Orchestrion
Orchestrion is a generic name for a machine that plays music and is designed to sound like an orchestra or band. Orchestrions may be operated by means of a large pinned cylinder or by a music roll and less commonly book music. The sound is usually produced by pipes, though they will be voiced differently from those found in a pipe organ, as well as percussion instruments. Many orchestrions contain a piano as well. At the Musical Museum in Brentford, examples may be seen and heard of several of the instrument types described below.
It is confused by some with the steam-powered calliope, which was also used to produce music on period carousels. It used steam whistles rather than organ pipes to produce its principal sounds. See also the similar fairground organ.
Types
The name "orchestrion" has also been applied to several musical instruments:
Chamber organ
A chamber organ, designed by Georg Joseph Vogler (Abbé Vogler) in 1790, incorporated 900 pipes, 3 manuals of 63 keys each and 39 pedals in a space of 9 cubic feet (250 dm3).[1]
Pianoforte with organ pipe
A
Player piano
The
Panharmonicon
The
Welte
Welte Philharmonic Organ
From 1911 organs branded Welte Philharmonic-Organ were produced.
The largest philharmonic organ ever built is at the Salomons Estate of the Markerstudy Group.[2] This instrument was built in 1914 for Sir David Lionel Salomons to play not only rolls for the organ but also for his Welte Orchestrion No. 10 from about 1900, which he traded in for the organ. One of these organs can also be seen in the Scotty's Castle museum in Death Valley, where it is played regularly during museum tours. An organ built for the HMHS Britannic never made its way to Belfast due to the outbreak of the First World War. It can currently be heard playing in the Swiss National Museum in Seewen.[3]
See also
- Fairground organ
- Photoplayer
- The Orchestrion Project - An album by Pat Metheny
References
- ^ a b c Schlesinger 1911.
- ^ WELTE restored. Royal Academy of Music, 2011
- ^ Christoph E. Hänggi: Die Britannic-Orgel im Museum für Musikautomaten Seewen So. Festschrift zur Einweihung der Welte-Philharmonie-Orgel; Sammlung Heinrich Weiss-Stauffacher. Hrsg.: Museum für Musikautomaten Seewen SO. Seewen: Museum für Musikautomaten, 2007.
- Herbert Jüttemann: Orchestrien aus dem Schwarzwald: Instrumente, Firmen und Fertigungsprogramme. Bergkirchen, 2004. ISBN 3-932275-84-5 (Orchestrions From The Black Forest).
- Q. David Bowers: Encyclopedia of automatic musical instruments: Cylinder music boxes, disc music boxes, piano players and player pianos... Incl. a dictionary of automatic musical instrument terms. Vestal, N. Y., the Vestal Press, 1988.
- public domain: Schlesinger, Kathleen (1911). "Orchestrion". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 170. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Q. David. Bowers: Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments. ISBN 0-911572-08-2. Lanham, Maryland, USA, Vestal Press, 1972.
- W. J. G. Ord-Hume: The Musical Box: A Guide for Collectors. ISBN 0-88740-764-1. Atglen, Pennsylvania, USA, Schiffer Publishing, 1995.
- W. J. G. Ord-Hume: Barrel organ, the story of the mechanical organ and its repair, South Brunswick, Barnes, 1978.
- W. J. G. Ord-Hume: The musical box: a guide for collectors, including a guide to values, Atglen, Pennsylvania, USA, Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-88740-764-2.
- W. J. G. Ord-Hume: Clockwork Music — An illustr. history of mechanical musical instruments from the musical box to the pianola, from automation lady virginal players to orchestrion, London, Allen and Unwin, 1973. ISBN 0-04-789004-5.
- Arthur A. Reblitz: The Golden Age of Automatic Musical Instruments. ISBN 0-9705951-0-7. Woodsville, New Hampshire, USA, Mechanical Music Press, 2001.
- Arthur A. Reblitz: Treasures of Mechanical Music. ISBN 0-911572-20-1. New York, the Vestal Press, 1981.
- Stanley Sadie (Ed. [ISBN 1-56159-174-2. MacMillan, 1980. Vol. 12. P. 814.
- Smithsonian Institution: History of Music Machines. ISBN 0-87749-755-9. New York, Drake Publishers, 1975.