Last week, I received from Mr. Kevin McElhone two superb audio music
cassettes [MC] featuring an Aeolian Orchestrelle Style V and a Style Y.

The Style V cassette bears the title "The Aeolian Orchestrelle" from
Keith Harding's World of Mechanical Music.  It includes such selections
as "American Patrol," "Cotton Picker's Rag," "King Carnival March,"
"Funeral March of a Marionette" (The "Alfred Hitchcock" theme) and
16 other selections.

More than a few of these (I'm assuming 58-note roll) selections bear
an uncanny resemblance to Wurlitzer Military Band Organ music!  I'm
assuming this is so because of the 58-note compass of the Style V
Orchestrelle and the instrument's being a reed organ with individual
harmonic chambers beneath the reeds.

The Style Y Orchestrelle is, according to the cassette notes, from the
Dunrobin Castle and dates from 1905.  It was restored during 1998-1999
by Mr. McElhone.  This excellent cassette captures this Orchestrelles
first performance in 30 years following this most recent restoration.

Having collected a huge variety of automatic musical instrument
cassettes and CDs over the past 31 years, I can report that these are
the very first two cassettes devoted to the Aeolian Orchestrelle that
I have found -- a very underrepresented automatic musical instrument
indeed!

It also seems that the earliest Orchestrelle manufacture antedates the
internal player piano by a few years.  In any event, these are two very
enjoyable cassettes of rarely recorded automatic reed organs.

Regards,

Bob Baker
Electric Orchestras, Inc.