Barrel Organ

ca. 1830

Not on view

Instead of having a keyboard played by an organist, a barrel organ is a mechanical instrument that has the musical notes encoded in an arrangement of metal pins in a wooden barrel or cylinder. This instrument is activated by a person turning a hand crank, which both powers a single-fold bellows that provides air, and also rotates the cylinder that engages the mechanism that sends the air through specific pipes.

Technical description: Rectangular mahogany case with nine display pipes in cloth backed panel on front; inlaid striping around front edges; 28 open metal pipes, the lowest mitered, set in two rows, percussion instrument (?), crank on case front turns a combination worm and crank shaft that rotates the barrel and pumps the single fold center pivoted feeder beneath a reservoir; barrel slides on a bracket and has a ten notch shift pin extending through right side of case where it is engaged by a drop latch for tune selection; door on left side allows removal of barrel; three hand stops extend through bottom of case front, operating (L to R) front rank, rear rank, percussion; two additional barrels stored in separate box (b); compass indicated by letters on pipes: C D E F G A A# B C D E F G (A), with another set of letters a half step or whole step lower, crossed out; pipes come from another source, perhaps, and the B is marked Mix 12 and does not match the scale of the other pipes; list of tunes on label glued inside hinged lidpiece.

Barrel No. 1: 1. Adeste Fideles, 2. Lord My Pasture, 3. Evening Hymn, 4. Kelvin grove, 5. Bridesmaid song, 6. Butterfly, 7. Isabelle, 8. Home Sweet Home, 9. Rise Gentle Moon, 10. Heart & Lute

Barrel No. 2: 1. Spanish Dance, 2. Chatsworth House, 3. Tancreda, 4. Miss Gayton
5. Litte Litte, 6. Highland Laddie, 7. Les Lancers, 8. My Love is a Lassie, 9. Vulcans Cave, 10. Nouvelle Fantasie

Barrel No. 3: 1. La Rose, 2. La Dorset, 3. Der Frieshutz (sic), 4. La Divine, 5. L'Egelante (sic), 6. Hunters Chorus, 7. La Finale, 8. Dame Blance, 9. Darling White Sergant, 10. Oh its Love