The delicate sounds of a ballerina music box, inlaid music box, musical jewelry box, or music trinket box is loved by many a music box and antique collector. Some collectors and lovers of mechanical music may not realize the interesting history that is part of the world of music boxes and mechanical music. Let's discover what that is. Attempts to create mechanical music reproductions really began in the third century B.C. Plato had an idea for making a water clock that would sound the hours of the night on pipes. He felt this was needed since darkness made it impossible to read the face of a clock. No one knows whether or not the clock was made, but it did reveal that interest to produce music automatically occurred very early in history. Singing birds and organs, which were worked hydraulically likely, were developed from Plato's clockwork idea. After clocks were invented in AD 1000, more advances were made. Soon carillons of bells were made which played simple tunes on a barrel. Next came the barrel organ, which had air for the organ coming from bells driven by clockwork. One of the most basic elements of mechanical music is how storage of the music is in a barrel or sheet, both of which rally make the memory of the instrument. The music was then set on the barrel with pegs and pins and on the actual sheet as perforation or projections. When rotated steadily and evenly against the levers, the levers then played an organ or carillon. In 1502, the first mechanical music was made in the form of a barrel organ. The most famous one was the organ made in Salzburg for L. Von Keutschach. It had 350 pipes from which music from a barrel was played. The organ only had one tune for centuries until Leopole Mozart composed 11 more in 1753. Now, only 9 tunes survive on the original barrel. Announced with a grand and might chord, the locals have nicknamed it the "Salzburg Bull". It is fascinating that mechanical music has been around for so many centuries. It puts a unique perspective on the history of collectibles such as music boxes, antique music boxes, ballerina music boxes, inlaid music boxes, musical jewelry boxes, and music trinket boxes. Copyright 2006 Monique Hawkins |
