Re: Hand-Punched Manivelle; Tipu Tiger
By Michael Woolf
Rev. Robert Linnstaedt writes about his hand-punched manivelle. I have a rather similar item. This is the "SANKYO Computer Music." A modern, streamlined plastic case (with a Scots tartan top design!) and card strips 2 3/4 x 16 1/3 inches, some pre-programmed and others blank for self-arrangement. The cards are marked "Punch'n'play fun." Not an antique but a nice curio. And it isn't a manivelle, but driven by a small electric motor. Unlike Robert's apparatus it wasn't reduced to $450. From memory it was $5 at a garage sale . . .
Tippoo's Tiger is indeed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Interesting to read that it may have been worked on by the great organ-building Willis family. However in recent years it was restored by Arthur Ord-Hume. Twenty years ago I asked him what it sounded like. "Bloody awful!" he replied. I asked if he'd had the sounds analysed by an expert Indian musicologist. Yes, he had. And how did the expert think it sounded, I asked. "Bloody awful!" again was the reply.
I read a definition of a musicologist the other day. "Someone who can read music but can't hear it."
michael woolf
new zealand |
(Message sent Fri 25 Oct 1996, 00:36:34 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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