The Name Edeophone

[JimLucas]

We still don't know, but the speculation is fun.

...here are some other leads: "Ideophone" ..."A vivid representation of an idea in sound." or "Idiophone" an instrument like the Aeolsklavier, which sounds by the movement of air from bellows over wooden reeds, (paraphrased).

I had discounted "ideophone" firstly because the connection between "idea" and that particular design seems as tenuous as some of my puns and secondly because confusion between "e" and "i" seems rare in Greek and Latin, even "Greek" and "Latin" invented by English speakers. Also, it's a linguistic term, not a musical one.

 

That second one looks interesting, but where did you find it? The definition of "idiophone" on the Dolmetsch site is quite different and much broader.

[Mike Pierceall]

We still don't know, but the speculation is fun.

...here are some other leads: "Ideophone" ..."A vivid representation of an idea in sound." or "Idiophone" an instrument like the Aeolsklavier, which sounds by the movement of air from bellows over wooden reeds, (paraphrased).

I had discounted "ideophone" firstly because the connection between "idea" and that particular design seems as tenuous as some of my puns and secondly because confusion between "e" and "i" seems rare in Greek and Latin, even "Greek" and "Latin" invented by English speakers. Also, it's a linguistic term, not a musical one.

 

That second one looks interesting, but where did you find it? The definition of "idiophone" on the Dolmetsch site is quite different and much broader.

Jim, I was going by the Hornbostal Sachs classification scheme. Although this was published in 1914, about 25 years after the patent on the Edeophone, it was based on the works of Victor Mahillion, who was writing about the time the Edeophone appeared. I'm not a scholar, but my personal opinion is that the Lachenal Co. just adapted a name from terminology of the time, say, combining the concepts of ideophone and idiophone, and then making a unique term they could register. But in the world of supposition, anyone can be right, and everyone can be wrong. Maybe Edeophone means "like the sound of God." Mike

[Chris Timson]

Well, the Lazy researcher's Tool par excellence, Google, gives over 18000 hits for Edeo, enough to keep anyone occupied for a few minutes. My favourite is Eating Disorder Education Organization, obviously Victorian in origin, and the Concertina Connection is clear. Establishing it is left as an exercise for the interested reader.

 

Chris