CHOPIN: Fantaisie Impromptu on a RARE German Barrel Organ

Description to come.

[@henrybennett8801]

It was built as a barrel organ by F Heine in Vöhrenbach in 1862. Bought by my great grandfather Thomas Bazley, then converted by Imhof & Mukle for his son, my grandfather, 40 years later. It was restored by Goetze & Gwynn in 2021.

[@unequally-tempered]

WOW! How wonderful it is and how musical the arrangement. Really interesting. Academically the musical arrangements are particularly interesting in terms of performance. Were the pneumatic rolls transcribed from barrels? Or was it originally built as a pneumatic instrument?

[@arburo1]

@@unequally-tempered The rolls would have been arranged on the drawing board by a competent musician.

[@andrewbarrett1537]

@@unequally-tempered Given the rather high numbers of some of the roll cartridges, I would imagine that Imhof & Mukle used a pre-existing roll scale they had (with an existing music roll library) to convert this instrument, rather than create a new library of arrangements from scratch specifically for it. But hey, maybe I'm wrong and the numbers just refer to a MASTER TUNE LIST of TUNES they had available which they could arrange for various scales, rather than a unique roll number for each tune for each scale (like many other makers).

[@unequally-tempered]

@@andrewbarrett1537 Yes - makes sense

[@unequally-tempered]

WOW! How wonderful it is and how musical the arrangement. Really interesting. Academically the musical arrangements are particularly interesting in terms of performance. Were the pneumatic rolls transcribed from barrels? Or was it originally built as a pneumatic instrument?

[@traubeminze810]

Looks like an Imhof & Mukle Organ or Orchestrion, would love to hear more!

[@edmondderaedt4186]

Splendid!

[@thomashenden71]

With expression, even! Would have liked to get the technical details about this system!

[@andromedaturnbull3512]

For some reason I can't help but think of A Clockwork Orange.

[@hayato4974]

Fantastic!

[@LesserMoffHootkins]

The way Chopin intended!

[@Velostigmat]

Magnificent!

[@cuitlahuacchavez465]

Una maravilla..!!!

[@LesserMoffHootkins]

I’m always chasing rainbows!