I’ve watched this video several times and still find it fascinating. These organs are magical and how on earth people first built these is totally amazing.
That's Stuart Dobbs and families organ. so surprised they parted with it. at least the organ stayed in the UK and in very capable hands. Good look Nick, nice to see you back with organs.
I often wish that the innards of these wonderful machines were featured more in posts and this has done so in spades. I’m not technical at all so I don’t grasp much of what you talk about, but I love it just the same. And when the music starts I get such a thrill, as if I’m experiencing it over 100 years ago. Thank you for your hard work and boundless enthusiasm.
So that's how it all happens! Many thianks for the very informative guided tour - with example. I must have been about 6 when I first heard one of these - a surprising number of decades back. The magic is still there!
As a professional artist I can sure see such beauty in this organ as well as most other fairground organs. I love the intricate designs and the color schemes. I hope to get to see one of these magnificent machines one of these days.
I can picture a herd of painted ponies gliding up and down in a carousel, and being ridden by excited children. Thank you for the tour. Your organ is amazing! 🐴🦓🦄😮
Listening to the joyful music from these by-gone instruments should be required, particularly today. I think it would calm the fiercest radicals on both sides of whatever irks them the most! This music is made for the enjoyment of any and all, and to set a tone for merriment and a return to times gone by...❤
Really great video. Thankyou so much. I always wondered how they got so many different sounds into so few 'tracks'. Your explanation and physical demonstration of how the registry works was fabulous. It fills me with so much utter anazement that the designers were able to filter down so many on/off registry switches to such a small ammount. Grouping and the Reset valve were just pure genious.
I know nothing about this stuff except hearing and enjoying the music at fun fairs. I don’t usually comment on videos but your love and enthusiasm for your topic shines through and is inspiring. How did stumble here? While reading a book, my 8yr old granddaughter and I came across a reference to a Barrel Organ and I wanted her to see and hear what one sounded like. As you may know RUclips will take you where you did not intend to go. Thoroughly enjoyed your video and seeing this beautiful organ and was eagerly waiting to hear the tune.
Being both an amusement park enthusiast and a composer that uses MIDI based software (which evolved from the rolls these use), I have quite an appreciation for these machines. I would love to hear my music on one of these one day.
I’ve always had a rough idea of how these giants work, but I love how you’ve explained in depth the workings of these fabulous machines. Thanks for sharing, and good luck with her 😊
The wild thing about those Books that are used to play the Music they are a very early version of Binary coding when you think about it Each hole is a "1" or "on" command and the covered up keys are a "0" or "off" command. I have seen the Wurlitizer band organs but this a massive and incredibly amazing machine. Keep up the great work of preserving it.
Absolut great Video about a wonderfull GAVIOLI Organ 👍👍👍 The Brother from my Grandfather (born 1892) was a Fairground Man, and had in the twentyth Years an " GAVIOLI - Waldkirch " Organ , playing on his Caroussell... Thank you for showing this Video, and with the best wishes from Germany. 🎼🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵🎶🎶
Watching this video and others like it takes me back 70+ years to my first exposure to these wonderful musical instruments, at the merry-go- round at the amusement park at Bertand's Island, Lake Hopatcong, NJ, USA. That was back around 1949 or 1950. The park was built around 1904, so had been around for 45 years or so. It finally closed in the early to mid '70's, much to my great sorrow. I have no idea what happened to that wonderful carousel, but I hope the musical instrument and the horses live on to this day. I have an idea that they have not, as they had already seen hard years by the time I was trying to catch the brass ring, back before the dawn of time...😜👍Anyone else out there know of the brass ring??
The Bertrand Island band organ was a Gebruder Bruder model 106 fairground organ playing 59-keyless book music. It has a facade very similar in style to the Gebruder Bruder ("Berni") 107 facade found on the Knoebels 107, but larger. The Gebruder Bruder 106 model is a rare model today (few were built) and I know of only maybe 5 or 6 known surviving (vs over 50 of their most popular book organ model, the 107). The organ had been converted from books to a duplex paper roll system by the B. A. B. Organ Co. of Brooklyn; sometime between the late 20s and early 50s. This system used BAB "66" rolls with 67 actual holes in the tracker bar. Some recordings of this exact organ playing BAB music can be heard on the RUclips channel "BandOrganMan". After Bertrand Island and Circus World, the organ went to a private collector in New Jersey whose name I don't recall. It was later sold to someone else in Europe (I don't know who), and the late Johnny Verbeeck in Belgium restored it back to books for them, adding 3 figures and a glockenspiel. I presume it is still with this European owner today.
This was my great grandfather day's organ, I remember it being on the gallopers at aberavon and my uncle Tommy used to play it for me, wonderful memories of it, do you ever take it out for people to see it? Would love to see it some time
Sweet sound and all's good with the mechanics, good job Nick. Have many records of mainly the Dutch street organ from the early 60's, stiil love the Jupiter and The Arab. Very enjoyable.
I was really interested to see that the Gavioli books were based on the jacquard weaving devices, as where I come from, Braintree, was a place of weaving, including Jacquard. The tune "The Whistler and his Dog" appears to have been popular with cinema organs as well as fairground organs. It had barking at the end, either done by somebody "barking" or with several loud chords.
Hi Nick It's great to see that you are still keeping the tradition alive. I owe you a lot. You taught me a great deal and I'm eternally grateful. I have a Jazz channel myself at cl5307. I hope to see you sometime. Please give my best wishes to your family. Chris Latham
The organ I'm most familiar with is an older 87 key Gavioli but that one doesn't have any registration and has 3 seperate channels for the conductor. Baton, left hand and his head turns. Plus 4 bell ringers
Would be pretty fantastic to see some kind of MIDI adapter plate 3D printed up to fit in the card reader, for either pre-recorded music to be played by the computer or by a live organ keyboard!
What _I'd_ like to know is: How would I go about composing or arranging music for this beautiful machine? Ever since hearing "To the Shock of Miss Louise" in the 90s and growing up riding the gallopers at Southsea Fairground in the 80s I've wanted to compare for one. Many a night my brain has kept me awake hammering out tunes in my head. First I assume i would need a mapping for watch of the keys/slots in the cardboard programmes.
Hi, first you'll need to get the acale for the organ, and also arranging software. A good program is "Noteur" by Piet Pardekaam in the Netherlands. He has companion software called "MIDIboek" which lets your computer printer print a template to be glued to blank cardboard to punch out a music book. Another good piece of arranging software is by Melvyn Wright and is good for organs up to 64 keys. It's available from his website "melright".
Great to see a private band organ owner showcasing their own organ, I remember now speaking of that, Max Huff did one of his Artizan C band organ shortly after it was restored some 8 years ago or so? I can't remember. Another thing? These machines are more than historic almost. Their history and how long they've existed, and what they have been doing for years that a modern person wouldn't imagine thinking circuit boards are the only way of automatic-ness I guess if that's how I say it, are all super duper important, but there's the one thing that I view is almost most important. THE SOUND. Superior to nearly all other music except church organs, military bands like that of the Royal Guards of London, and orchestras. Although I'm more of a Wurlitzer and Ruth & Sohn freak, BAND ORGANS PROVIDE THE HAPPIEST, AND SOME OF THE MOST MIGHTY, MOST HIGH AND MOST EXCELLENT MUSIC ON EARTH. Music that I'll never be able to own myself... I'm after a $135,000 Wurlitzer 155 Monster Military Band Organ. Oh well I'm only 17, but even when I'm what, 50 or so, I'll probably have screw all amounts of money like how everyone else does. Anyone who owns a band organ did good in doing so, and with the right care, passion, enthusiasm and maintenance, deserve whatever band organ it is that they have. Good job although I'm a Wurlitzer + Ruth & Sohn person.
You should put a large automotive air filter on the input to the blower. This will help keep the insides of the organ clean. (I note dirt in the mouths of the violin pipes in the front from the airflow.
On my channel I show a wurlitzer band organ in a trailer that is painted in ornate colors. The organ has 316 pipes and the band master plays off the bass drum. Most of the videos are of poor quality since I'm not the best at filming. But since the organ is so loud, the sound is too much for my video camera and it comes out sounding tinny. But you still get the idea
@@wurly164 yep that was a pretty complicated description, I wasn't really thinking of a better one then. Oof. What I meant was... Whose next on the Wurlitzer 164's personal list of people to absolutely utterly and completely deafen?
Great insight into this magical machine, to think that these were designed and built by people is magical and mind blowing in itself. I'd love to see and play around with one in person. I found out about the Goose fair in Nottingham recently, i'll be going this year, i'm sure i'll find one there.
Talking about steam organs (which is more accurately called a calliope and used to be on American stern wheelers), I had a rather humorous experience with a know-all at a traction engine rally a few years ago. You can tell the ones whose mouth is bigger than their brain and at one rally, an animated bloke with his long suffering wife in tow, approached the organ. Looking between the pipes, I could see that he was sharing his mighty knowledge of fairground organs with his lady, so I left the organ in the care of my operator and quietly stood alongside him. I was just in time to hear him explain the intricacies of how a steam organ works. "You see my darling, underneath the organ, is a type of steam boiler that makes everything work and it is steam entering the bottom of the pipes, that makes it play music". Now the wife, who had seen me clamber out of the back of the organ truck and knew that I had something to do with it, flashed me a brief long-suffering look as he rambled on. Not wanting to miss out on my organ education, I decided to pose Mr Knowitall a question. "Excuse me, but I couldn`t help overhearing your excellent explanation of how a steam organ works" He puffed up with pride at my compliment. "But could you please explain why I can`t see any steam coming out of the tops of the pipes ?" He gave me a withering look that suggested that he thought that I was bred from moronic stock and said, "At the bottom of each pipe is a special valve/filter that dries out the steam before it can leave the pipe". By this stage his wife was having trouble stifling hysterical laughter and how she managed to leave the rally field with dry legs, is a source of wonder to me.
22:17 , i could make a joke about the innuendo, but i've genuinely heard of some completely safe for work creators making a packet with only fans accounts, and it'd be another way to show your organ off online, hopefully gaining some funding for maintenance etc. :)
@Nick Williams - Absolutely beautiful, amazing and a stunning work of engineering! I just subscibed! Twilight Zone episode "Walking Distance" merry-go-round scene, music brought me here! 😀👍👍👍👍👍
I, as a fan of sound chips, see strikingly many similarities. Limited timbres, limited number of notes (this doesn't apply to many chips but still)... A wonderful instrument! The only thing I do not understand is why base drum and cymbal share the same control, but well, I am a century away from those who designed it! Fun fact: small handheld barrel organs can also do drum-like sounds when you rapidly switch all the keys on and off. When you said that some organs use paper holes to block airflow, I immediately wondered: can tremolo be done on such organs by making a hole which has changing width along it's length? Since these instruments can't do portamento nor vibrato, a tremolo could be a nice addition.
Still running after 119 years, just goes to show you, how well things were built back then. I'd love one of these things, but I'll never be able to afford one, or have a place to put it.
Very informative and interesting. What I'd like to know is, how did they make the music (punch cards) books back then, and how (if) is it done today? 🤔
There is a good diagram showing register changes with general cancel in a music book, in the book "The Fairground Organ" by Eric Cockayne, published I think in the 1960s. This book is fairly easy to find online.
@@KawhackitaRag thanks for the information on the register diagram, I would like to know more about how that works and I will be sure to source the book myself.
This is a close relative of the Southsea Gavioli (Before it was enlarged to 98 /110 key by Verbeeck) as it has a near identical facade & presumably dates from around the same time What is the serial no of the southsea Gavioli? as like the Southsea Gavioli ( now at scarborough fair) this is probably a Gavioli Symphonique model built for indoor use as it has the same tonal quality & sound as its famous sister (before being turned into something it was never meant to be by Verbeeck) & is the only other example of a Gavioli Symphonique in the UK & the only one that remains completely original & is what its famous sister would have sounded like originally.
So say I were wanting to transcribe Toby Fox's THE WORLD REVOLVING into a jaunty, fast-paced Fairground Organ track... where would I start? Is there any kind of "limit" to the tempo speed? How many instruments are there? What are they, specifically? Can they all be playing at one time, or is there a limit to that? What scales can they reach? I know this video is two years old, and it's a wild shot in the dark to hope for a response, but hey why not give it a shot?
Does it still have a 110V DC input? So if you met with someone with a Showman’s engine at a steam fair you could get the organ hooked up to the engine’s generator as originally designed?
What a treat thank you so much for your work in preserving and being it’s guardian. Your knowledge is impressive too. I know it’s not period but . . . I’d look for a 90’s ERF tractor unit EC9 or EC11 to pull it around. But the rigid lorry idea is probably most practical because you might have more room in and around the organ to maintain it. But what a lot of work to transfer it ?
You wondered why people often call the fairground organ a "steam organ", Of course they don't know what they are talking about. But surely you are aware of the steam calliopes which were in fact a set of steam whistles, which actually are blown by steam from a boiler. These were commonly used by circuses and steam river boats. They were meant to be heard a mile away. They were usually played from a manual keyboard. There were also air calliopes, using high pressure compressed air. They could be played from a keyboard or a paper roll. There is a large collection of fairground organs and band organs near Chicago at the Sanfilippo estate. Some of them have been modified to play from a midi controller to save wear on the cardboard books. They also have a restored carousel.
You can add buy me a coffee or thanks button to your subscribers, like button lists to help with your fundraising. Love your work it's a beautiful sound. I'd love to see and hear it live. Thank you for looking after such a wonderful piece of history. I enjoyed it. I'm I the 10 millionth person to hear it 😊
It played so well that after the music ended I felt the urge to applaud.
You and me both
@@SeanDailey-dy8tn Ditto.
These magnificent works of art were engineering marvels in their day, and they still are.
I’ve watched this video several times and still find it fascinating. These organs are magical and how on earth people first built these is totally amazing.
I know. It’s surprisingly capable of musical excellence being a century old. I bet one of these could play a TheFatRat song!
Yes, they were so incredibly complicated! If something broke, it must have been very awkward and fiddly to fix.
That's Stuart Dobbs and families organ. so surprised they parted with it. at least the organ stayed in the UK and in very capable hands. Good look Nick, nice to see you back with organs.
I often wish that the innards of these wonderful machines were featured more in posts and this has done so in spades. I’m not technical at all so I don’t grasp much of what you talk about, but I love it just the same. And when the music starts I get such a thrill, as if I’m experiencing it over 100 years ago. Thank you for your hard work and boundless enthusiasm.
What a beautiful piece of machinery.
Man what a beauty of mechanical Design
Very nice video...Thanks for sharing!
My hat's off to you for saving and preserving such a beautiful machine❤
What an amazing combination of engineering and art, imagine the amount of people it took to design and build this beautiful instrument
I've been fascinated by these ever since my parents took me on a visit to Thursford back in the early 80s.
So that's how it all happens! Many thianks for the very informative guided tour - with example. I must have been about 6 when I first heard one of these - a surprising number of decades back. The magic is still there!
As a professional artist I can sure see such beauty in this organ as well as most other fairground organs. I love the intricate designs and the color schemes. I hope to get to see one of these magnificent machines one of these days.
Wonderful I Loved it - I Worked at a Fair When I was Hunger & always Loved This Fairground Organ & The Music.
fr. Canada
I'm not in a position to donate right now. But I love mechanical music and I am rooting for you and your endeavors
All the best of luck Nick with your new toy, she sounds just great.
This organ is a beautiful masterpiece of music and automation. Thanks for letting us see it work and hear it play.
I can picture a herd of painted ponies gliding up and down in a carousel, and being ridden by excited children. Thank you for the tour. Your organ is amazing! 🐴🦓🦄😮
Nice tour of the instrument. Sends shivers up my spine to see the parts moving as it plays. Wonderful. Well done Nick
Listening to the joyful music from these by-gone instruments should be required, particularly today. I think it would calm the fiercest radicals on both sides of whatever irks them the most! This music is made for the enjoyment of any and all, and to set a tone for merriment and a return to times gone by...❤
Absolutely gorgeous. What a find! Mostly original and perfectly in tune.
Really great video. Thankyou so much. I always wondered how they got so many different sounds into so few 'tracks'. Your explanation and physical demonstration of how the registry works was fabulous. It fills me with so much utter anazement that the designers were able to filter down so many on/off registry switches to such a small ammount. Grouping and the Reset valve were just pure genious.
I know nothing about this stuff except hearing and enjoying the music at fun fairs. I don’t usually comment on videos but your love and enthusiasm for your topic shines through and is inspiring.
How did stumble here? While reading a book, my 8yr old granddaughter and I came across a reference to a Barrel Organ and I wanted her to see and hear what one sounded like. As you may know RUclips will take you where you did not intend to go.
Thoroughly enjoyed your video and seeing this beautiful organ and was eagerly waiting to hear the tune.
Smashing. We here in the states loved your story on this organ.
ich liebe diese Orgeln sie sind mit so viel Liebe zum Detail und Technik gemacht . So was kann heute keiner mehr Bauen .
I know people who could build this.
Couple of ex-Royal-Navy shipwrights, they could build this.
Being both an amusement park enthusiast and a composer that uses MIDI based software (which evolved from the rolls these use), I have quite an appreciation for these machines. I would love to hear my music on one of these one day.
Amazing!
What a marvellous instrument, thanks so much for sharing!
That was marvellous! Thank you.
What a marvelous machine making great music!
I’ve always had a rough idea of how these giants work, but I love how you’ve explained in depth the workings of these fabulous machines. Thanks for sharing, and good luck with her 😊
Ein sehr interessantes Video über ein wundervolles Instrument! Vielen Dank! 👍🎶😊👏
❤ Keep it on the trailer. And long hauling use a flat bed and truck or a rail road flat car. This needs to be seen by world
The wild thing about those Books that are used to play the Music they are a very early version of Binary coding when you think about it Each hole is a "1" or "on" command and the covered up keys are a "0" or "off" command. I have seen the Wurlitizer band organs but this a massive and incredibly amazing machine. Keep up the great work of preserving it.
Absolut great Video about a wonderfull GAVIOLI Organ 👍👍👍 The Brother from my Grandfather (born 1892) was a Fairground Man, and had in the twentyth Years an " GAVIOLI - Waldkirch " Organ , playing on his Caroussell... Thank you for showing this Video, and with the best wishes from Germany. 🎼🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵🎶🎶
Watching this video and others like it takes me back 70+ years to my first exposure to these wonderful musical instruments, at the merry-go- round at the amusement park at Bertand's Island, Lake Hopatcong, NJ, USA. That was back around 1949 or 1950. The park was built around 1904, so had been around for 45 years or so. It finally closed in the early to mid '70's, much to my great sorrow. I have no idea what happened to that wonderful carousel, but I hope the musical instrument and the horses live on to this day. I have an idea that they have not, as they had already seen hard years by the time I was trying to catch the brass ring, back before the dawn of time...😜👍Anyone else out there know of the brass ring??
The Bertrand Island band organ was a Gebruder Bruder model 106 fairground organ playing 59-keyless book music. It has a facade very similar in style to the Gebruder Bruder ("Berni") 107 facade found on the Knoebels 107, but larger.
The Gebruder Bruder 106 model is a rare model today (few were built) and I know of only maybe 5 or 6 known surviving (vs over 50 of their most popular book organ model, the 107).
The organ had been converted from books to a duplex paper roll system by the B. A. B. Organ Co. of Brooklyn; sometime between the late 20s and early 50s. This system used BAB "66" rolls with 67 actual holes in the tracker bar.
Some recordings of this exact organ playing BAB music can be heard on the RUclips channel "BandOrganMan".
After Bertrand Island and Circus World, the organ went to a private collector in New Jersey whose name I don't recall. It was later sold to someone else in Europe (I don't know who), and the late Johnny Verbeeck in Belgium restored it back to books for them, adding 3 figures and a glockenspiel. I presume it is still with this European owner today.
A fascinating tour of this wonderful instrument; many thanks.
Excellent video, keep up the work conserving these magnificent mechanical music machines!
An absolutely fascinating machine, thank you so much for the in-depth tour! And imagine my surprise when you chose to play one of my favorite pieces!
This was my great grandfather day's organ, I remember it being on the gallopers at aberavon and my uncle Tommy used to play it for me, wonderful memories of it, do you ever take it out for people to see it? Would love to see it some time
This has been the most helpful video out there so far! Thank you so much!
Sweet sound and all's good with the mechanics, good job Nick. Have many records of mainly the Dutch street organ from the early 60's, stiil love the Jupiter and The Arab. Very enjoyable.
I was really interested to see that the Gavioli books were based on the jacquard weaving devices, as where I come from, Braintree, was a place of weaving, including Jacquard. The tune "The Whistler and his Dog" appears to have been popular with cinema organs as well as fairground organs. It had barking at the end, either done by somebody "barking" or with several loud chords.
Astonishing level of mechanical wonder! 😮
Thanks, that was nice to see!
Hi Nick
It's great to see that you are still keeping the tradition alive. I owe you a lot. You taught me a great deal and I'm eternally grateful.
I have a Jazz channel myself at cl5307.
I hope to see you sometime. Please give my best wishes to your family.
Chris Latham
Hi Nick, very informative, you are a clever young man. Please keep in touch. You are hard to get hold of.
The organ I'm most familiar with is an older 87 key Gavioli but that one doesn't have any registration and has 3 seperate channels for the conductor. Baton, left hand and his head turns. Plus 4 bell ringers
Thanks for sharing this video! It's great to see the inner workings.
Many thanks for posting Nick, most interesting
Excellent!
Great video! Thank you.! I've learned so much more about how mechanical fairground organs (et al) work. Thank you, again.
WONDERFUL! Thanks so much!
Fascinating tour, thank you!
Really superb tour. A really difficult instrument to tune perfectly.
Very nice and interesting explanation about this awesome fairground organ.
Would be pretty fantastic to see some kind of MIDI adapter plate 3D printed up to fit in the card reader, for either pre-recorded music to be played by the computer or by a live organ keyboard!
Fabulous! Thanks for sharing this ❤😊
What _I'd_ like to know is:
How would I go about composing or arranging music for this beautiful machine?
Ever since hearing "To the Shock of Miss Louise" in the 90s and growing up riding the gallopers at Southsea Fairground in the 80s I've wanted to compare for one.
Many a night my brain has kept me awake hammering out tunes in my head.
First I assume i would need a mapping for watch of the keys/slots in the cardboard programmes.
Hi, first you'll need to get the acale for the organ, and also arranging software. A good program is "Noteur" by Piet Pardekaam in the Netherlands. He has companion software called "MIDIboek" which lets your computer printer print a template to be glued to blank cardboard to punch out a music book.
Another good piece of arranging software is by Melvyn Wright and is good for organs up to 64 keys. It's available from his website "melright".
Fascinating, thank you!
Phantastic sound! Great job!
Amazing.
Great to see a private band organ owner showcasing their own organ, I remember now speaking of that, Max Huff did one of his Artizan C band organ shortly after it was restored some 8 years ago or so? I can't remember.
Another thing? These machines are more than historic almost. Their history and how long they've existed, and what they have been doing for years that a modern person wouldn't imagine thinking circuit boards are the only way of automatic-ness I guess if that's how I say it, are all super duper important, but there's the one thing that I view is almost most important.
THE SOUND. Superior to nearly all other music except church organs, military bands like that of the Royal Guards of London, and orchestras. Although I'm more of a Wurlitzer and Ruth & Sohn freak, BAND ORGANS PROVIDE THE HAPPIEST, AND SOME OF THE MOST MIGHTY, MOST HIGH AND MOST EXCELLENT MUSIC ON EARTH.
Music that I'll never be able to own myself... I'm after a $135,000 Wurlitzer 155 Monster Military Band Organ.
Oh well I'm only 17, but even when I'm what, 50 or so, I'll probably have screw all amounts of money like how everyone else does.
Anyone who owns a band organ did good in doing so, and with the right care, passion, enthusiasm and maintenance, deserve whatever band organ it is that they have. Good job although I'm a Wurlitzer + Ruth & Sohn person.
Fascinating! The characters on the organ look familiar. I think I have seen a similar one at the Thursford Collection in Norfolk.
Excellent presentation of a real clastic Gavioli Fair organ, Amy thought to Waldkirch in June 2022?? :-)) Ron Schmuck
It's my dream to have one and to be able to transcribe alot of modern music to them.
You should put a large automotive air filter on the input to the blower. This will help keep the insides of the organ clean. (I note dirt in the mouths of the violin pipes in the front from the airflow.
It would need to be a large lorry one to handle that air flow without causing supply reduction
This was an amazing and informative video! Great stuff, man!
That was really interesting, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
What a great video, thanks for sharing.
On my channel I show a wurlitzer band organ in a trailer that is painted in ornate colors. The organ has 316 pipes and the band master plays off the bass drum. Most of the videos are of poor quality since I'm not the best at filming. But since the organ is so loud, the sound is too much for my video camera and it comes out sounding tinny. But you still get the idea
It's the Wurlitzer 164, the loudest Wurlitzer Band Organ in all of existence...
@@CBF1 I would say yes, it has no registers except for bells, so it plays all out. It's deafening
@@wurly164 I wonder whose next on the Wurlitzer 164's List of people to remove the ability to hear from...
@@CBF1 what do you mean ?
@@wurly164 yep that was a pretty complicated description, I wasn't really thinking of a better one then. Oof.
What I meant was... Whose next on the Wurlitzer 164's personal list of people to absolutely utterly and completely deafen?
Great insight into this magical machine, to think that these were designed and built by people is magical and mind blowing in itself. I'd love to see and play around with one in person. I found out about the Goose fair in Nottingham recently, i'll be going this year, i'm sure i'll find one there.
Talking about steam organs (which is more accurately called a calliope and used to be on American stern wheelers), I had a rather humorous experience with a know-all at a traction engine rally a few years ago.
You can tell the ones whose mouth is bigger than their brain and at one rally, an animated bloke with his long suffering wife in tow, approached the organ. Looking between the pipes, I could see that he was sharing his mighty knowledge of fairground organs with his lady, so I left the organ in the care of my operator and quietly stood alongside him. I was just in time to hear him explain the intricacies of how a steam organ works.
"You see my darling, underneath the organ, is a type of steam boiler that makes everything work and it is steam entering the bottom of the pipes, that makes it play music".
Now the wife, who had seen me clamber out of the back of the organ truck and knew that I had something to do with it, flashed me a brief long-suffering look as he rambled on.
Not wanting to miss out on my organ education, I decided to pose Mr Knowitall a question.
"Excuse me, but I couldn`t help overhearing your excellent explanation of how a steam organ works"
He puffed up with pride at my compliment.
"But could you please explain why I can`t see any steam coming out of the tops of the pipes ?"
He gave me a withering look that suggested that he thought that I was bred from moronic stock and said,
"At the bottom of each pipe is a special valve/filter that dries out the steam before it can leave the pipe".
By this stage his wife was having trouble stifling hysterical laughter and how she managed to leave the rally field with dry legs, is a source of wonder to me.
Served him right.
Not really much of a know all then.
Than he thought he was.
22:17 , i could make a joke about the innuendo, but i've genuinely heard of some completely safe for work creators making a packet with only fans accounts, and it'd be another way to show your organ off online, hopefully gaining some funding for maintenance etc. :)
@Nick Williams - Absolutely beautiful, amazing and a stunning work of engineering! I just subscibed! Twilight Zone episode "Walking Distance" merry-go-round scene, music brought me here! 😀👍👍👍👍👍
Brilliant 👍
Amaizing
Excellent.👍 20:55
I, as a fan of sound chips, see strikingly many similarities. Limited timbres, limited number of notes (this doesn't apply to many chips but still)... A wonderful instrument! The only thing I do not understand is why base drum and cymbal share the same control, but well, I am a century away from those who designed it!
Fun fact: small handheld barrel organs can also do drum-like sounds when you rapidly switch all the keys on and off.
When you said that some organs use paper holes to block airflow, I immediately wondered: can tremolo be done on such organs by making a hole which has changing width along it's length? Since these instruments can't do portamento nor vibrato, a tremolo could be a nice addition.
Still running after 119 years, just goes to show you, how well things were built back then.
I'd love one of these things, but I'll never be able to afford one, or have a place to put it.
this is so amazing
Very informative and interesting. What I'd like to know is, how did they make the music (punch cards) books back then, and how (if) is it done today? 🤔
Sir, you have a wonderful instrument. Do you plan on giving classical music concerts with your 89 key Gavioli organ?
It will be nice to see the the trumpets on each sides of the cases
I love these informative walk-rounds. Could you do one covering how register changes are implemented in midi and books for us newbies?
There is a good diagram showing register changes with general cancel in a music book, in the book "The Fairground Organ" by Eric Cockayne, published I think in the 1960s. This book is fairly easy to find online.
@@KawhackitaRag Thank you. I’ll look it up.
@@KawhackitaRag thanks for the information on the register diagram, I would like to know more about how that works and I will be sure to source the book myself.
Nick, thank you for producing this video!
It looks like there are only 6 brass trombones.. where are those other 2 hiding?
This is a close relative of the Southsea Gavioli (Before it was enlarged to 98 /110 key by Verbeeck) as it has a near identical facade & presumably dates from around the same time What is the serial no of the southsea Gavioli? as like the Southsea Gavioli ( now at scarborough fair) this is probably a Gavioli Symphonique model built for indoor use as it has the same tonal quality & sound as its famous sister (before being turned into something it was never meant to be by Verbeeck) & is the only other example of a Gavioli Symphonique in the UK & the only one that remains completely original & is what its famous sister would have sounded like originally.
So say I were wanting to transcribe Toby Fox's THE WORLD REVOLVING into a jaunty, fast-paced Fairground Organ track... where would I start?
Is there any kind of "limit" to the tempo speed?
How many instruments are there? What are they, specifically? Can they all be playing at one time, or is there a limit to that? What scales can they reach?
I know this video is two years old, and it's a wild shot in the dark to hope for a response, but hey why not give it a shot?
Does it still have a 110V DC input? So if you met with someone with a Showman’s engine at a steam fair you could get the organ hooked up to the engine’s generator as originally designed?
In the tour of the pipework, you didn't mention the piccolos!
What a treat thank you so much for your work in preserving and being it’s guardian. Your knowledge is impressive too. I know it’s not period but . . . I’d look for a 90’s ERF tractor unit EC9 or EC11 to pull it around. But the rigid lorry idea is probably most practical because you might have more room in and around the organ to maintain it. But what a lot of work to transfer it ?
Where did you find the patent drawings If I may ask please
💙 how many hours of music do you have?
The organ was VERY proud of playing THAT particular song! 🙉
Thank you for keeping these alive. 😁
I'm up to around 700 books of music for this organ, at a guess must be in excess of 30 hours. I'm always adding to the library, tunes new and old.
You wondered why people often call the fairground organ a "steam organ", Of course they don't know what they are talking about. But surely you are aware of the steam calliopes which were in fact a set of steam whistles, which actually are blown by steam from a boiler. These were commonly used by circuses and steam river boats. They were meant to be heard a mile away. They were usually played from a manual keyboard. There were also air calliopes, using high pressure compressed air. They could be played from a keyboard or a paper roll.
There is a large collection of fairground organs and band organs near Chicago at the Sanfilippo estate. Some of them have been modified to play from a midi controller to save wear on the cardboard books. They also have a restored carousel.
You can add buy me a coffee or thanks button to your subscribers, like button lists to help with your fundraising. Love your work it's a beautiful sound. I'd love to see and hear it live. Thank you for looking after such a wonderful piece of history. I enjoyed it. I'm I the 10 millionth person to hear it 😊
I wonder if there are any compositions made especially just for instrument like this or is everything just normal music converted to this form?
How are the registers selected/set ? I don't see these in the 89no4 scale ?
My question would be.. do you get any issues transporting it , bumpy roads etc ? very interesting
How do you tune it without a pitch rank and a keyboard?
I would like to look at that patent gb189511044, but all searches come up blank. Can you tell me where to find it?