From Steam-Organs To Synthesisers
Today we explore the wide and amazing-sounding world of Mechanical Music — from 19th century bar-room and parlour Polyphons and steam-engine driven fairground organs to today’s electronic wonders.
Along the way we’ll encounter some marvellous recordings: from famous composers’ playing immortalised by the player piano to Huub de Lange in Holland, who learned how to make the punched-cards required to “programme” a street organ and wrote a series of pieces — “Life And Death In A Street Organ” — for street organ and string quartet.
In additional to “traditional” mechanical instruments, now found largely in museums and at steam fairs, today’s programme includes several examples of classic electronica — including some electronica that sound like traditional mechanical instruments — and some conventional instruments that sound mechanical.…
Plus… Every 4 hours from 4am Pacific, you can catch “The Engines of Our Ingenuity” from the University of Houston — about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
Zamonia: The Valley of Pondering Eggs … From there you can take the portal to the Hidden Lake and Zamonia Catacombs.
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“A Mortier fairground organ at the Great Dorset Steam Fair” by Anguskirk is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0