An orchestrion is a generic name for a machine that plays music that is designed to sound like an orchestra or band. It is therefore a complex mechanical instrument, very popular especially from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth.
Built inside a showcase, inside it was placed the mechanism of reproduction of the songs, which usually consisted of a fixed cylinder (as in a music box) or a roll of music, and less often a music book.
The sound is usually produced by tubes (although they sound differently than those found in a pipe organ), and by percussion instruments such as hammers that hit bells, drums, triangles, etc ... Many contained a piano as well, and even a system of bows that rubbed strings to make string instrument sounds.
The orchestrion reached its zenith in Germany during the 1920s with the advent of the Jazz Age. German manufacturers such as Weber, Hupfeld, Philipps, Popper, etc. adapted and redesigned the instrumentation of their orchestras to play sophisticated syncopated popular jazz songs that came from Berlin and the United States. Many of the boxes were modernized to reflect Bauhaus designs. The adaptation of the music combined with the design of mechanisms and the furniture produced a synergy that gave rise to some of the most spectacular music machines ever built.
Built inside a showcase, inside it was placed the mechanism of reproduction of the songs, which usually consisted of a fixed cylinder (as in a music box) or a roll of music, and less often a music book.
The sound is usually produced by tubes (although they sound differently than those found in a pipe organ), and by percussion instruments such as hammers that hit bells, drums, triangles, etc ... Many contained a piano as well, and even a system of bows that rubbed strings to make string instrument sounds.
The orchestrion reached its zenith in Germany during the 1920s with the advent of the Jazz Age. German manufacturers such as Weber, Hupfeld, Philipps, Popper, etc. adapted and redesigned the instrumentation of their orchestras to play sophisticated syncopated popular jazz songs that came from Berlin and the United States. Many of the boxes were modernized to reflect Bauhaus designs. The adaptation of the music combined with the design of mechanisms and the furniture produced a synergy that gave rise to some of the most spectacular music machines ever built.
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