Poppers "REX" Orchestrion

Experience the Guinness Collection Popper's "REX" European Orchestrion, made by Popper & Co., circa 1915. And enjoy hearing an original Popper's arrangement of Vincent Youmans, "Sing' Hallelujah", from the 1927 musical comedy, "Hit the Deck". This instrument & 150 others, are on permanent exhibit at the Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey, featuring daily demo's at 2pm. Come join us!

[@andrewbarrett1537]

Thanks for posting this great video of a great-sounding Popper orchestrion! For those folks watching this who are wondering what they are seeing: at 0:41 there is a nice close-up of the visual effects in the front of the instrument, the animated waterfall with water flowing, the little train going across the bridge, etc. (watch full screen for the maximum visual impact!) 0:50 is an interior view showing how these visual effects were/are accomplished by the builder, using technology of the day. 1:04 shows us the horizontally-mounted xylophone playing a solo as per the musical arrangement. I think Popper built some of the nicest-sounding xylophones of all of the European orchestrion builders. At 1:28 is the pump for this large instrument, looking well-restored and operating smoothly. (I'd love to know who restored this). If this pump is anything like the one in a Popper Clarabella orchestrion restored recently, then it probably has three feeders (bellows) each supplying both suction and pressure, I *think*. (Three makes for a balanced action and steady supply of air and suction, by the way). The two large bellows on the top of the pump are both reservoirs, one for pressure (for the pipes) and the other for suction (for the piano, percussions, and control mechanisms). These even out the output of the pumps and compensate for large, sudden chords that would otherwise briefly cause a noticeable fluctuation in the pressure or suction for this instrument. At 1:54 we see the music roll moving over the tracker bar. Popper probably had the greatest standardization of their music roll types of any European orchestrion manufacturer. Practically all of their regular, standard-model line of coin pianos and orchestrions use the same basic music roll scale! Everything from the basic welt-piano keyboard piano with mandolin, to the large Gladiator orchestrion (and reportedly, the Goliath, too, although I haven't seen it) use this same roll scale with slight variations in pipe registers, etc. Only their "reproducing" player piano (Stella), "reproducing" player reed organ (Mystikon) and "reproducing" player pipe organ (Eroica) use different scales, as well as a few very limited-production instruments like the Superba with separate stringed mandolin/zither and (I *think*) Violinovo with real violin. This standard scale here has only 58 playing notes, but 88 holes in the tracker bar, meaning that there is a lot of "real estate" in the scale for pipe registers, automatic expression/dynamic controls, and percussions, all of which are well utilized in the orchestrions! At 2:03 we see a brief view of the transmission for the roll frame. Some viewers might be perplexed that the ladder-chain is going in the opposite direction as the transmission main drive shaft and drive pulley (with the belt on the right coming up from the pump flywheel). There is a simple explanation: the transmission is in "play" and the shaft is clutched to the pinion on the far left, driving the large wheel at the top for the take-up spool, pulling the roll forward at a reasonable tempo. Thus, the ladder-chain and sprocket, connected to the supply spool, are basically freewheeling on the shaft, also going forward in the direction of the paper, but appearing to go "backwards". When "rewind" is activated, the play pinion is taken out of clutch and the rewind sprocket put in clutch, and the roll rewinds fairly fast back onto the supply spool (AKA the roll core, since this part is removable and interchangeable with another one). At the same time, of course, like in almost all player instruments, there is a means of silencing the player action so that the roll doesn't play backwards on rewind! (Most player pianos, and many orchestrions, simply dump the stack suction to atmosphere on rewind, and this solves the reverse-playing problem). At 2:30 we look in from the right side of the instrument, showing the bass drum and cymbal at the far left, and the snare drum at the far right, with the violin and cello pipes in the center. Notice that the pipe basses are on the opposite side (the right) as the piano bass (the left). This is not uncommon in some makes of orchestrion, and was probably done to save space, since the pipes aren't visible from the outside anyway, and it was no major problem to tube the correct notes on the main valve chest/stack (by the piano) to the same correct notes on the pipe chest. At 2:39 we can see the swell shutters in the "roof" of the instrument, above the pipes, opening and closing to give the pipes expression, as requested by the music roll. The video is well-synced with the sound here, since if you listen closely, you can also detect the change in dynamics (and, slightly, timbre) when the shades close and open. Thanks again for posting!

[@dennissalamante6785]

Thank you for letting us know.

[@jackflanigan2163]

I think Jere Ryder restored this - but I could be wrong. Regardless, an amazing comment!

[@boombox4037]

Seeing how these work is amazing it’s a marvel of engineering

[@e-mananimates2274]

Hm, it's not everyday that you see one of these machines with additional moving mechanical parts. The train and the waterfall are very interesting details.

[@FredT1973]

Oddly enough, my father was a member of one of the same musical clubs that Mr. Guinness was and I actually had the pleasure of going to his home in New York City (I think it was NYC) when he had a gathering and seeing a lot of this stuff in person. Of course I was like twelve at the time, so that was quite a while ago. Then I found out that he had donated a lot of his collection to the Morris Museum (which is practically next door to me). I should stop by to the museum and check it all out again.

[@SeeburgMusic]

Is this the ONLY ROLL ever made for German orchestrions?? Really, sweet Jesus, enough with this roll already!

[@dennissalamante6785]

Rex keyless grand piano

[@Tom-Lahaye]

I spotted a little sign on the front showing 'Pianofabriek Groningen', which was a Dutch company, did they trade the Poppers orchestrions in the Netherlands? Then it's first owner must have been in the Netherlands.

[@coolbluelights]

wow, a 100 year old iPod!

[@arburo1]

What's with the white gloves? These can do more damage than anything a bit of finger dirt will do. Remember that the much desired 'patina of age' is due to many years of handling WITHOUT GLOVES. Handling paper music rolls with white gloves is a definite NO NO! The cotton can damage the edges of the paper. Take it from a well known collector in this field, NEVER WEAR GLOVES!

[@KawhackitaRag]

I personally have no problem with the gloves when handling the instruments, but I agree with you 100% about not using gloves when handling music rolls.