Introduction; Automatic Violin
By Pete Docter
Hi, I am new to this group.
I recently visited the State Museum in Munich, Germany. On the top floor they have quite an impressive musical instrument display, including a Mills (I'm pretty sure that is the brand) Automatic Violin. The amazing thing about it is that, lying within the instrument, there is an actual violin. Little mechanical "fingers" stop the strings, and a strange box contains the bow. As a violinist myself, I found this to be pretty cool, and not a little bit strange.
The machine there did not play, but coincidentally I recently picked up an LP called "Musical Gadgets," which has a cut featuring the Automatic Violin. It's pretty bizarre sounding. The liner notes talk about the french inventor having committed suicide, mentioning that perhaps the reason for his act lies hidden somewhere in the Mill's Violin music. Anyone have any information on the inventor?
Pete Docter
doc@pixar.com |
(Message sent Tue 24 Sep 1996, 16:50:55 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.) |
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