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Mechanical Music Museums in Vienna
By Mike Knudsen

What is the "Mechanical Museum" of Vienna?

Having spent one week in Vienna two years ago (not nearly long enough
for this capital city of beauty and fascination), I've been making
a list of museums and sights that I missed the first time, for when
I return for a few days this summer.

I'd like to know the official German name for the Mechanical Museum,
since I don't recall seeing it in the guide books.  I intend to visit
the Applied Arts Museum (which is said to have some instruments and
clocks) and the Art History Museum, which has many hand-played
instruments.  I've already toured the Clock Museum and the Musical
Instrument Museum in the Hoffburg off the Heldenplatz.

The Clock Museum (Urhmuseum) has a good-sized flute barrel organ
originally from the city's major coffee house, but as far as I know
it is never played.  A few plays per day could not come close to the
wear and tear it must have had in its coffee house days!

Also, I wonder if Herr Helmut Kowar knows if any sound recordings
or register specifications have been found of the Anker outdoor
clock-organ, which was destroyed in World War II.  It has since been
rebuilt to look the same, but the organ music played hourly is just
recordings of a hand-played church organ.  I "discovered" this replica
on my last day in Vienna, and had hardly returned home when the MBSI
Journal came with Arthur Ord-Home's article on it.  It was certainly
the prince of flute-clocks!

Mike Knudsen


(Message sent Sat 24 Jun 2000, 18:51:15 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Mechanical, Museums, Music, Vienna
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