In a message dated 96-11-10 04:57:26 EST, you write:

>
>  Subject: Street Organs & Draaiorgels
>
>  Jan,  can you tell us more about the differences between the English
>  Fairground Organ, the Draaiorgel of Holland, the Drehorgel of Germany,
>  and the Military Band Organ such as Wurlitzer sold in America?
>
>  What is the draaiorgel tradition of the Netherlands?  How does this
>  tradition relate to the organbuilders of Belgium and the Black Forest
>  of Germany?  (I am thinking especially about the master, Carl Frei.  :-)
>
>  Best regards,
>  Robbie Rhodes
>

Robbie,

I am not sure that you have gotten a complete answer to your question
so let me take a swing at it.  As a previous respondent suggested, it
would require a doctoral thesis to completely cover the subject but I
will try to be brief.

First, I am not sure that there is an "English" fairground organ.  In
the early days Chiappa was the only major importer and builder of
organs.  By far the majority were imported.  The English, for whatever
reason, seemed to import more Gavioli's, Marenghi's and Mortier organs
than other brands.  German organs were much less represented.  Today the
English sound is really the Gavioli sound and even the new large Dean
organs sound a lot like Gavs.

So, there are three major types of large organs, the fair organ, the
dance organ, and the Dutch street organ.  Fair organs were voiced loudly
for use outdoors on a fairground or carnival ride.  They had to be heard
above the sounds of the machinery, above the crowd, and above each
other.  The German fair organs such as Ruth, Gebruder Bruder, Wilhelm
Bruder Sohne and others used violins in the major melody, accompaniment
and bass parts (the "large bearded viols" previously referred to).  They
used open and stopped flue pipes for foundations and reed trumpets and
trombones for countermelodies and sub bass.  The French organs, however,
tended to use clarinets in the melody and reed baritones in the
countermelodies.  This gave them a different sound.  All of these used
mixtures in the forte registers which do tend to be piercingly loud (as
they were intended to be).  Fair organs were originally operated from
pinned barrels and then after Gavioli's invention by folding cardboard
books.  Later organs sometimes used punched paper rolls.

Dance organs are constructed similarly but are voiced more softly for
indoor use.  They use more registers intended to provide a dance band
sound effect.  There were registers that were almost always used on
dance organs and no others.  These include jazz flutes and the like.
They did use saxaphones and accordians on the facade.  The saxaphones
were fake and the sounds were produced by pipes.  The accordians were
real and were tubed to actually play.  Dance organs had heavier bass
sections as the music they played was most often used for dancing and
it was important to emphasize the beat of the music.  The dance organs
also used more forms of percussion also to emulate a dance band.  This
could include maracas, castenets, temple blocks, bells, and other stuff
along with several sizes of drums and cymbals.  The facades frequently
had lighting that shifted with the registration in the music to change
colors or to highlight the saxaphone or accordian solo parts.  Dance
organs were generally operated from folding cardboard books but a few
like Bursens used paper rolls.  Dance organs can be found all over the
western world but were most popular in Belgium and Holland where there
are still a few dance halls operating today.

Fair organs and dance organs were discussed first because most of the
Dutch street organs or "Pierrements" were not built new but were
rebuilt from former fair or dance organs.  The street organ industry
began in Amsterdam when blind Leon Warnies started the first rental
agency for street organs in 1875.  These organs developed over a period
of several decades until they reached the generalized style with which
we are now familiar.  Larger organs were cut down and new facades
fabricated which lent themselves to being trundled around on a large
three wheeled cart.  A common scale was the "standardized street organ
scale" which was based on the 56 key Limonaire scale.  However, many
other scales were also used and some of the finest organs us the Frei
72 or 90 key scales.  These organs were, of course all hand turned, and
a team of two or three people would take them out.  One would turn the
organ and the other one or two would collect money from the audience.

Carl Frei was a German national who had grown up in Waldkirch im
Bresgau, a town in the Black Forest region of Germany and  which
boasted 9 organ factories.  These included all the Bruders, Ruth, Weber
and the German branch of Gavioli and the German branch of Limonaire.
After WWI, Carl Frei emmigrated to Holland and settled there, marrying
a nice Flemish girl in the process.  By then he had apprenticed in
several of the Waldkirch factories and the Gavioli factory in Paris.
While he brought a tradition of German organ building with him, he
adapted quickly and soon revolutionized the Dutch street organ design
and music.  Frei developed the now standard layout of melody violins and
bourdons with the bourdons tuned celeste.  He used these also in the
accompaniments and countermelodies and included such new ranks as the
unda maris (waves of the sea) and the bifoons.  These ranks and the use
of bourdons gives the Dutch street organ the characteristic flutey
sound with much use of the tremulant.  Frei also arranged much new music
picking up on existing themes and developing astonishingly beautiful
melodies.  His series of serenades are not equaled anywhere else and his
compositions deserve even more recognition than they generally get
outside of the street organ circles.  At the time of WWII, Carl Frei
Sr. a German national, was deported back to Germany, along with his
family including his son, Carl Frei Jr.  The Frei's settled back in
Carl's hometown of Waldkirch where, after the war, they resumed the
business of building, repairing and providing music for organs.  Carl
Frei Sr. was a genius at voicing pipes, organizing organs and arranging
and composing music.  A construction craftsman he was not.  Every organ,
including my own, which is documented to have been worked on by Carl
Frei is a haywired nightmare.  He would stick pipes all over the place
including under the tops and on the sides of the organ, wherever he
could find room.  Then he ran tubes all over to connect everything up.
The result sounded like heaven but looked like the other place.  I have
not seen any of Carl Frei Junior's work so I don't know if he inherited
this trait from his father or not.

There remains another class of street organ which is different from the
Dutch street organ.  These are the organs that today we generally
classify as monkey organs.  They were originally "drehorgels" or
"draaiorgels" meaning turning organ and were originally barrel organs
that were hand cranked.  They range from small hand carried organs to
larger ones requiring a cart to carry them.  These are still being
built today by quite a few manufacturers in England, Germany, France,
Holland and Belgium.  Organs being built today are no longer barrel
organs but are operated by paper rolls or computer chips.  Major
builders are Raffin and Hofbauer in Germany, and Pell and Dean in
England.  There are many others and a list is being compiled which will
be posted to our list eventually.  These organs are commonly 20 note or
31 note and most of the 20 note organs will interchange music although
the mechanical spools are sometimes different.  However, a few organs
are being built which operated on cardboard books (such as by Verbeek
and Prinsen in Belgium) and organs with scales as large as 41 or 48
notes are being built by Pell and Dean.

A final note about American organs.  The first Dekleist and Wurlitzer
organs were imported from Gebruder Bruder and others in Germany.
However, they soon began building their own organs.  A portion of the
American market desired a loud instrument with a fast tempo and
Wurlitzer and others catered to this market.  These organs generally did
not have a countermelody and often used open flue pipes and wooden
trumpets in the melody.  Violins were used on some organs but were often
relegated to support functions.  The military band organ is not
significantly different from other American band organs.  However, a
number of companies in America built significant numbers of organs with
ranks of brass trumpets and trombones prominently displayed on the
front.  These replaced the normal wooden versions of the same pipes.
They became "military" band organs because of all the brass displayed
up front.  Other companies such as Gavioli also built organs with a lot
of brass pipes showing but they were not generally called military band
organs.  The Wurlitzers and North Tonawanda's played the same music
rolls as their non-brass brethren so they were not musically much
different.

There were, in addition, a number of European instruments that were
imported by individual parks and showmen so there are a number of
Ruths, Gavioli's, Bruders and others that have been in America since
new.  Also, there were several makers of barrel (monkey) organs that
were built primarily in New York City by immigrants continuing their
trades in this country.  Makers such as Molinari have become quite well
known for these instruments.

Trust me, this has been the extremely short version of this very long
story.  The organ industry was once a significant part of many European
(and at least one American) cities.  The stories of the lives of the
people involved with the industry are fascinating with loves, hates,
victories, failures and at least one murder.  I hope these notes are of
help in sorting out the various types of organs and I invite any
corrections or clarifications to what is a very coarse overview of this
class of instrument.

Bob Conant¶
Endicott, NY