THE HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC.

Part 16.  Roll Out The Barrel And Music That Jumped Off The Paper.

Holy paper batman! In part 10 we looked at how systematic holes punched in paper and cardboard transformed the textile industry and later help to create the computers we use today.

Up until the invention of the perforated paper automatic music, pre-programmed music was hampered by the bulkiness of barrels with raised pins.
This initially restricted it’s portability as an instrument, it’s versatility was effected too as the barrels were not easily created and copied, which normally resulted in having a small repertoire of songs available to perform.

Suddenly paper took those restrictions away, and Organettes were created.

Although the first Organette was called the Cartonium, built in 1861 in Nantes, France, the first Organettes to really capture the public imagination made a big splash at the 1876 Expo in Philidelphia.

The exposition included a variety of these instruments from various countries.

The Organette, came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, many were created to sit on top of tables and would be operated by turning a handle that would operate the bellows and the keys over the reed holes. Others were designed to be played by blowing through them

Although some Organettes still used a small barrel (called a cob) the amount of music that the barrels could hold was limited and were quite complicated to change.

The Most popular Organettes by far, adopted the use of perforated paper. This meant the that songs played could be much longer, were easier to install and due to it’s comparatively simple production process offered a greater range of songs to choose from.  The paper was often fed from one spool or scroll to another, this was fed over a track bar, with holes in the paper triggering which notes to be played.

They had a note range of between 8 -25 notes and were mostly found with a 14 note ability.

One of the more successful companies to create the machine was the Munroe Organ Reed Company. In 1887 it produced over 50,000 of these instruments.

This marks the Organette as the first massively popular automatic music maker, sold mainly by mail order, prices ranged from $1.65 to $10, not cheap, but the for the first time in history affordable for the Middle class and small Business to invest in.

Automatic Music had arrived in the average home!

They remained very popular until the early 1900’s and although they were sold right into the 1930’s they had started to loose their popularity to that incredibly important invention the home phonograph.

It’s interesting to note that the Rolmonica, the last organette to be created, which was sold in the 1930’s was very similar to the first popular organette the trumpetto as they were both moth operated.

If you think about it, it’s a kind of fascinating to think that paper, the very tool mankind has used to communicate for thousands of years, was one of the earliest and most successful way to communicate to machines. Traditionally it’s what’s written on the paper that is important, it’s the communication – the information that has been added to blank paper that has value.

But with perforated punch cards and paper rolls. The information is what’s taken away, it’s the absense of the paper that creates the sound.

Does this make the music created by perforated holes the first subtractive music?

What is certain is that this instrument that is largely unknown today, was the first breakthrough musical player. Organettes were the first mechanical musical instruments to allow for a wide range of music to be played at will, it was the first musical instrument or player/ that was accessible to the average family to enjoy in their own home.

For these reasons I believe it was as big a break through as the walkman in regards to the evolution of our relationship with music.

So, Organette, we tip our metaphorical hats in your direction.

In part 17 We discover the Organettes much more famous big brother and sister.  CLICK HERE

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