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Robert Heilbuth Compositions for Phonola
By Timothy Tikker

Robert Heilbuth composed and arranged many pieces for the two main
organs in his home: (a) the band organ (still in that house) and
(b) the pipe organ (dismantled, in my house).  He also arranged a
little for a piano Vorsetzer -- I heard at least Mozart's Fantasia
in F-minor, K. 608.

He also made rolls for a very tiny hand-cranked reed organ (a sort
of music box), the name of which escapes me, including "Mack the Knife"
from Kurt Weill's "Three Penny Opera."  These arrangements were quite
ingenious in how much music they got out of such a severely limited
range of notes; one friend told him, "I'm hearing notes that I know
aren't there!"

Robert had an upright player piano, but I don't recall that he cut any
rolls for it; he just played commercial rolls for me on that.

That's all I'm aware of that he did for automatic instruments.  He had
some youthful compositions in manuscripts, for organ I believe, but
I never heard any of these.  I think they were composition studies and
weren't completed.

Timothy Tikker


(Message sent Fri 18 Sep 2015, 23:13:25 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Compositions, Heilbuth, Phonola, Robert

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