This article is about the portable free reed instrument. For the brass instrument, see Mellophone.
The mélophone is a portable free reed instrument first constructed by Parisian watchmaker Pierre Charles Leclerc in 1837.[1] After persuasion from Leclerc, composer Fromental Halévy included the instrument in his 1838 opera, Guido et Ginevra and briefly popularized the instrument.[2] However, by 1855, the novelty had worn off and the instrument faded into relative obscurity.[3]