Marxophone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Marxophone is a fretless zither that has four sets of chord strings (C major, G major, F major and D7) to be strummed with the left hand and two octaves of double melody strings (C middle - C'') which are struck by metal hammers activated by the right hand. The hammers are mounted on spring steel and produce a mandolin-like sound from repeated bouncing on the strings, hence the name mandolin-guitar-zither that was sometimes applied to the Marxophone. The string layout of the Marxophone is here.
Numerically coded music prepared specifically for the Marxophone indicated when and in what order melody and chord strings are to be played. The advantage of using numerically coded music is that one does not have to know how to read standard music notation in order to play the instrument. Some Marxophones had both the number and the note on the staff pictured for each melody note.
The Marxophone was never produced by the Marxochime Colony of New Troy, Michigan which was in business from about 1927 to 1972. Henry Charles Marx (1875-1947), the founder of the company, obtained the original patent, #1044553, in 1912, for the mechanism on which the Marxophone and the related Celestaphone were based. That patent was assigned to the Phonoharp Co. with which he was affiliated at the time. Marxophones and Celestaphones were produced by Phonoharp until its merger with the Oscar Schmidt, Inc., in 1926. Marxophones were then produced by the merged company, International Musical Corporation of Hoboken, New Jersey. Following that period, Marxophones were produced by Oscar Schmidt-International, successor to the International Musical Corporation, through the 1950s.
Mr. Marx was one of a number of late 19th century/early 20th century musical gadget manufacturers who would combine two or more instruments into one: the Hawaiian ukulele and the bowed violin or the mandolin-guitar-zither yielded instruments with strange names like the Ukelin and the Marxophone. Other inventions included the Banjolin, the Hawaii-Phone, the Mandolin-Uke, the Marxolin, the Pianoette, the Pianolin, and the Tremoloa.
Marxophones were billed as easy-to-play and sold on time-purchase plans by door-to-door salesmen as well as through mail-order companies such as Sears. The 1902 Sears catalog called the Deweylin Harp, an unrelated fretless zither which was available before the Marxophone, "...the wonder of the age" and "...the greatest musical instrument that has ever been placed before the public." These mandolin-guitar-zithers combined three instruments for the price of one.
A good recorded example of a Marxophone in a rock and roll context is "Alabama Song" by The Doors, played by keyboardist Ray Manzarek.
