Bursens quickly became known for his impeccably crafted dance hall organs, each a masterpiece of hand-craftsmanship inside and out. He began creating his own organs in his spare time, and eventually opened his own manufactory in Hoboken in 1908. Such splendid musical antiques generate tremendous attention on the market, making this organ a prized acquisition for musical enthusiasts world-wide.įounder Joseph Bursens began his career working with his father at the Mortier organ manufactory in Antwerp. Today, very few examples of these musical marvels exist, especially in the exceptional working condition of this Orchestrion. This allows the organ to generate the volume necessary to overcome the noise of revelers in a crowded dance hall. A powerful motor provides high air pressure to operate the pipes and the vacuum, which reads the roll and controls the percussion. The sound quality of this Orchestrion is breathtaking, with instruments including a visible accordion, 168-pipe organ, triangle, and drums all controlled by one of 20 rolls included with this piece. The organ operates on electricity and uses a perforated paper music roll which it "reads" to control each and every instrument inside. Every Orchestrion was crafted entirely by hand, even down to the paper music rolls, and utilized actual stand-alone musical instruments integrated into the mechanism. No two Orchestrions were ever created alike and each was made-to-order, one at a time. Crafted by the Arburo firm run by Arthur Bursens and Gustav Roels, this mechanical marvel is essentially an entire band set within an elegantly constructed Art Deco cabinet. These scales explain what “raw materials” each arranger had to work with.Once a fixture in bustling dance halls, cafés and fairgrounds throughout Belgium and the Netherlands in early to mid-20th century, this incredibly rare, early Orchestrion organ is a masterpiece of automated music. Each instrument’s unique sound comes from a combination of its design and the music arrangements. For the first time, The Golden Age of Automatic Musical Instruments includes unscrambled scales for all of the fairground organs, making it easier to compare their musical capabilities. Many German orchestrion and fairground organ scales are “scrambled,” with the notes not following the usual musical sequence. These scales have been updated and corrected where new information has come to light, and supplemented with important discoveries such as the Welte 120-note orchestrion scale and a complete explanation of how the Hupfeld Violina Orchestra works. Finally, with the publishing of The Golden Age of Automatic Musical Instruments, the most important scales are once again available in one convenient source.
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