Hi everybody -- Frank Metzger here.  I really could use some help from
one (or more) of you who is a musician.

We have to restore a tiny, very valuable barrilet musical movement
(part of a tiny automaton).  It has (had) only five teeth.  There
are only two teeth left -- the highest note and the next lower note.
On my Strobotuner they are

  1.  Highest: G
  2.  Next lower: C

The question is:  What is the possible tuning of the other three teeth?
Here are the clues:

1.  They are all heavier than the C therefore probably lower.

2.  Usually, music on movements like this was in a major key.

3.  Usually, movements like this played a simple country type dance
tune or song.  The automation is a woman playing a Vielle (Hurdy Gurdy)
and a man dancing to the tune.

4.  We have the intact broken off vibrating part of the lowest tooth.
We clamped it into a pin vice (thereby raising the note somewhat) and
got a F.  So its possible that the lowest note was perhaps F# or G.

I can make the teeth but am unsure about the tuning.  I sure would
appreciate it if some of you who understand music much better than
I do would give this problem some thought and recommend one or more
scales I could try.  Thanks a lot !

Frank Metzger

 [ Frank, could you make a replica template from the barrel, from which
 [ we could determine the melody pattern?  Wrap a strip of adding
 [ machine paper around the barrel and gently press it into the pins.
 [ Be sure to indicate the beginning and end.  (Piano rolls sound
 [ pretty odd when played backwards and/or swapped bass-to-treble!)
 [
 [ My guess is (descending) G, C, B, A, G,  wherein the high G serves
 [ for ornamentation, like the shorter 5th string on a 5-string banjo.
 [ This scale would sound okay (but not very accurate) for a song like
 [ "The Bear Went Over the Mountain".  :-)  -- Robbie