Whilst tooling about in the motorcar the other day, listening to the sonorous strains of my favorite classical music station, I happened to hear a piece for orchestra and harp - no, not the Harpo harp but the HARMONICA, curiously at odds with the rest of the ensemble. It was the aural equivalent of a wreck on the highway, or a good cage fight, for I was horrified and yet could not turn away. Have you ever had any "longhair" aspirations with said instrumentation?
Snafu John - Freehold, NJ

Oh my poor uncultured brother, hast thou ne'er heard of Toots Thielmans? Or Larry Adler? John Sebastian Sr.? The Harmonica, dear sir, is an exquisitely apropos instrument for...ahem..."long-hair" music. It is a well-known musico-historical fact that Bach only wrote all those pieces for strings because the violinists had such a strong union, and cellists are a notoriously violent group. And the viola players! Don't even ask.
Proof that ol' Johann Sebastian loved the harp is found in all the stuff he wrote for the organ, which, let's face it, is just a glorified harmonica. Sorry Jeff, but the truth will out. Composers who wrote for the harmonica include Ralph Vaughan William, Villa-Lobos and, of all people, John Phillip Sousa!, who wrote a special march for a harmonica band that he heard and was impressed by. Man, I'd love to hear that....from a distance.
So you see, my friend, the old South is in good company. The fact that he drags that company down should in no way obviate your treating me with all due respect. So there.

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