Barrel organ

Organ grinder in Dinant ( Belgium )

A barrel organ , or barrel organ , is a mechanical musical instrument . The player of a barrel organ, popularly known in northern Germany as an organ grinder , in Austria known as a Werkelmann, operates a crank that sets a control system inside the instrument in motion.

The fair organ is similar to the barrel organ .

history

Kircher's illustration of a hydraulically operated barrel organ

An early document describing an organ with a pin barrel is in the papal church museum ; it was written by the German Jesuit priest Athanasius Kircher . Its authorship has not been clarified.

Organ grinder in Prague (2008)

Perforated strip - sliding block

Perforated tape in the gaming table

Pipework - four different registers

Evidently since the beginning of the 18th century, the barrel organ has been known in all European countries as an instrument for street musicians and jugglers, but also - especially in England and France - as a church and salon instrument. Bank singers also used a barrel organ. Many organ barrel players place a plush monkey next to their instrument. This is to remind of the time when wandering musicians were often accompanied by a capuchin or rhesus monkey . The monkey was an additional attraction - especially for the children - and mostly had the task of collecting coins from the bystanders.

The barrel organs were initially built by organ workshops , later manufactories emerged that only looked after the little sisters of the church music instrument.

A variant of the barrel organ was the Greek lanterna, which was played by Yiftoi ( Roma musicians) in the 19th century and until the beginning of the 20th century . The Yiftoi beat the frame drum with a bell ring Daira to accompany them . The solo entertainers with lanterns appeared on marketplaces in the port cities of the Levant , sometimes accompanied by a wife or daughter who acted as a dancer, or they carried a dancing bear with them.

In France, the musical instrument is called the Orgue de Barbarie , which is attributed to the first known manufacturer: the Italian Giovanni Barberi from Modena first demonstrated this small transportable organ in 1702.

technology

The structure of the barrel organ corresponds in principle to a stationary pipe organ. It consists of a housing in which the pipework , the bellows , the wind chest and the play equipment are housed. With the help of a crank or a flywheel, the leather-covered bellows, which generate the wind, are operated via a connecting rod . The wind is stored in a magazine bellows, calmed down and brought to a constant pressure with spring force. Hydropower was also occasionally used to operate larger barrel organs (e.g. Hellbrunn Palace , Villa d'Este and Wilhelmshöhe water organ ).

The pipework stands above the wind chest, which contains a large number of valves. A tone (a pipe or several pipes of different types) is assigned to each valve . The number of tones can be different for barrel organs (approximately from 12 to 45). These valves are controlled by the play equipment. This can be done pneumatically , mechanically or electromagnetically . The pipes are similar to those of a church organ. With mechanical / pneumatic control, the rotary movement of the crank also moves the program carrier.

In contrast to a manually playable organ, a program carrier takes over the control of the tones, this is located in the playing equipment. The oldest form of the program carrier is the pin roller , which has been known since ancient times. A pin roller (usually replaceable) can contain up to twelve pieces of music (six to eight are common). The length of the piece of music is limited by the drum circumference.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the perforated tape and the punch card replaced the pin roller. Electronic controls, generally known as microchips , have been in use since the early 1980s . The pieces of music are stored in proprietary formats, more recently usually as MIDI files on memory cards. With perforated tapes or punch cards (both interchangeable) and electronic controls, the playing time is almost unlimited.

By changing the playing speed, influencing the wind pressure and using different timbres (registers) on larger instruments (see also register (organ) ), an interpretive presentation of the music on pneumatically controlled barrel organs is possible.

State of the art for electronic controls is the control of the playback speed of the piece of music by changing the rotational speed. Simpler electronic controls lack this option - the playback speed is always the same, regardless of whether the crank is moved slowly or quickly. Electronically controlled barrel organs can be synchronized via radio or cable . All organs either play the same notes of the piece of music or they take over individual parts of a kind of orchestral score. This is decided by the skill of the arranger or programmer. The playback does not require any musical skills on the part of the organ turner.

On the other hand, the synchronous play with two or more perforated tape-controlled barrel organs of the same type requires practice and ability paired with musicality and a sense of rhythm. The same or correspondingly manufactured perforated strips are available on the market for this purpose.

Well-known barrel organ manufacturers (selection)

The names of the manufacturers can usually be found on signs and beautifully designed lettering on the front of the organ cases. There are also references to the manufacturer (s) on the rollers or other internal components, for example a four-digit stamp. Sometimes the programmer has also inserted a sheet music into the organ case, on which the workshop is recorded. - The following list is ordered by the last name of the producer and also includes workshops that are no longer active.

• Bacigalupo , organ factory, Berlin N, Schönhauser Allee ; production stopped
• Barrel organ building Blüml, Grassau
• K. Böttcher (19th century to the 1920s), Berlin-Friedrichshain , Fruchtstaße 26
• Deleika GmbH, Dinkelsbühl
• Organ builder Fischer, Bad Wimpfen
• Organ builder Hofbauer, Göttingen ; Main manufacturer of Harmonipane (s)
• Edi Hoffmann, Pfullendorf
• WF Holl, founded in 1888; later Holl and Son, Berlin-Friedrichshain , Fruchtstrasse 36a and Bremen ; Instrument called Harmonipan ; production stopped
• Jäger & Brommer , Waldkirch
• Paul Kahl, Organ Builders Berlin 112; production stopped
• Hans-Peter Kyburz, Oberentfelden , Switzerland
• Raffin organ building, founded in 1960, Überlingen
• Barrel organ builder Willi Schlemmer, Balingen , taken over by Deleika
• Axel Stüber, organ builder, Berlin-Biesdorf ; one of the historical instruments was Violino Pan called
• Thuringian musician forge Gilbert Watterott, Hausen

Appearances

Organ barrel players (also known as Werkelmann in Austria ) perform publicly throughout Europe, especially during special "barrel organ days". Many organ grinder players can also be hired by private individuals. The French Pierre Charial showed in the late 1990s that the instrument can also be used in jazz and even in new music .

In Berlin there has been an international barrel organ festival on Breitscheidplatz since 1979 . In June 2017, more than 120 organ grinder men and women took part . At the end of November 2017, the Berlin barrel organ builder Axel Stüber applied for organ organ music to be recognized as a world cultural heritage .

See also

• Ariston , a table rotating organ
• The well-tempered organ organ , cycle of poems for children

Web links

Commons : barrel organ  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: barrel organ  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Club of German barrel organ friends
• Further information on the subject of barrel organ
• Entry on Wiener Werkel in the Austria Forum  (in the Heimatlexikon)
• Overview page barrel organ Switzerland

Individual evidence

1. ^ History of the barrel organs , accessed on December 28, 2017.
2. ^ Rudolf M. Brandl: The "Yiftoi" and the Music of Greece. Role and Function. In: The World of Music. Volume 38 (1), 1996, pp. 12f.
3. ^ Research report on German literature in the era of realism . In it: M. Bröcker: barrel organ , p. 730.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Florian Thalmann, Andreas Klug: The old lyre ; Articles about Christa Hohnhäuser, Eberhard Franke, Anna Haase, the Krause couple and Jutta Berfelde. In: Berliner Zeitung , June 29, 2017, p. 10. Paid contribution
5. ^ Website Drehorgelbau Blüml , accessed on December 27, 2017.
6. ↑ barrel organs . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1925, II, p. 144.
7. ↑ website barrel organ manufacturers Deleika , accessed on 27 December 2017th
8. ↑ Website Orgelbau Fischer , accessed on December 27, 2017.
9. ↑ Website of the organ builder Hofbauer ( memento of the original from December 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 27, 2017. 
10. ↑ Organ building> barrel organs . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1940, II, p. 410.
11. ↑ Jäger und Brommer website , accessed December 27, 2017.
12. ↑ Aargauer rescued the world's largest mobile concert organ , Aargauer Zeitung, September 15, 2009; accessed on December 27, 2017.
13. ↑ Website Orgelbau Raffin , accessed on December 27, 2017.
14. ↑ Note on the handover to Deleika , accessed on December 27, 2017.
15. ↑ Orgelbau Stüber website , accessed on December 27, 2017.
16. ↑ Lucas Negroni: Axel Stüber is the only barrel organ builder in Berlin , In: Berliner Zeitung , July 1, 2017, accessed on December 27, 2017.
17. ^ Website G. Watterott , accessed December 27, 2017.