We left 1939 with a young pair of chromatic harmonica players, Ronald Chesney and Tommy Reilly, just starting their careers and Larry Adler enjoying world wide fame, as the Second World War was breaking out. The Hohner Song Band League stopped officially at the start of the Second World War and did not really get going again as a club until 1951. Despite this, these years turned out to be an important time for the harmonica. The social changes brought about by the mixing of service men and women from all sections of society and all over the country and in foreign places led to a need for entertainment, and portable instruments like the harmonica were in great demand. Ronald Chesney led a campaign to collect harmonicas to send to the soldiers.
THE HISTORY OF HARMONICAUK Part 2 1939-1950 Roger Trobridge Chairman 2000-2012
After the war things came together for the harmonica. This is illustrated in the programme notes for a concert of classical music performed by Ronald Chesney in the prestigious Royal Albert Hall, in 1947, just after the end of WW2. It was the first solo concert held there by any harmonica player. Finding that his musical ability did not advance beyond the ‘party-piece’ stage, Ronald Chesney’s lessons on the piano terminated at the age of twelve. Freed from the grind of fivefinger exercises his natural love of music came to the surface, however, and nine years ago, at the age of seventeen, his studies were resumed. Discovering by chance the possibilities of the mouth-organ, he chose this surprising instrument for serious study and within two years had made his broadcasting debut with instantaneous success.
After appearances in many of the BBCs major programmes, his own feature, “Teaching the Allied Forces how to play the Harmonica,” commenced and brought him fan mail running into many thousands of letters. Averaging nearly a hundred a day, Chesney took pride that the majority of these letters came from servicemen, stationed in all parts of the world - from the desert and from the lonely Arctic circle, where the pocketsized mouth organ was a substitute for full-sized symphony orchestra or swing band, depending on the musical tastes of the player’s comrades. To these men his programmes of instruction and music were a link with home.
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The magazine for HarmonicaUK
