Harmonica Lovers’ Circles

  In Hitachi, there are numerous circles and clubs for the enjoyment of cultural activities. The members that belong to these are active in various areas.  For September’s article, let us introduce to you the harmonica lover’s circle. The harmonica is a kind of wind instrument that belongs to the group of ‘Organ’ and ‘Accordion’. There are many opinions of the origin of the harmonica and it is said that the model for the present type was created in 1800 through various forms. Playing the harmonica is quite popular nowadays because it is small in size, easy to play and also harmonizes well with other kinds of instruments.
  The Harmonica lovers’ circles in Hitachi consist of the following eight groups: Cherries, Himawari Club, Harmony Friends, Kohno Takashige (individual), Harmonica Seven, Yoku Culture, Yuyu Harmony and Subaru Echoes. All of these groups enjoy great satisfaction of providing listeners with healing and comfort while they themselves enjoy playing the harmonica. Let’s take a look at one of them.
  Harmony Friends has been active for 9 years. This circle began at Kujicho Hitachi in September 1996 and consists of six members of two First Harmonica players, two Second, one Code and one Bass player. They practice four times a month, 2.5 to 3 hours each time. They have about 30 opportunities of overseas presentations a year. Mainly they perform at welfare facilities, hospitals and primary schools. They joined the Ibaraki Prefecture Harmonica Association in October 2003. They had the honor of meeting the mayor of Ibaraki Prefecture at their social activity ”Meeting with lovable citizens of Ibaraki Prefecture” in May 2001 and for their performances at welfare facilities for many years they had the honor of having the president of the “Hitachi City Social Welfare Conference” in June 2002.
  Their repertoire consists of mainly children’s songs, pop songs and movie theme songs making it more than 40 melodies. During the interview they kindly played us three melodies, a children’s song, a pop song and a theme song from a TV drama. We were impressed with the comfort and beauty of their performance.
The harmonica concert is held at least once a year in Ibaraki Prefecture. Why not go and listen to the harmonica playing? The latest event was the ”Charity Harmonica Concert 2005”. It was held on September 3 at the Hitachi Civic Center.

(content table)    (home)