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A barrel organ player in Vienna, Austria A barrel organ player in Warnemünde, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. A barrel organ (also called roller organ or crank organ) is a French [1] mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated.
Originally, the music for mechanical organs was stored by pins on a large barrel. Such instruments were called barrel organs. Such organs only have a very limited repertoire, both in the number of musical selections that could be stored, and the length of tune that could be accommodated. In the 1890s, book music was invented. This meant that ...
The barrel can be programmed, as the pins can be separately placed in the holes provided on the surface of the barrel. [5] 1665: Ahasuerus Fromanteel in London makes a table clock which has quarter striking and musical work on multiple bells operated by a pinned barrel. These barrels can be changed for those playing different tunes. [6]
A Faventia barrel piano. A barrel piano (also known as a "roller piano") is a forerunner of the modern player piano.Unlike the pneumatic player piano, a barrel piano is usually powered by turning a hand crank, though coin-operated models powered by clockwork were used to provide music in establishments such as pubs and cafés. [1]
Mechanical organs, which include the barrel organ and Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.
Driven into the barrel are brass pins and staples which encode the pieces of music. Mounted over the barrel is a bar carrying wooden keys connected to valves by vertical wooden rods. As the barrel turns, the pins and staples lift the keys, in turn opening the valves to let air into the pipes, which are located at the rear of the instrument.
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The organ grinder was a musical novelty street performer of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century, and refers to the operator of a street or barrel organ. A grinder of music (1796), a hand-tinted etching by Isaac Cruikshank