King's Harmonica Quintet ...
Blowing up a real Harmonica Storm

To play classical string quartets with harmonicas sounds like a scary idea. But playing such music in public for over 10 years, winning acclaims like:

"blowing up a real harmonica storm"

"virtually an improvement on the Russian's work (Shostakovich's string quartet)"

"doing untold credit for the harmonica method and application"

is certainly a pride in itself. This group of 5 amateur harmonica players who makes it happen comes from Hong Kong and is called the King's Harmonica Quintet.

The Quintet was formed in 1987. The first local public appearance was in 1990, when a concert consisting of 3 full-length string quartets of Mozart, Dvorak and Shostakovich was given. Considerable positive response from the audience and the critics was received. The Quintet continued its success with various public performances. In 1995, the Quintet made its overseas debut in the World Harmonica Festival in Japan, where it was awarded the first runner-up in the 4-6 persons group competition and was invited to the gala concert. In 1996, the members of the Quintet appeared in the SPAH Convention in St. Louis and as adjudicator and guest performer in the First Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival in Taiwan. The responses from the people who have listened to the Quintet are unanimous:

"astonishing and inspiring ... no one can claim that the harmonica lacks merit as an instrument after hearing this group ... such clarity of sound, and nuances of delivery"

"this is the finest example of group playing that I have ever heard using harmonica ... an exceptionally high standard of musicality"

"opening up a new avenue for harmonica enthusiasts"

At its 10^th anniversary, the Quintet's achievements are further recognized with the winning of the World Champion title in the 1997 World Harmonica Festival held in Trossingen, Germany.

Structure

The Quintet consists of 2 treble harmonica players (playing the Hohner 270 HardBoppers modified by Richard Farrell, and the Hohner CX12 chromatic harmonicas), 2 tenor harmonica players (playing the Hohner Super 64X) and 1 bass harmonica player (playing the Tombo bass). With this combination of harmonicas which cover the full spectrum of registers and consist of a blend of tone quality, the Quintet is able to play string quartet pieces with remarkable fidelity and musicality.

Repertoire

The majority of the Quintet's repertoire are string quartets of masters spanning 3 centuries, from Mozart to Shostakovich. To be suitable for the Quintet, these pieces are all re-arranged by its members. The addition of one tenor harmonica to the original 4-part combination adds flexibility to the re-arrangement. Discrepancy in the range of harmonicas and string instruments can be more readily resolved, while harmonic and melodic structure of the original work can be reproduced faithfully.

Origin

All the members of the Quintet were schoolmates in high school. Their mother school, the King's College, is pivotal in the creation of this group, and in fact, the nourishing of many other outstanding harmonica players in Hong Kong. The King's College Harmonica Band has just marked its 45^th anniversary by organizing the anniversary concert. The Harmonica Band, which persistently consists of 30-50 members at any period, has always been the cradle of harmonica players, teaching a few dozens of students to play harmonica each year. From them develop numerous outstanding harmonica players who grab numerous awards in the Hong Kong Schools' Music Festival every year. The King's College Harmonica Band has always been one of the top 3 harmonica bands in the Festival.

A minority of those who graduated can actually sustain their interest in harmonica because of other diversions and engagements in life. In 1986, a number of fresh graduates advocated the formation of an old boys' harmonica orchestra to keep up their interest. They did a marvelous job in staging a series of concerts. In one of the concerts, there was an attempt to play Mozart's Flute Quartet with a flute and 4 harmonicas. This was the first experience of touching the essence of chamber music and it was fantastic.

The King's Harmonica Quintet was formed in mid-summer of 1987. The first pieces were bold attempts of the Borodin's String Quartet No.2 and Dvorak's American Quartet. They continue to be the favourites of the Quintet, only that they are played much better now than 10 years ago!

Vision

Through contacts with other classical harmonica masters, the Quintet's style of playing is greatly appreciated and the special value of this combination is reaffirmed. Traditionally, the importance of treble harmonica has been over-emphasized in a conventional harmonica ensemble group, where treble harmonica is often the solo and the other parts often take on a strictly accompanying role. This has jeopardized the potential development of harmonica as a whole. All over the years, the Quintet has been advocating the balanced development of various parts of the ensemble including treble, tenor and bass harmonicas. Each individual part of the Quintet is unique and valued. Each member needs to acquire the specific techniques in mastering his own instrument, and bring those techniques to sophistication to meet the technical requirements of the composition. At the same time, each of them needs to develop the sensitivity to the overall ensemble effect, and contribute to that through highly dynamic interactions among them. String quartet pieces, written by the masters of composition, allow all of these objectives to be put into practice. Hopefully this will exploit the potential and expand the outreach of the harmonica performing art.

This article is reprinted from the Spring 1998 issue of Harmonica Educator Newsletter.