Hope it stays dry.

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And now - an American Organ Rally

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So after the French way of doing things,

(the previous post),

this is a glimpse of the tone on the other side

of the Atlantic.

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I actually get quite a lot of my ideas for tunes

from these Wurlitzer organs.

My organ of 26 notes, of course,

never sounds as good as these.

This music is:-

"Georgy Girl" (Tom Springfield) played by a North Tonawanda Model 191 band organ converted to Wurlitzer 150 rolls.

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Looking inside a Barrel Organ.

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Whilst browsing the other day,

I came on this video of a movement out of a 'Flute Clock'.

It is a very good example of the workings of barrel organs.

At the very bottom, you can see the cranked bellows

pumping air up into the 'reservoir' sitting on top of it.

From here the air will be admitted to the correct pipe,

at the correct time,

by a valve being lifted open,

when a 'pin' or 'bridge' on the rotating barrel

passes under it.

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Normally only one tune is played on one revolution of the barrel.

However, in this case the barrel is 'pinned' on a spiral

to produce a longer playing time.

Just thought you might like to see how they work.

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A Small Barrel Organ

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Only a small organ but it shows the principle of barrels and pinning.

If you look closely, you can see the extra rows of pins for the other tunes, passing between the wooden 'keys'. The barrel would slide to the left or right to select and play a different tune.

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Hole Punching

 The posting on Friday showed the paper/card being punched by an automatic machine, nowadays controlled by a computer. A friend of mine, John who actually only lives a couple of roads away, has built an automatic punch similar to this.

 Of course, it cannot read music, it cannot arrange the tune to fit the scale of the organ.... all this has to be done manually and then the instructions fed into the computer to control the punch.

 It does, however, have the advantage of being able to run off multiple copies.

 I am still in the "old world" of punching my tunes by hand. The holes are punched by an electrical solenoid but the positioning of the punch and the movement of the paper is all done manually.

This shows my punch in operation, half way through "After the Ball was Over".

It takes quite a long time to punch a tune. I usually do it in two or three stages and of course it depends on the length of the music. I can punch around 4 metres in an hour, so a typical tune would take about two to three hours. 

Roll on Summer

Now here's a sight to "warm" you up on a cold March morning.

I don't know what it is but when I see pictures like this or hear the organ sounds playing, I can smell, new mown grass and hay.......hot oily steam engines.....and unfortunatly greasy hot-dogs.

Roll on those lazy, hazy crazy days of summer.

The year before last was a bad year for steam rallies as the wet summer meant so many were cancelled due to soft ground.

Last year was a bit better and I managed to get round to quite a few.

What will the summer of 2009 be like?

PS.  The Organ in the picture is a Limonaire in the centre of a magnificent set of Gallopers. 

Saturday's Technical Bit

Just a few words on organ pipes again:

First off…….. the Bass pipes.

I have laid the organ on it’s side to give a view of the five largest pipes.

As they are the largest, they sound the lowest notes. They are wooden stopped pipes; which means that they are tuned by a sliding “stopper” at the top end.

The largest is about 18” long, and in order to get it in the organ case, it has a right-angled bend in it. This bend in a stopped pipe has little, or no noticeable, effect on the sound produced. This is not the case with an open pipe (no tuning stopper).

If the inside “effective” length (between base and stopper) is, say 12”, this will sound the same note as an open pipe of 24” length. This makes stopped bass pipes a better choice for small organs; instead of an open, pipe 4 feet long, we can have stopped, angled pipe of 2 feet to produce the same sound and take up less space.

The five bass pipes on my organ are:- Eb, F, Ab, Bb and C (middle C).

In the key of Eb, we have Eb(tonic),  Ab(sub-dominant) and Bb(dominant 7th) and for good measure there is F(related minor 2nd) and C(relative minor 6th).

This is the best key for arranging, as there are the fewest missing notes.

In the Key of Ab, we are missing the (sub-dominant) Db.

In the Key of  Bb, we miss out on the minors.

In the key of F, we again miss the minors.

If I’m really stuck I can, at a push, arrange in the Key of Db, by using the lowest of the accompaniment pipes (Db) as a bass note.

Some Soothing Friday Night Music

After a hectic week on the blogs I need to wind down.

This really has to be one of the best ways to do it.

OK, so I's not everyone's "cup of tea", but it is mine and I love it

"Milestones"

Friday Nights video clip was of a trio of organs playing at Milestones Living History Museum, Basingstoke in May. Some thirty organ grinders played during the weeks visit, this being the largest gathering of organs at the museum to date.