"There's Always Room at our House"

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When is a ‘bedroom’, not a bedroom?

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In my case, when it’s a ’Music-room’.

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When I bought this bungalow, twenty years ago, it was described as a bulk standard, three bedroom bung. with lounge and dining room. 

(And before you ask? Yes, I have a kitchen and bathroom too.) 

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Well, four cats and their servant don’t need three bedrooms, 

even though the cats preferred sleeping well apart. 

I kept one as a ’spare’ bedroom, as you would, 

but not many ‘spare’ people turned up to try out my hospitality, 

or share with Wesley!

Although quite a few turned up to try out the music room!

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I also didn’t really like eating alone in a separate dining room, so the ‘dinner table’ was planted down one end of the lounge. 

The dining room was fitted out with shelves to house my lifetime collection of books. 

(I throw very little away you see!)

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As I never eat in there, I called it my ‘Library‘.

Even this is not now large enough 

and cookery books have ended up in the kitchen, 

music books have ended up in the music room 

and gardening books have ended up…….

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...at the local Hospice shop!

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Over the years, I have also collected a huge quantity of sheet music and a fair scattering of strange musical instruments, 

from an Appalachian  Dulcimer 

to Scottish bagpipe practice chanters!   

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Appalachian  Dulcimer

and below a

selection of 'Bells and Whistles'!

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Two bagpipe chanters (left).

There is also my harp, banjos, mandolins, 

guitar and five concertinas. 

I used to have a harmonium as well, 

but some years ago swapped it for a piano. 

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Harmonium on it's way out,

to make room for the piano.

Of course when I built the little street organ, 

I had to find room for that and the ‘sixty odd’ paper music rolls.

So, one of the ‘bedrooms’ became the ’Music’ room.

The so-called ‘spare bedroom’ now houses the PC and all it’s hangers-on.

(Printer, Scanner, Cassette converter, Disc (LP) converter and the latest addition - a VHS tape converter.)

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All my LP's are now re-worked

as CD's.

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One last spin and then down the Hospice shop!

So, when the 2011 census turned up, 

I said I lived alone in a One bedroom bung. 

(They didn’t ask about the cats.)

And of course it doesn’t end there  either. 

The conservatory, houses the washing machine and freezers so it’s really a ‘Utility’ room! 

And, the garage does not contain a car - 

but is really my ‘Hobby room’! 

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Yes, carpet!

It’s actually a workshop, 

but I don’t want the council to think I run a business from here!

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A while back I was asked, 

“What’s your next project, now that you’ve finished the Organ?”

Well, I have a huge backlog of things to do.

There is the model traction engine waiting for me for a start.

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1/4 size Burrell Steam Traction Engine.

And then there is the Symphonion musical box that needs a bit of TLC.

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Hmm. I think it might be the disc Symphonion next.

So to finish, here’s the Symphonion accompanying

 you on a wee tour of my music room. 

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Any volunteers to do the dusting?

Apologies for the sound quality.
That was the real music box
playing live,
and she, like me,
is very old!

"A feather bed, a wooden leg!",

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When I mentioned the other day,

that I was a bit stuck for ideas, one or two suggested re-posting

some of my older efforts.

This always seemed to me, cheating a bit -

but

as I am a bit stuck, here's one from last year.

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January Man

Being cooped up in the warm is an ideal opportunity to see just what you have got in those old boxes. It’s a nice job in the warm and as Spring seems some way off I was not in the mood for Spring cleaning, although after removing all the decorations there is certainly a need for it.

I had just read all about ‘de-cluttering’. It said.......

“Declutter! Dejunk! Throw away!”

“Go on! Chuck out all your useless sentimental bits and bobs,

and silly souvenirs.

In this digitalised 21st century,

your home should be shiny, bare and minimalist -

like those shown in television commercials and posh property magazines.“

I actually thought the article is itself, a bit of rubbish!

If there is one thing I can’t stand -

it’s a home that doesn’t look ‘lived in’.

Untidy….no. Lived in……yes.

I’m not untidy. I keep all my bits and pieces in boxes.

Usually labelled.

Boxes of old photos, boxes of old musical instruments awaiting repair,

boxes of old postcards and boxes and boxes of old LPs.

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And there I found my old Folk records from 40 years ago. Yes 1970 this record by Dave Goulder & Liz Dyer. I had previously bought the album ‘Requiem for Steam’ and enjoyed Dave's songs very much so I followed it up with ‘January Man’.

Dave is now 72. His birthday was funnily enough 1st January so perhaps that is where the title comes from?

So should I be throwing all this out?

In fact, according to a new survey carried out by YouGov

and a self-storage company, it may even be bad for us,

leading to all kinds of later regrets.

"Should we really have thrown out that box of postcards?

To most of us, the baggage we collect through life brings with it little jolts of memories.

And when we throw out that baggage,

we're carelessly depriving ourselves of those constant reminders of how we reached this point."

No, we need to save something.

My Aunt she died a month ago,

And left me all her riches.

A feather bed, a wooden leg,

And a pair of calico britches.

A coffee pot without a spout,

A mug without a handle,

A baccy box without a lid,

And half a farthing candle.

Is there anything sadder than going into the bedroom of an old person confined to a care home and who now has space for little more than a few photographs?

Well, I have lots of boxes of photographs. Some going back nearly 100 years.

There are quite a few with faces that I do not recognise and I'm sure future generations would not know who any of the people photographed were. So,I have been going through them, writing names on the back and I have decided to try and link all this together for my family, especially the younger ones with a few recollections of those early days.

My new blog project is here.

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"My hat that has three corners"

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I’ve never been one for all this ‘celebrity’ lark.

I’ve never fainted over Abba or the Beatles.

I've never craved the autographs of these blokes who ‘hoof’ footballs into nets.

But I do have my favourites....

…… and one such - is no other than Fred Dibnah.

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Now, folks from around these parts will have heard of him,

a steeplejack from up t’ north from around Bolton.

But here’s a short clip about Fred, for those further a’field.

Not only did I enjoy the programs, but I loved that introductory music.

(There is a snippet at the start of the above video.)

What was it?

Where did it come from?

I did a bit of chasing around and I have uncovered a whole ‘can of worms’.

It is so complicated, that I really don’t know where to start,

or why to even start at all, when all I really wanted was the sheet music,

to see if I could arrange it for the organ.

It appears to originate from :-

“The variations on The Carnival of Venice”.

Paganini was the first to introduce the piece to England — nay, to the whole world, one may say. The great violinist first heard the melody when he visited the Queen of the Adriatic in 1816. No one seems to know who composed it, though many a musician has added to it, and varied it, and embroidered it from time to time.

Here’s a delightful arrangement for flute and harp.

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P.A. Genin: Carnival of Venice for Flute & Harp

Karin Leitner - Flute

Duccio Lombardi - Harp

The Paganini Variations date from 1829 and were dedicated to the Austrian violinist Karl Fradl, who almost certainly never actually played them. They were issued posthumously in 1851 in the version for violin and piano. Paganini himself originally supervised the orchestration of only twelve of the variations, whereas the complete collection actually reached twenty.

Here is another version with some absolutely brilliant playing .

This has been arranged for Wind Ensemble by Denis Bouriakov

(partly based on Hikaru Watanabe's arrangement for flute ensemble).

The theme in question was actually a counter-dance made popular in France by a musician of Italian origins, a certain Cifolelli. The highly catchy tune soon became popular in Germany as a children’s song, where it was known under the title "Mein Hut hat drei Ecken" ("My Three-Cornered Hat"), eventually being played on barrel organs.

My hat that has three corners.

Three corners has my hat.

And had it not three corners,

It wouldn't be my hat.

And lastly, after several days work,

I have managed to arrange it for 26 notes!

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All I have to do now is to punch all those thousands of holes!

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By hand!

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"A Victorian Disco"

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A couple of posts back I mentioned that I have loads of unfinished projects sitting around in little boxes. Well one that needs quite a bit of work is my Symphonion Musical Box.

Now I bought this many years ago in a very sorry state, but the mechanical part was complete and playing. It also came with 30 odd discs. What it really needed was a smart new case as the previous owner had enclosed it in a square oak box when he discovered the original was full of woodworm.

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It is a Model 30 with twin combs playing in “Sublime Harmonie”.

It plays 13 3/8” discs from the discs numbered range 6000-6747.

“Sublime Harmonie” refers to a musical effect that relies on the slight dissonance created when two notes of ostensibly the same pitch are sounded, thus producing a richer and fuller sound.

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A "behind the scenes" view, showing the two combs.

The disc musical box was invented almost simultaneously in London by Ellis Parr, and in Leipzig by Paul Lochmann.

Initially, they worked separately on their inventions, but eventually got together and developed the Symphonion.

The Symphonion company, of Leipzig, began the manufacture of the first practical disc playing musical boxes in 1886.

From the front side of the disc

all you can see are two slits for each note played.

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Some companies punched only one hole producing only one projection on the back.

As it is these projection which pluck the star-wheel, the single projections were prone to snap off.

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In 1889 Paul Wendland an engineer for Symphonion

patented the starwheel which acts as the intermediary

between the tabs on the discs and the combs.

The starwheel had already been in use but this allowed for the horizontal mounting of the combs thereby increasing the acoustic quality of the music. The Symphonion Co. continued to make music boxes until 1914. In 1897 a production plant was established in New Jersey America but it was closed by 1902.

My Symphonion discs have two punched projections.

The second of these was folded over to support the first -

the one that engaged with the star-wheel.

They look like the small letter 'd'.

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I tried to get a close-up for you.

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Soon after Lochmann & Paul started their Leipzig production, two of his staff left and set up the rival Polyphon factory, also in Leipzig, and in 1892 they started production in New Jersey, USA, under the name Regina. Mermod and other Swiss manufacturers joined in, and by about 1900 disc machines were available in tremendous numbers and varieties, with discs up to 850 mm in diameter and including such effects as Sublime Harmonie and bells. Slot machines were made for use in public places, some fitted with automatic disc change. The disc machines were mostly mass-produced; their almost unlimited tune variety resulted in their soon eclipsing the cylinder musical box, being themselves duly eclipsed by the gramophone.

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Punching out a 15 1/2" Regina Disc.

In the 1930s the mechanical instrument industry began a near terminal decline, hit by the increasing availability of radio and gramophone and by the Depression, then by World War II. Most of the old firms closed.

I've popped up a couple of recordings of Symphonion musical boxes here.

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Roll Out the Barrel.

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A bit of a mixed bag today.

Foody has a “whole post in honour of Uncle B who likes a bit of the old nostalgia”.

Gosh, thanks Foody. What have I done to deserve this?

When is a Barrel Organ not a Barrel Organ? she asks.

Well, it is a barrel organ when it has a barrel.

There are several ways of storing the tune inside the instrument. The oldest method was to place ‘pins’, or ‘wire bridges’ for longer notes, into a wooden barrel. On rotating the barrel the pins/bridges would raise a wooden key which in turn would uncover a hole to allow air to the pipe. There is a good example on YouTube and if I can find it I will link to it here.

This worked well but there was a problem. You could only play tunes that fitted round one turn of the barrel. Fairly short tunes, although if you kept turning it would repeat over and over again.

They then found that you could fit other rows of pins alongside the first row, even six or eight rows, and by sliding the barrel sideways, select another tune.

But still there was the problem of the length of the tunes. They all had to be the same length (say 16 or 32 bars, depending on the diameter of the barrel).

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Here is a picture of the inside of a large instrument, but the principle is the same for the smaller ones.

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The same idea was applied to pianos and hence we had the Barrel Piano as shown above.

You can usually tell a Barrel instrument from the outside, as they have a large round wooden cover on the end outside, in order that the barrel can be removed for repair. (see above).

The next development was to use many pieces of card joined together and folded as in a long 'book'. These cards were punched with holes and slots to let the air through. Long slots, long notes. This 'book music' enabled much longer tunes to be played. There was now no limit to the number of tunes that could be played. The lady in blue (under BOGA badge down RH side) is playing book music.

Another system uses rolls of paper and this is the type I have on mine.

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Turning the handle winds the paper onto the right hand spool, and if you are turning correctly, the paper moves at 70mm per second. I arrange all my music for this speed but it could vary from this. In the centre you can see the 'Tracker Bar' with its row of 26 holes to correspond to the 26 notes of the organ scale. The two spools and tracker-bar are enclosed in an airtight box (pressure box) when that raised lid is closed. Air is then blown into the box and when a hole passes over the tracker-bar hole a puff of air will activate a valve to sound the correct pipe.

This is a much simplified explanation as there are many system around. Some with 'suck' and some with 'blow' ; some with valves and some without.

Hope this helps.

I went back to Cliveden yesterday to see if those 10,000 were out.

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Not One!

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The Loss of a Queen

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It is always sad to see bits of our past disappearing and it is equally sad to see bits of other countries past disappearing as well.

I was reading an article on the 'Sternwheelers of the Mississippi', and I was saddened to read how many of these magnificent boats are operating under the shadow of a death sentence.

It would appear that the US Safety-at-Sea laws are being applied strictly to the letter of the law and not 'the spirit'. They are applying laws that were really meant for large ocean going liners to these fine old wooden rivercraft. The expense of bringing these up to the new standard is colossal and many are being abandoned.

One such vessel is the Mississippi Queen, a sister ship to the Delta Queen shown above.

There can be few more pitiful scenes along the Mississippi than that of the once magnificent Mississippi Queen steamboat tied up at the Perry Street Wharf in New Orleans, where it is disintegrating and falling prey to looters.

Clyde Ory, a 65-year-old New Orleans native who has spent his life working on Mississippi boats and first serviced the engines and pumps of the Mississippi Queen recalled….

“Now that’s gone. All the shipping’s gone. We ain’t got no more work. It’s all gone. You see how dead it is? I remember one time you got ships lining up along this river right behind each other and over there they would be anchored, waiting to come in.”

He pointed to where a large window, now boarded up, on the vessel had been smashed by a port worker so that he could use a crane to steal a grand piano.

You may not think there is a link to music, but there is.

Just listen to this Calliope Music played by Rosalinda DeLeon at the start of the June 2006 Great Steam boat race from Baton Rouge LA to St. Louis MO.

Stirring stuff.

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We can't afford to lose this sort of thing, can we?

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The Last Grind of Summer

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I got a bit behind with blogging yesterday, as I was off to one of the last organ get-togethers for 2009. It was held this year for the first time at the Milton Keynes Museum, which I can heartily recommend. There was so much there to see and I was not able to get around in the time available (11 till 4.30).

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Organs started coming in very early and up 'till midday the organ grinders outnumbered the visitors!

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Above is the 'famous' John Smith, (in bowler hat) the designer of, maybe hundreds, of home built organs.

I bought my set of plans way back in 2002 and my 'licence to build' number is No 10. How many sets of plans have been sold and how many organs have been finished, is anybodies guess.

John tells me a lot of people give up half way through........Shame.

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There were dozens of organs all over the site, suitably spaced out, so as to not interfere with each others playing. This one above is a 'ready made' organ sold by Alan Pell.

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This next one above is another 'off the self' organ, this time from Germany. A Niemuth & Stuber made in Berlin.

I keep toying with the idea of getting myself a video camera, but......have more important things to pay for......like gas and electric bills etc.!

However, John Smith, shown below, is a regular poster over on YouTube.

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He is seen here filming two concertina players......well not actually players......more an operator.

The concertinas are fully programmed to play tunes, simply by moving the bellows in and out.

Cheating.....yes, but fun!

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PS Will show some of the museum exhibits another day.

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"Chordophones"

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No, not the old phone on the end of a cord...but

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Another one of my long line of restoration projects.

At first sight you'd say "Oh, yes, an autoharp"......but the leaflet describes it as "Conzert Piano Harp".

All these types of plucked instruments come under the title of 'Chordophones' and can then be subdivided further into a group called 'Zithers'.

They are all basically board resonators with strings stretched across the top.

The oldest in this group is the'Psaltery' which was found in Europe in the 11th century.

Others in this group include Board Zithers and the Appalachian Dulcimer. This later one not correctly named, as a true dulcimer is struck with hammers. It is more correctly termed a 'Plucked Appalachian Zither'.

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The above picture shows (1) a chord zither and (2) an autoharp.

Both instruments simplify the playing of accompaniments.....the chord zither has strings grouped as chords. Actually a three string triad and bass. The autoharp has dampers to damp all strings except those needed to perform a particular chord.

On the chord zither, the individual strings on the right hand side can be used to play a melody. Whether this is the same on the autoharp, I do not know. It would appear that you can only play chords, but I stand to be corrected. (Foody?)

Just posted up a video on Tracker-Bar - "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" (or to be strictly correct - Chorale from Church Cantata No 147 by J.S.Bach)

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Therefore my 'Chromatic Conzert Piano Harp' is nothing more than a 'Chord Zither'.

Here is a close-up of the chord strings. A thick bass string and a three string triad.

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With one missing string in the centre and a few more to the right. What I want to know is can you get short strings like this wound to order and how would you specify them. By thickness?

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"Oppor-Tuner-ty" Knocks

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Miss Crotchety Quaver was sweet seventeen,

And a player of excellent skill,

She would play all the day, all the evening as well,

Making all the neighbourhood ill.

And to keep her piano in tune she would have

A good tuner constantly there,

And he’d pull up the instrument three times a week,

Just to keep it in proper repair.

Chorus

And first he’d tune it gently, then he’d tune it strong,

Then he’d touch a short note, then he’d run along,

Then he’d go with vengeance enough to break the key,

At last he tuned when e’er he got an oppor..’tuner’..ty!

‘Tuner’s Oppor-Tuner-ty’ was written by Fred Coyne and Harry Adams and assigned to Howard & Co in January 1879, with another song, for £12.

In those days there was obviously not a lot of money to be made writing songs.

I have only put up the first verse but you can see how the lyric overflows with double entendres and follows the well-laid pattern prevalent in folk songs such as ‘The German Clock Mender (Winder)’ whereby the trade and its associated tools are synonymous with sexual meanings…. e.g. ‘to keep her piano in tune’, and in a later verse ‘fingering the keys’.

The husband returns in the third verse as is shown on the music cover, here illustrated by Alfred Concanen……note the symbolism of the hat on the hall hanger and the barometer reading ‘stormy’.

And whilst on the subject of pianos, I came upon this picture of a beautifully decorated 73 note mechanical piano by Giovanni Racca from 1886. I would have loved to have been able to decorated my organ in that style.

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Changing Face of Busking

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Gone now from the streets of England are the blackened faces of the banjo-minstrels, the rinky-tink clatter of spoons and the reedy strains of the strolling piano accordionist. Gone too is the rhythmic crash and clatter of the one-man band.

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“Mick and Mike” used to frequent Charing Cross Road area of London…seen here in the early fifties.

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Around the same period these three, calling themselves “Spa Harp Trio”, could be found on the streets of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. However, because of their habit of popping into each pub on their patch, they were locally referred to as “The Thirsty Three”!

Over the years busking, once the preserve of old soldiers, has changed to become a young person’s way of proving their musical talent to an audience.

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These two barefoot young ladies were spotted in York, by photographer Clifford Robinson, playing some old-fashioned “swing”.

However, not all music is appreciated by certain groups of people.

It would appear that…..

“A pair of buskers who infuriated residents with their endless renditions of just two songs have been given ASBOs preventing them from playing in Moseley, Birmingham.

Mr Ryan, a guitar player, and Mr Stevens, who would hit dustbin lids with drum sticks, had been playing the two songs to people in the Moseley area for the last 18 months.

They were warned they faced jail if they breached the two-year anti-social behaviour orders handed down on Wednesday by District Judge Qureshi at Birmingham Magistrates Court.

Birmingham councillor Ayoub Khan, Cabinet Member for Local Services and Community Safety, said: "I'm pleased that visitors and residents of Moseley will no longer be subject to this duo's anti social behaviour.

But others said the pair were local heroes.

Randal Woods, 26, said: "They are harmless really - we all enjoyed to have a sing-a-long with them outside the pub afterwards. Its people like this that give an area a bit of character and it's a shame that some killjoys have got involved who don't know how to have a bit of fun."

A clash of cultures maybe?

The Recorder gets the Blues

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A school in Oldbury, England, has been praised by the Ukulele Society of Great Britain for its idea of introducing the ukulele into the classroom in place of the recorder.

Barabara Carter, the head teacher, said she doubted the recorder would ever be back after the ukulele's surprise success.

She said: "It is an instrument associated with George Formby, but most of our pupils haven't heard of him".

"I guess he might get a few more fans from what we are doing".

"I think they are easier to play and have instant results, unlike the recorder".

"We don't have recorders in our school any more, it's as much to do with the pitch of them as anything else - they're just too high“.

Formby shot to fame after abandoning his career as a horse jockey in 1921 and turning his hand to music.

It has been suggested he first took up the ukulele as a hobby, before he realised its potential.

Society secretary Fred Pearson said: "A lot of people will find that it is relatively easy to play.

"With the Ukulele you can get going and get great songs played in just a day.

"I personally think it's a massive improvement on the recorder, you look like a player because it looks like a guitar and it will give the pupils an interest in music“.

So Mr Pearson thinks it looks like a guitar?

The Ukulele he is referring to probably does resemble a small 4 string guitar.....but not the one George Formby used to play.

He is shown here with a Banjo....a Ukulele Banjo actually.

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I have a couple of these awaiting restoration. I think they have more appeal than the 'Baby Guitar' type of ukulele. There are some simply awful plastic versions of these.....but if it gets children interested in music it cant be a bad thing.

One last point......the recorder does teach children to read music off the stave, whereas the Ukulele music is, I bet, only a series of chord shapes.....only three probably.

And for anyone interested there is a Ukulele Museum web site run by Alan 'UKE' Harris which can be found at http://alanukeharris.co.uk/

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