The origin of the barrel-organ is now clearly established, and many will doubtless be surprised to find that it must be sought in the Netherlands as early as the middle of the 15th century, and that accurate and detailed diagrams of every part of the mechanism for a large stationary barrel-organ worked by hydraulic power were published in 1615. There are letters patent preserved in the archives of Belgium appointing a certain organ-builder, Jehan van Steenken, dit Aren, "Master of organs which play of themselves"; in the original Flemish Meester van orgelen spelende bij hen selven.[[2]] This organ was not a portable one like English street organs, but a more imposing instrument, as we learn from other documents giving a detailed account of the moneys paid to Maistre Jehan for conveying the organs from Bruges to Brussels.[[3]] Steenken was, by virtue of the same letters patent, awarded an annual pension of fifty Rhenish florins in consideration of the services rendered to the duke of Burgundy, and on condition of his submitting to his liege Philip the Good all other instruments he might make in the future. There is nothing singular in the early date of this invention, for the 15th century was distinguished for the extraordinary impulse which the patronage and appreciation of the dukes of Burgundy gave to automatic contrivances of all kinds, carillons, clocks, speaking animals and other curiosities due to Flemish genius.[[4]] No contemporary illustration is forthcoming, but in 1615 Solomon de Caus, who avowedly owed his inspiration to Hero and Vitruvius, describes a number of hydraulic machines, amongst which is the barrel-organ,[[5]] illustrating his description by means of several large drawings and diagrams very carefully carried out. De Caus' organ, entitled "Machine par laquelle l'on fera sonner un jeu d'orgues par le moyen de l'eau," was built up on a wall a foot thick. In the illustrations the barrel is shown to be divided into bars, and each bar into eight beats for the quavers. The whole drum is pierced with holes at the intersecting points, the pins being movable, so that when the performer grew tired of one tune, he could re-arrange the pins to form another. The four bellows are set in motion by means of ropes strained over pulleys and attached to four cranks on the rotating shaft. Solomon de Caus lays no claim to the invention of this organ, but only to the adaptation of hydraulic power for revolving the drum; on the contrary, in a dissertation on the invention of hydraulic machines and organs, he states that there was evidently some difference between the organs of the ancients and those of his day, since there is no mention in the classics of any musical wheel by means of which tunes could be played in several parts—the ancients, indeed, seem to have used their fingers on the keyboard to sound their organs. The eighteen keys drawn in one diagram bear names, beginning at the left, D, C, B, A, G, F, F♯, E, D, C, B, A, G, F, E, D, C, B; De Caus states that only half the keyboard is given for want of space; the compass, therefore, probably was as shown, with a few accidentals.
Other evidences of the origin of the barrel-organ are not wanting. The inventory of the organs and other keyboard instruments belonging to the duke of Modena, drawn up in 1598, contains two entries of an organo Tedesco.[[10]] In England these organs were also known as "Dutch organs," and the name clung to the instrument even in its diminutive form of hand-organ of the itinerant musician. In Jedediah Morse's description of the
manners and customs of the Netherlands,[[11]] we find the following allusion:—"The diversions of the Dutch differ not much from those of the English, who seem to have borrowed from them the neatness of their drinking booths, skittle and other grounds ... which form the amusements of the middle ranks, not to mention their hand-organs and other musical inventions." An illustration of the hand-organ of that period is given in Knight's London[[12]] being one of a collection of street views published by Dayes in 1789. In a description of Bartholomew Fair, as held at the beginning of the 18th century, is a further reference to the Dutch origin of the barrel-organ:—"A band at the west-end of the town, well known for playing on winter evenings before Spring Garden Coffee House, opposite Wigley's great exhibition room, consisted of a double drum, a Dutch organ, the tambourine, violin, pipes and the Turkish jingle used in the army. This band was generally hired at one of the booths of the fair."[[13]] Mr Thomas Brown relates that one Mr Stephens, a Poultry author, proposed to parliament for any one that should presume to keep an organ in a Publick House to be fined £20 and made incapable of being an ale-draper for the future.[[14]] In 1737 Horace Walpole writes[[15]]:—"I am now in pursuit of getting the finest piece of music that ever was heard; it is a thing that will play eight tunes. Handel and all the great musicians say that it is beyond anything they can do, and this may be performed by the most ignorant person, and when you are weary of those eight tunes, you may have them changed for any other that you like." The organ was put in a lottery and fetched £1000.
There was a very small barrel-organ in use during the 18th and 19th centuries, known as the bird-organ (Fr. serinette, turlutaine, merline). One of these now in the collection of the Brussels Conservatoire is described by V. C. Mahillon.[[16]] The instrument is in the form of a book, on the back of which is the title "Le chant des oiseaux, Tome vi." There are ten pewter stopped pipes giving the scale of G with the addition of F♭ and A two octaves higher.
For an illustration of the construction of the barrel-organ during the 18th century, consult P. M. D. J. Engramelle, La Tonotechnie ou l'art de noter les cylindres et tout ce qui est susceptible de notage dans les instruments de concerts méchaniques (Paris, 1775), with engravings (not in the British Museum); and for a clear diagram of the modern instrument the article on "Automatic Appliances connected with Music," by Dr. E. J. Hopkins, in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. i. (1904), p. 134.
(K. S.)
[1] This practice had evidently not been adopted in Germany, as the following instance will show. The use of barrel-organs (Drehorgeln) in country churches was seriously recommended by an anonymous writer in two German papers at the beginning of the 19th century (Beobachter an der Spree, Berlin, 22nd October 1821, and in Markische Boten, Nos. 138 and 139, 1821). The organist Wilke of Leipzig published in reply an article in the Allgem. musik. Zeitung (1822, pp. 777 et seq.) in which "he very properly repudiated such a laughable recommendation."