas, there has been wonderful
activity in devising new improvements in
every part of the mechanism, both by English
and foreign makers; and it is now certainly
an instrument of very considerable power;
for its facility of fingering affords a scope for
rapid execution, while the power of sounding
three or four notes at a time is a source of
very rich harmonious combination. Not only
have the finer specimens all the tones and
semitones for three or more octaves, but they
have additional notes for producing more
perfect chords in various keys. There is another
surprising variety in power, also, arising
from the different register or general pitch of
the instrument. Some are treble concertinas,
with about fifty keys or studs, and a scale of
more than three octaves, the uppermost note
being a C, with such a troop of leger-lines as
to indicate an ultra-altissimo acuteness
surpassing our humble power to measure; some
are tenor or baritone concertinas, embracing
about the same scale as the former, but
exactly an octave lower in pitch throughout,
thereby yielding sounds which have the same
ratio as those of a man's tenor voice bear to
those of a woman's treble; and lastly there
are bass concertinas, some of which have
actually a compass of four octaves, descending
to a very very low C indeed; the notes
throughout being an octave below those of
the tenor, and two octaves below those of the
treble concertina. It is by these extensive
powers that concertina-players are enabled
to grapple with lady-like treble tunes, with
tunes adapted to tenor or baritone instruments,
with chaunts and psalm tunes, written
for tenor and baritone voices, and with music
written for a bass voice, or a violoncello, or a
bassoon. What wonders the Regondis, and
the Cases, and the Blagroves, work with
these compact instruments, let the
concert-rooms tell.

But our harmonious blacksmith does not
dismiss us even yet. He provides his delicate
little vibrating springs, and allows us to
breathe upon them with the mouth—as in the
Jew's harp, mouth-harmonica, eolina, and
symphonion; or to work them with
hand-bellows, as in the accordion, flutina, and
concertina. But he does something more than
this; he affords facilities for supplying wind
by foot-bellows or pedals, and for playing the
instrument by means of keys analogous to
those of a pianoforte. Oh, what a family
is this! Seraphine, Harmonium, Æolophon,
Æolodicon, Æolharmonica, Melodium,
Melodion, Æolomusicon; what liquid sweetness
of names! It is like talking music to run
over such a list as this. We were about to
designate these instruments as first cousins,
but they are even more nearly related: they
are brothers and sisters.

The seraphine was one of the earliest of
the group. It is usually about as large as a
small chiffonière or pier-table; and the
principal portion of its interior cavity is
occupied by a wind chest, governed by a foot
pedal. Surmounting the wind chest is a
metallic plate, perforated with about five
octaves of oblong apertures, in each of wliich
vibrates a metallic tongue. All these tongues
are attuned to the proper series of tones and
semitones. There are valves above the
apertures, and finger keys governing the
valves. When the player touches a key and
lifts the corresponding valve, and at the
same time works the bellows or pedal with
his foot, a current of air rushes through the
aperture, sets the tongue vibrating, and
produces the musical note. The same blast of
air is available for any of the notes, one or
many; so that the player can use as many
fingers at once as the pianist or organist,
and produce analogous richness in
harmonies.

The harmonium has more pretensions than
the seraphine, inasmuch as it introduces a
great number of "stops." A "stop," in a
church organ, is a set of pipes, all of which,
however they may differ in pitch, have the
same general character or quality of sound;
this quality may be analogous to that of the
sound of the flute; but there is also a qualify
resembling that of the hautboy, and one
resembling that of the clarionet, and of the
trumpet, and so on—and depending on the
nature and arrangement of the vibrating
substance. Some of the great organs have
as many as sixty or eighty stops, or even
more; each stop consisting of many pipes,
attuned so as to yield all the tones and
semitones of several octaves. It is to these
differences in the quality of the tones, that the
surpassing grandeur, and richness, and
expression of a fine organ are due. The
harmonium imitates, in a humble way, this
diversity of power. There are numerous
stops or qualities of tone, in the best instruments.
M. D'Outrelepont, a maker at Paris,
advertises a fine list of them—" Violoncelle,
expression, faupre, orgue, cor Anglais, hautbois,