There is a video of the Hupfeld mechanical violin and piano on YouTube
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_MO8Pw0yys&feature=related

The link has been posted here before, and I mention it only because
it's a very good video.  This is a polite way of saying that a lot of
the videos of mechanical musical instruments posted on YouTube and
elsewhere are simply awful.

The problem with most of them -- besides the unavoidable difficulties
of insufficient light and marginal camera equipment -- is that they
don't show the workings of the device.  You see a cabinet sitting there
with music playing.  About eleven seconds of a wheezy operatic theme
popular in 1912 is about all anyone can take, unless there is also
something else worth seeing.

This, of course, is not so easy to do, if it is not your instrument
that you are recording.  And the manufacturers didn't make it easy by
concealing everything in cabinetry the way they did.  The idea back
around World War I was to minimize the mechanical part of the instru-
ment and make it a refined parlor piece.

I've noticed that a few of the better videos are done with the instru-
ment cases removed, which of course makes everything nicer.

Please note that this isn't meant as a criticism of anyone's efforts.
Presumably whoever made the videos did their best under the circum-
stances.  It's just that there are a lot of really wretched videos of
mechanical musical instruments out there.  I thought this might be
worth discussing.  Do you have any observations on how these instru-
ments can be photographed more optimally, perhaps even in a museum
setting?

Mark Kinsler
Lancaster, Ohio