G'day,

Pavane: Back in the 19th century, there was a plethora of names for free reed instruments. As there was no classical" history for such instruments (outside if China), all sorts of tinkerers would come up with new ways to use the free reed principle. Most of them died the death they deserved and the better ideas survived.

Almost every one of these had a different name ... usually using based on some combination of "harmon...", "concer..." or "accord..." to indicate the unique ability of compact free reed instruments to play complex chords (harmony, concert, accord &c). I've seen references to "harmonicon" and, in some cases, it seems to have been something in the general "lap organ" class ... but that's not definite.

BTW: You are right in saying that 'tablature' would be for the Anglo. The English System and all 5 or 6 (or more) duet systems have pretty well unambiguous note positions. The Jeffreys Duet has some ... but these are so rare (and specialist instruments, anyway) that tablature would not be used for them in a publication.

I occasionally use some forms of marking up for Anglo for basic teaching purposes - but always persuade learners to progress to reading music and understanding the harmonic nature of the instrument. (But I have lots of music sheets decorated with personal colour codes that remind me of some of the insights gleaned in playing ... and, sometimes, I remember what they mean!).

Regards,

Bob Bolton