Marxophone

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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 (Middle C - 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.

Numerically coded sheet music prepared specifically for the Marxophone indicated when and in what order melody and chord strings were to be played. This type of music, similar to tablature, was produced for those who did not know how to read standard written music.

[edit] History

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 Company 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.

Marx was one of a number of late 19th century and 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 names like Ukelin and 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.

[edit] Recordings

• "Another Heart Calls" by The All-American Rejects, played by singer and bassist Tyson Ritter
• "Bullet for Ramona" by Warren Zevon
• "Alabama Song" (Whisky Bar) by The Doors, played by keyboardist Ray Manzarek
• "Someone's in the Wolf" by Queens of the Stone Age, played by Alain Johannes (misspelled as "Markxophone" in the liner notes)
• "Up in Hell" by Desert sessions in The Desert Sessions VII & VIII, played by Fred Drake
• "Anna Molly" and "Leech" by Incubus
• "Am I Awake?" by They Might Be Giants (John Linnell postulates it to be the first known recorded song to feature a backwards Marxophone)
• "Combinations" by Eisley
• "Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song)" by Fiona Apple
• "I'm On Fire" (originally by Bruce Springsteen), covered by Bat for Lashes
• "Glass" by Bat For Lashes from the album Two Suns, played on the recorded version by Ben Christophers
• "Daniel" by Bat for Lashes, used during live performances
• "Jingle Bells" by Roy Zimmerman
• "He Forgot that It Was Sunday" by John Prine
• "Run, Pig, Run" by Queens of the Stone Age, played by Alain Johannes (misspelled as "Marxaphone" in the Era Vulgaris liner notes)
• "When Girls Get Together" by The Beach Boys
• "Guys Like Me" and "The Moth" from Aimee Mann's Lost in Space (album)
• John Sebastian of '60s rock group The Lovin' Spoonful played the Marxophone for the song "She is Still a Mystery" on their 1968 album Everything Playing after receiving it from someone who had mistaken it for an autoharp.

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