Daniel Cox wrote in 071125 MMDigest:

> I read with interest the lament that mechanical music videos
> on YouTube show very little of the behind-the-scenes action
> that produces the music.

That was me.  I lament a lot.

> I myself have a YouTube page and have at present twelve clips online.
> My latest clip, on my player grand, shows a bit more then usual:
> motor, transmission, bellows pumping, and of course, hammers playing.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrYMBsiWLiQ


Very nicely done, and it looks like it was a lot of work to edit.
I always try to look at the holes in the roll and see if I can equate
them with the music I'm hearing.  The substantial sound delay that one
often gets with YouTube makes this more difficult, but I'm usually able
to divine something.

What you've done is difficult but necessary, and that is to make the
pictures tell their own story.  For example, you showed that splendid
three-bellows motor that moves the roll along, but it wasn't obvious
just what it did until you showed the gears driving the roll.

I was kind of hoping you'd show the machine re-winding the roll at
the end.  And it would have also been great if you'd shown the label,
if any, of the lever the person was manipulating during the performance:
I don't know what it was controlling.

I would advise anyone who likes to make videos of mechanical music
devices to try to put himself in the place of the rank newcomer.
I, for example, know the names and functions of a lot of the devices
in mechanical musical instruments from the discussions on this list,
but I generally don't know what they look like or how they work with
the rest of the machine.  That's why it's so important that the videos
explain things as well as this one did.

Oh: as for Romeo and Juliet, I might observe that the Latin beat of
that QRS arrangement was a bit odd, but it probably made someone happy.
Thanks very much for posting this.

Mark Kinsler
Lancaster, Ohio, USA
http://www.mkinsler.com/