barrel organ

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barrel organ

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

barrel organ mechanical musical instrument requiring nothing but the regular rotary motion of a handle to keep it going. It probably originated at the beginning of the 18th cent., and was once used extensively in English churches. A revolving cylinder is fitted with pegs that open valves, permitting air to enter a set of organ pipes. Some larger ones have several sets of pipes and various couplers. They can be operated by clockwork, by weights, and by electric motors. A portable type of barrel organ whose cylinder is turned by a hand crank has been mistakenly called hurdy-gurdy , from which it is fundamentally different.

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"barrel organ." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 26 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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barrel organ

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music | 1996 | | © The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

barrel organ. Popular misusage has conferred this term on the street piano. The real barrel org., formerly used in churches, was a genuine automatic pipe-org. in which projections on a hand-rotated barrel brought the required notes into play. It was restricted to a no. of predetermined tunes, like a musical box.

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MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "barrel organ." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 26 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "barrel organ." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (December 26, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-barrelorgan.html

MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "barrel organ." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Retrieved December 26, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-barrelorgan.html

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barrel organ

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | © The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2009, originally published by Oxford University Press 2009. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

bar·rel or·gan • n. a mechanical musical instrument from which predetermined music is produced by turning a handle, played, esp. in former times, by street musicians.

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MOZART AND THE BARREL ORGAN
Magazine article from: The American Organist; 10/1/2006; ; 700+ words ; ...about his love for the organ and the number of times...sought out the local organs everywhere he went...The legitimate solo organ works consist of two...616, written for the barrel organ. Despite the...gear attached to the barrel and rotated by the worm...for each note of the ...
Barrel organ rolled out for jumble.
Newspaper article from: Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England); 6/29/2009; 387 words ; ...to use to use a 150-year-old barrel organ to raise money for a new playgroup...Summerhills, Blaydon, had borrowed the organ following an appeal in an evening...Mr Harry Howe, who had lent the organ, said it had been used all over...
Windmill hosts barrel organ
Newspaper article from: Derby Evening Telegraph; 9/20/2007; 272 words ; ...listeners named Saturday as Derbyshire Day. To celebrate, Heage Windmill will play host to Patrick Cooke and his barrel organ. If the weather conditions are right, the sails will also operate. Heage Windmill dates from 1797. It opens between...
Fantasia contrappuntistica. Improvisation on "Wie wohl ist mir." Berceuse élégiaque (trans. Petri). Fantasy for a Barrel Organ after Mozart. Duettino concertante after Mozart's Piano Concerto, K 459/(arr. Busoni) The Magic Flute: Overture
Magazine article from: Fanfare; 5/1/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...Fantasia contrappuntistica. Improvisation on "Wie wohl ist mir." Berceuse lgiaque (trans. Petri). Fantasy for a Barrel Organ after Mozart. Duettino concertante after Mozart's Piano Concerto, K 459. MOZART (arr. Busoni) The Magic Flute...
Verses of Captain Lebyadkin/Satires/Songs from the Journal "Krokodil"/Preface to the Complete Edition of My Works/Maxim's Return: Waltz/Golden Hills: Waltz/Michurin: Waltz/Pirogov: Waltz/The Gadfly: Barrel-Organ Waltz/The First Echelon: Waltz/Song of the Great Rivers: Waltz/The Human Comedy: Waltz
Magazine article from: Fanfare; 5/1/2007; ; 700+ words ; ...Desyatnikov).1,2 Maxim's Return: Waltz. Golden Hills: Waltz. Michurin: Waltz. Pirogov: Waltz. The Gadfly: Barrel-Organ Waltz. The First Echelon: Waltz. Song of the Great Rivers: Waltz. The Human Comedy: Waltz * Thomas Sanderling...
MUSIC-MEXICO: GLORY DAYS FADE FOR FEW REMAINING ORGAN GRINDERS
News Wire article from: Inter Press Service English News Wire; 8/9/2005; ; 700+ words ; ...his "organillo" or barrel organ, built in 1910 in Germany...independent Union of Organ Grinders, there are more than 100 barrel organs still in use in Mexico...it is repaired. The Organ Grinders Union says...Italy and France. The barrel organs are carved wooden boxes...
Organs from the House of Bishop
Magazine article from: Musical Opinion; 4/1/1999; ; 700+ words ; ...whom Bishop made Cuckoo Clock Organs! By 1824 his staff had risen...also manufactured mechanical barrel organs, some of which remain playable...played normally as a Finger Organ if required, the Dumb Organist...constructed and well voiced organs; and so it continues to this...
Fate of Wannamaker's Organ Under May Co. Unclear.(Originated from The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Newspaper article from: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News; 8/27/1995; ; 700+ words ; ...a mechanical instrument like a barrel organ -- in the rotunda of his first department...Later, he replaced it with a pipe organ. But in 1908, as his grandest dream...his son Rodman began to build an organ whose fame reaches further and now...
Waddesdon's Orpheus sings again.(INTERNATIONAL NEWS)(Waddesdon Manor)(organ with Orpheus scupture restored)(Brief article)
Magazine article from: Apollo; 2/1/2006; 700+ words ; ...eighteenth-century clock and barrel organ with a sculpture of Orpheus...mechanical parts suggests that the organ is by the prominent German...but the first of the two barrels to be restored oddly starts...unidentified tune. The second barrel is expected to play an air...
Barrel of fun.(News)
Newspaper article from: Coventry Evening Telegraph (England); 7/17/2003; 260 words ; PERFORMING automaton figures, barrel organs and chiming musical clocks will feature at a summer antiques fair from Thursday, July 31 to Sunday, August 3, at the NEC, Birmingham.

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