Sunday, December 5, 2010

Not My Victrola: What's Old Is New Again

This video of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor was over on Roberta X, and it is fascinating to watch the histogram pass by as the music plays.



Fascinating, but having spent many happy hours pedaling a player piano, it was very familiar, even if the orientation is wrong for a player roll. Here is the same piece played on an 1895 Aeolian player reed organ. When a hole is uncovered in the tracker bar, air goes through a tube, opens a valve, and a vacuum operated pneumatic opens the valve for a corresponding reed.



If you sat through all of the reed organ, you deserve a bonus!

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