The Mechanical Organ Owners Society

Hello Everyone

I hope you all had a good Easter and a warm, sunny start to the rally season. I understand many enjoyed the musical entertainment at St Albans Organ Theatre, Peter Craig’s and Ian Crisp’s during the AGM weekend so thank you to all involved in making it a successful weekend.

Our President, Roger Burville, recently sent me details of a request he received from members of The Musical Museum at Brentford. The Museum is hosting a Fair and Street Organ Day at the collection on the 20th - 21st June. Although too late for inclusion in this year’s event, members may like to enquire about entering for next year’s event should there be a repeat. I know Museum officials were very keen to get MOOS members/Organ owners involved so please make contact by telephone on 020 8560 8108 or by emailing doris.mieschbuehler@musicalmuseum.co.uk.

Whilst in conversation with member Dorothy Robinson recently she gave me the dates for this year’s Lincolnshire Steam and Vintage Rally which is held on the County Showground just outside the city. This is always a good event for organ lovers as Dorothy, who is Organ Secretary, always has a good line up of instruments. This year the event is to be held on the 22nd - 23rd of August.

Austin Burgess has some KDV car stickers available free of charge, except for the cost of sending him a 220 x 110mm Stamped and Addressed Envelope. He also mentions that the Founders Day at Thursford this year attracted around 1000 people, which is the highest attendance figure for this event to date.

Now for several items sent in by Peter Craig.

It is very sad to record the death of Albert Decap on 16 May 2009. Albert was a truly great arranger and a personal friend who had supplied me with much music for my own organs over the years. Our thoughts are with Leo and Freya. I will be writing a more lengthy tribute to him in a forthcoming edition of “Vox Humana”.

In the meantime, I am planning to hold an event in Hertfordshire to celebrate his life and music on the afternoon/evening of Saturday 18th July. The occasion will be an informal one on which much of his music will be played in a café organ atmosphere; no words can substitute for the playing of his arrangements, so the emphasis will be very much on listening to good music in the company of like-minded friends. If you might wish to come along, please let me know by phone, email or post (my contact details are inside the front cover of “Vox Humana”) and I will then let you know the confirmed details. The event is open to all including non-members of MOOS.

Having been fairly busy on the home front, my organ related travels in the early part of the year were relatively few. One event Janet and I did attend and enjoyed very much was the May Fair on Richmond Green. Where else could one take a walk, amidst an urban area, through, more or less, open countryside for several miles across Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park, passing within yards of a herd of deer sitting on open heath land, to then “encounter” a country fair in such a refined setting amidst the many old buildings of Richmond? In attendance were the gallopers of James Horton, complete with their very fine 89 key organ playing some most traditional music and Paul Kirrage’s splendidly presented Model 36 Ruth organ. Both were drawing a large crowd of appreciative onlookers and this was really great to see, the gallopers being filled to capacity for ride after ride. It was so good to see two such fine instruments presenting such a favourable picture of mechanical music to the public at large in such a marvellous setting. After a very nice picnic lunch to the accompaniment of music from the Ruth, we continued on foot along the Thames to Syon House, finally ending up on Brentford High Street, just a short distance away from the Musical Museum. Although our day out had been no further away from home than Greater London, it felt like a real day out in the country on a summer day.

The weather was not so kind, unfortunately, on the day of the annual KDV Contact Day at Arnhem just a couple of weeks later. It is always a very good event, nevertheless, with a good range of instruments presented in a very nice setting where their sound can really be enjoyed. Close to the entrance was “De Lekkerkerker”, an organ that has a sound all of its own which I personally prefer to that of the later 90 key street organs by Frei. A number of recently completed books were to be heard on it which, fortunately, had been recorded on a number of new CDs that were for sale and copies of which were added to my CD collection. The event also provides an excellent opportunity to listen to the “Blauwe Mortier” which is permanently situated in the basement of the museum entrance building. This organ represents the very earliest work of Mortier and features a vox humana register rather than the jazz flute which was fitted to most late organs. It was expertly restored by Henk Veeningen some years ago and has a very nice repertoire of old dance music, much of it by Schollaert. Not all the organs were of this size however and I spent a very interesting time with Rolf Dunger who was presenting a couple of brightly voiced barrel organs.

Back at home, I have been spending a lot of time repairing broken and worn out music books. It is always a difficult question as to when to repair a book or re-cut it, but with the price of new card being fairly steep, there is a very good case for extending the life of old music. It is also somehow rather nice to see old books playing on an organ, especially when stamped “Foxtrot”, “Rumba” or whatever, as was the tradition of many of the Belgian arrangers. I have also come to realize that how such repairs can be made is something that newcomers to the hobby may be unaware of, so again I must write something about this process more fully for “Vox Humana”.

Next, a few items from Mark Jefford.

You may wonder why I’m mentioning I spent some time in May visiting the Grampian Transport Museum at Alford, Aberdeenshire. For those in the know the answer is obvious but let me explain. At the end of an article about Oscar Grymonprez in the January 2009 edition of the KDV magazine there is a list of Mechanical Instruments that had passed through the hands of Oscar and his son Leonard. Within that list is a 92 key Mortier, No 953, which is said to have been sold to Mr Innes, Aberdeenshire and passed to the Grampian Transport Museum. Hence the reason for stopping to hear some mechanical music before driving even further north.

The Mortier was built in 1923 and modernised with exposed drum kit and percussion by Gebr Decap, Antwerp in 1946. In 1967 the organ arrived for Mr Innes in Rothiemay and on 17 July 1988 Berowald F Innes donated it to the museum. In the last couple of years the organ has undergone some restoration and been given a new carved Eagle to top out the façade. As the Organ is played on request, do please go along to encourage live music in the museum should you be nearby.

I’ve since wondered what the link is between Mechanical Organs and Transport Collections and decided that this one was perhaps designed to be a transport-able Dance Organ. Now this isn’t the only Mechanical Organ to be found in a transport collection open to the public. I know of a Gavioli in a Tramway Museum at Crich and another Mortier in a car collection at Caister but would appreciate learning of others that could be added to the Mechanical Music Map available on the MOOS website.

Not quite in the same vein, but still relating to an instrument made available to the public, was the Player Piano Group’s 50th Anniversary AGM held at Salomons in Southborough, Kent. The Welte Organ in the Science Theatre is believed to be the only instrument still capable of playing the Style 10 Orchestrion rolls. It also has a Welte Philharmonic Roll player and this time I was pleased to hear the organ played entirely from both types of paper roll mechanism. The original Style 10 rolls have recently been copied and recut by Tom Jansen in Monschau, Germany whom we visited during the MOOS trip in November. Back then, Tom explained how his roll punch machine operated as it was cutting a Welte Style 10 roll for this very same organ - and it was a pleasure to hear the results.

I also attended the Amersham Fair Organ Museum’s Gala Night on Saturday 18th April. This, I was told, was a different format from the other Winter Open Days and involved an introduction to mechanical music with musical demonstrations, a buffet and a concert on two 89 key instruments all in the space of about 4 hours. One interesting item was hearing the disposition or ranks of pipes of a Gavioli on their own before listening to the full length piece with the individual excerpts we’d heard all combined into one harmonious tune. I found several MOOS members there but was also chatting to some locals who were impressed with the music and interested to learn of the following that mechanical music has. I’ve a feeling that this well run event will continue because while we were enjoying ourselves we were also raising about 2 months worth of running costs for the museum.

and finaly

an apology to anyone who has sent me an email as I’m currently off line due to a change in PC, but am hoping to be back on line shortly.

I hope you all have an enjoyable and comfortable rally season.

All the best

Robert

MOOS NEWS

Jan/Feb Newsletter 2009

Hello Everyone

I hope you all had a good Christmas and best wishes for the year ahead.

Firstly I have some sad news to report. Many of you may have heard of the passing of Albert Chiappa, who died in December. This firm did so much to secure the continuation of the British/French Fair Organ sound in this country and without Chiappa Ltd we would now only have a small number of the traditional English/French Organs left.

Now for several items sent in by Peter Craig.

September 2008 saw a most interesting Mortier organ being offered for sale, namely the 97 key instrument no.1014. For those not familiar with it, no.1014 is one of what are believed to have been three similar ‘jazz organs’. The ‘jazz organ’ was a short-lived attempt by Mortier to develop a new type of organ that could play jazz music of the day more effectively. To this end, these organs had an unusual musical scale with many keys devoted to percussion and registration, at the expense of a reduction in the number of playing notes, compared to similar earlier organs. Whilst the other two known jazz organs were subsequently substantially altered, no.1014 remains more or less as built, both mechanically and in terms of the façade (although a small part of this is missing). Furthermore, the organ is in a good playing condition with a reasonable amount of music. Given all of this, it was interesting that the organ failed to sell at auction. Price is, of course, always a fundamental point, but it is interesting that the fact that it was a somewhat rare Mortier ‘jazz organ’, did not appear to work in its favour; indeed some might argue it would be better converted to a standard scale. To me, were this to happen, it would seem a bit sad, after having survived intact for around 80 years. Would the same attitude prevail if, say, it involved the conversion of an old Marenghi dance organ to the 98 key VB scale? There is a hard economic side to all of this too of course. Why should an organ owner be burdened with the task of getting music for a non-standard scale when the general public remains oblivious as to what scale the organ is playing on? I can think of an organ owner who has an existing instrument which plays excellently, has a large stock of music for it, and has now had his second, newly-restored instrument converted to play on the same scale and very effective it is too! Ultimately, as organ owners, the choice is with us.

The end of September saw me on a definitely non-organ trip to Northern Portugal. Despite my best intentions, however, this was not quite achieved in that, as I walked through the steep and narrow streets of Porto (a UNESCO world heritage site) something caught my eye in a shop doorway. Sure enough, it was a small hand turned barrel organ, probably of German origin, although painted in very garish colours. My curiosity took me further into the shop which, whilst basically an antiquarian book seller, displayed a number of music boxes to enhance the visual effect. They even had a book available on mechanical music in Portuguese, with mention of a projected mechanical music collection in Portugal…

The following month saw the return of the organ ‘England’s Pride’ to St Albans Organ Theatre, after its period of restoration at the factory where it was built just under 70 years ago; Gebr Decap in Antwerp. While the work on the organ itself was carried out by Roger Mostmans and his father Louis, the task of transporting it to and from Antwerp was undertaken by a small band of volunteers, with very limited resources.

To celebrate the return of the organ, two special events were held. The first, on Saturday 1st November, was a private one for those who had donated to the restoration appeal only. The second, on Saturday 29th November, was open to all, free of charge and had the aim of generating additional funds. There was a real party atmosphere at these events and it was great to see the organ in such good tune once again. The second of these events was also attended by the Mayor of St Albans, Cllr Bert Pawle and highlighted the work of the Theatre and its role as a tourist attraction in bringing visitors to the City of St Albans.

At both events I had the privilege of being able to give a presentation on the 121 key organs of Gebr Decap.

November also saw the annual ‘MOOS tour’ taking place. In search of places to visit, both old and new, our travels took us to Belgium, Holland and Germany and all in the space of just four days! Very pleasingly, everything went pretty much like clockwork and we all had a very good time. While the organs and other instruments were undoubtedly the highlight, we also had the most unusual experience of packing ourselves into lift cages to descend, in total darkness, into the preserved coal mine at Blegny! Furthermore, our guide delighted in releasing deafening blasts of high pressure air from hoses in the mine throughout the tour, just to keep everyone on their toes. As ever, there was a good reason for this as, after surfacing, we were allowed to hear the resident Decap dance organ.

December brought three outings for me with my hand-turned Verbeeck organ. One was literally just down the road from where I live; promoting a local farmers market that is becoming established in the town. It is always particularly satisfying to take the organ out locally on its hand cart and not be reliant upon transport in a car or van; this is, after all, the essence of street organ life. The other two events were indoor ones on weekday evenings, presenting the instrument, plus a short slide show introducing mechanical music, to a non-specialist audience. Such events are always great fun and it is always interesting to see what questions and reactions are generated. It is also always very evident how many of those present have happy memories of visits to places such as Thursford, Brentford and Rudesheim so the role of these places, and others, in bringing mechanical music to a wider audience cannot be underestimated.

Next, two items from Mark Jefford.

I have no intention of putting any money on this tenuous link to Mechanical Music but I came across a horse named 'Orchestrion' and decided to see what other names were in the stalls, so to speak. I've drawn up the following lists using www.racingpost.co.uk/ for the European ones and www.registry.jockeyclub.com for the North American ones though I've not checked out the odds of making or losing money on these runners. Any Takers?

Makers Types of Mechanical Instrument Other Related

Aeolian (GB) 1991 Celestina (IRE) 2001 Organ Grinder (USA) 2001
Aeolian (USA) 2003 Mignon (GB) 1995 Organ Melody (GB) 1987
De Cap (USA) Mignon (USA) 1993 Organ Pipe (USA) 2004
Gasparini (IRE) 2001 Music Box (GB) 1986 Organ Recital (IRE) 1989
Gavioli (IRE) 2002 Music Box (USA) 1998
Hicks (USA) 2002 Musical Box (GB) 2004
Limonaire (FR) 1986 Orchestrion (GB) 2005
Wurlitzer (USA) 1992 Organette (GB)
Pianola (GB) 1979
Pianola (USA) 1991
Player Piano (USA) 2002
Polyphon (FR) 1998

There is what may be a little known fund raising scheme for UK charities that lets Internet users raise money for their favourite one free of charge. All they have to do is use the Everyclick.com search engine rather than Ask.com.

Everyclick.com was launched in June 2005 and has since raised £ 000’s for Charity. It provides Internet Search results syndicated from Ask.com but donates 50% of the advertising and commission based revenue to any charities ‘supported’ by Everyclick.com users. Any user may choose to ‘support’ their Charity if it is on the list of UK Charities supplied by The Charities Trust.

All funding raised is divided up and paid out once a month to any ‘supported’ charities that have earned £15 or more, subject to a 4.8% administration fee, through The Charities Trust. Any UK Gift Aid can also be reclaimed for each registered Charity.

To entice ‘web’ visitors, and thereby additional funds, appropriate links between each Charity’s website and Everyclick.com are encouraged. Using the page for finding a Charity to ‘support’ I came up with the following list of ‘Mechanical Music’ ones.

Mechanical Music and Bygones The Friends of the Musical Museum
St Albans Musical Museum Society The Hollycombe Working Steam Museum
The Amersham Fair Organ Museum The Musical Museum
The Claude Jessett Trust Company The Pianola Institute Ltd
The Fairground Heritage Trust The Thursford Collection

So, if you want to help ‘raise’ money for your favourite Charity, without costing you or your Charity a penny, just search the web with Everyclick.com

The Insurance Scheme brokers’ name has changed from Stuart Alexander to Bluefin Insurance Services Ltd but Ray Lasseter remains the contact at the same address and telephone number as mentioned in the last newsletter.

That’s just about it folks. Hope to see you on the 21st at the MOOS AGM. Details of which can be found in your latest Vox humana magazine!

All the best

Robert