The history of Müller autoharps

No update on my autoharp this time, because things have been quite hectic lately. Therefore, I thought I'd write something on Müller autoharps, because I find the history of musical instruments just as fascinating as an autoharp pin (so.. that means very fascinating, FYI. I am easily entertained).

So, about Müller. I had never heard of it before I bought my autoharp. Well, maybe that's not completely fair because I only knew two autoharp manufacturers: Oscar Schmidt, because it's super well-known, and Hudson, which is the manufacturer of my first autoharp. So, it's not so surprisinig that I had never heard of Müller. However, to my surprise, when I googled it, I found out that not very many people had..

'Müller' is of course a very generic German name, but even when I added search words like 'autoharp' or 'chorded zither' or the German term 'akkordzither', only some pieces for auction came up, no information about the company or the history of it, whatsoever.

Advertisement for Müller chord zithers

Well, if there's something that makes my heart beat faster, it is a good ol' mystery! So I started to search in more detail, for any information about the factory I could find. Then I hit the jackpot. I found a blog, written by an American autoharp luthier who had restored exactly the same model: a Müller Erato autoharp. There was little information about how the project was going and whether or not he finished it, so I e-mailed him about it. He e-mailed me back with this gold mine of information: his repair log! Not only did he describe exactly which steps he undertook to get it working again, but he speaks about Müller in his introduction. The log was very useful for my plans, but also for my research on Müller. So what I will tell you next, I get directly from his log, but also from these German websites (1, 2) which were very helpful.

Another Müller model: the Erato-Harfe

The autoharp is a very genre-bound instrument: you will almost always find it in American country music. The inventor and first American manufacturer of autoharps was called Zimmerman (Philadelphia, 1880). He took the European zither and turned it into an autoharp. Oscar Schmidt took over when Zimmerman died and is still the most well-known autoharp manufacturer. Nowadays, there is a very small number of brands that also produce autoharps in Europe (like my first autoharp by Hudson, which is actually a brand for guitars). But autoharps are largely unknown in Europe, it is a niche where not many people are aware of. And these manufacturers all date from after the American country period, when the love for country music spread to Europe. So.. how can it be that I have a German autoharp from around 1900s in my hands? (I actually said that out loud when I realized it was German-built, don't judge me)

Well, turns out that Zimmerman did not invent the autoharp. WHAAAT, I can hear you say! I know right. (Hey, don't make fun of me, I was really shocked about that) He patented the autoharp, but he did not invent it. This German dude, Julius T. Müller, was there first.

Müller produced the first autoharps from 1870s onwards, although he called it an 'akkordzither' (which is actually a way better name). His factory was located in Dresden and he produced a few types of autoharp, all equally beautiful. They are all quite large for an autoharp, mainly because they were meant to be played atop a table, not held against one's upper body country-style.

A drawing from the user manual to the Orpheus-model.

They originally came with booklets with songs, and a few fingerpicks (which do not look comfortable at all). You can see pictures of those here. I cannot express in words how badly I want to own those booklets..

You can see an invoice for an Erato Accordzither from 1898 here. It appears, you could buy one for '27', but I do not know in which currency. The invoice is from Utrecht so it may be Dutch guilders (which would be 12,26 euros) or in German Mark (I cannot find out how much that would be today - let me know if you do!). It literally says 'piano-zither', which they were often called, probably because of the style of playing.

I cannot find out when the factory went bankrupt - but it must have been shortly after 1910. The only Müller autoharps I can find on the internet predate 1910. As Ron Cook puts it: "Because of the rarity of these models and the lack of information on the maker or the instruments, I assume Müller's production was slow. Perhaps he had a small company with few craftsmen." However, on the invoice, we see a drawing of the Müller factory which does not appear to have been that small. It's possible that it has been romanticized a bit, of course, but I don't believe it's completely made up. But either way, there are "very few Müller autoharps known to be in existence ... for every one Müller autoharp up for auction, there are hundreds of Zimmermanns."

The invoice: take a closer look here

Can it be that there are hundreds and hundreds of dusty Müller autoharps in European attics somewhere? That, just like my autoharp, the people owning them do not know what it is? That would be nice, right?
And... can it be that my autoharp was bought at the Dutch music shop that the invoice belongs to?

Hmm. Not that many answers, unfortunately. Well, a lot still remains a mystery, which is also kinda nice, right?