A pause before the punchline, a knowing wink to the audience a performer who seems to be speaking directly to…
Browsing: Mechanical Music
From player pianos and Belgian café organs to Victorian music boxes and fairground orchestrions, this category celebrates the ingenious world of self-playing instruments. We explore how mechanical music worked, who built these extraordinary machines, and why collectors and enthusiasts around the world are still restoring and playing them today.
You’ll notice something odd if you’re close enough to a fairground organ. No musician is present. Not a conductor. All…
The picture has an almost cinematic quality. In a ballroom on the Lancashire coast, a young organist from Sheffield, who…
Queen’s Road in Brighton was always full of aspirations. A full-size Hill, Norman, and Beard theater organ, a dance hall,…
There is an instant difference between sitting at a church organ and a theater organ. Although the keys, pedals, and…