Musical Boxes—Heralds Of Gramophone And Radio

Press, Volume C, Issue 29506, 6 May 1961, Page 3

Musical Boxes—Heralds Of Gramophone And Radio

I Reviewed by E.D.I Musical Boxes, A History and an Appreciation. By John E. T. Clark. Allen and Unwin. 264 pp. Index. The musical box, the only source of automatic music available to all during the greater part of the nineteenth century, was ousted from its place of honour in the home by first the phonograph, and later the gramophone and the radiogram of today. It is now a mere collector's item, an antique, or on occasion an amusing toy for the children. Having heard only one or two examples of the maker's art, the reviewer was amazed to learn in this volume by John Clark of the great variety of instruments available, and the wide choice of musical programme that could be produced on these instruments. Large or small, musical boxes were an extremely popular source of music during the nineteenth century, and even though we are fortunate now in having almost perfect forms of sound reproduction, who could deny the charm that musical boxes undoubtedly hold for all of us? John Clark has given us a very fine survey of the history of the musical box, and his enthusiasm for the skill of the craftsmen, the real beauty of the smaller musical boxes, and the musical merit of many of the larger ones, is readily communicated to all who should take up this volume, Mr Clark, who has been concerned with musical boxes for the greater part of his life, is further qualified to write on this subject, in that he was personally acquainted with many of the musical box makers and their agents during the latter part of the Victorian era. Musical boxes may be divided into two main categories, cylinder and disc, but though the disc variety are practically all large, the cylinder type vary greatly in size. For instance, the average musical snuff box made about 1830 was 3in by 2in by Tin high, while the giant models made by Lecoultre about 1860 had cases 6ft or more long, and the cylinders were about 2ft 9in in length. Over the years many improvements were made to the original cylinder musical boxes, the first being found in the forte-piano model introduced by NicoleFreres before 1840. This used a combination of two combs—a large comb with resonators under two-thirds of the teeth, and a short or piano comb, which had small, or at times, no resonators at all. Loud music was produced on the larger comb, while the smaller one was used for soft effects. The programme for these musical boxes usually consisted of selections that were best suited to soft-loud effects. Later, mandoline, piccolo, zither or harp, tremolo, or harp eolienne effects were

produced, white some musical boxes made use of a flutina or reed organ accompaniment. a drum and bell, or a drum, bell and castagnette accompaniment, and one type known as the full orchestra made use of all these varieties of accompaniment. Besides these, there were musical boxes with mechanical singing birds (La Piece A Oiseau), with dancing dolls and other musical box automata—sometimes a blacksmith. a musician, or an acrobat, but working models of ships at sea and windmills were also used. There were even musical boxes with ingenious fortune-telling devices in the form of questionnaire with answers. With regard to musical effect, the greatest improvement was that to be found in the Sublime Harmony musical box. This, first introduced by Amedee Paillard in 1870, had two complete combs of equal length, although later models had three and even four complete combs. Very much the same effect was obtained on the more involved double cylinder musical box (The Duplex), which played two cylinders at once in harmony. One of the greatest limitations with the early forms of cylinder musical box was that the music was restricted to the number of tunes that could be fitted on the cylinder. This, of course, depended on the length of the tunes, and the size of the musical box. Eventually, however, musical boxes with interchangeable cylinders were produced, and the more enterprising firms were able to offer a wide variety of musical programme—selections from opera and oratorio. folk songs from various countries, overtures, as well as popular music hall songs.

Even the modern radiogram with a record-changer had a counterpart among the musical boxes—the Revolver musical box. This had six cylinders which were mounted between two large wheels, and when the wheels were rotated any of the six cylinders could be brought into action as required. The musical movement of these cylinder musical boxes was enclosed in a variety of cases. The smallest ones were usually in the form of snuff boxes made at first of silver, silver-gilt, and occasionally of gold, and later of black horn, bone, or tortoiseshell. Many novelties were produced—musical gold and enamel fob-seals, gold seal-ing-wax cases, musical fans, watch keys, door keys, smelling bottles, needlework boxes, jewel cases, ring stands, various small fancy boxes and umbrella stands. At first the larger musical movements were put into perfectly plain cases, but in a short time polished rosewood ones were made, and eventually some most elaborate and expensive inlaid cases were produced, and these were works of art in themselves. Although the Swiss makers were by far the most important in the field of cylinder musical boxes, it was in Germany that the disc musical box was first produced. In 1885, Paul Lochmann, of Leipzig, introduced his Symphonion which played at first circular disc cards, and later metal discs. The music was mellow and altogether pleasing, the discs were interchangeable, and there were literally hundreds of discs to choose from. Soon the Symphonion was to be found in taverns, cafes, and pleasure grounds, saloons and bazaars all over England—it was the

pioneer of the penny-in-the-slot disc- musical box, and' the forerunner of our modern juke box. Not long after the first! Symphonion was produced al rival company, the Polyphon! Music Works, was set up at! Leipzig, whilb in America, Gustave Brachhausen found-! ed the Regina Musical Box Company, and it was this company which introduced a self-changing disc machine. The Swiss manufacturers did not produce a disc musical box until 1895. This was the Stella, and it was considered by many to be as good, or even superior to those of German make. However, the popularity of the Swiss disc machines was short-lived, and in a few years they faded out altogether. The Swiss firm of NicoleFreres, perhaps, the greatest firm of musical box makers, has a chapter devoted . to itself, and in this volume Mr Clark also deals with earlier forms of mechanical music such as barrel organs, musical clocks, mechanical singing birds, and other automata. Besides these topics.! the volume includes: hints on! the care of musical boxes.! advice to the would-be col-j lectors on the ways of dis-; tinguishing the various makes of ’musical box, a list! of collectors, and an appendix which covers . all the known makers of musical! boxes. This is.the third edition of this most comprehensive | work by John Clark. It con-i tains many additions to the! list of makers, and more information concerning musi-! cal snuff boxes, -musical j clocks, singing birds, and! other automata, and the list! of trade marks and other distinguishing signs is completely new to this volume. The work was originally! published in 1948.