John Wolff's Web Museum

Mechanical Organettes - Preserving the Original Music

Paper organette rolls were among the first media for the mass distribution of recorded music. Their peak production covered a period of about 20 years, from their mass-marketing in the early 1880s until superseded by the gramophone in the early 1900s. The original rolls have not survived in great numbers, and many of those that have are in poor condition. The illustration opposite shows three typical Celestina rolls in various stages of decay.

Despite their poor condition, these rolls still contain recoverable music that is an important part of the historical record. The music covers a broad range of traditional songs, operatic songs and choruses, popular and music-hall songs, dance tunes, comic songs, religious songs and hymns, and military songs and marches. The rolls give a snapshot of the popular culture during the period from the 1850s to the early years of the 20th century. For example, they tell us that American civil war songs (from both sides) were still popular well into the 1880s.

In order to preserve (and increase) my supply of organette music, I have been working on several hobby projects which aim to:

• preserve the music on the rare and fragile paper in computer format
• produce duplicates of my original rolls to use as "playing copies"
• produce new rolls from original arrangements.

The process started early in 1996, when I wrote some computer software to read a MIDI file and print out a template for a 14-note tune sheet. (Yes, it was a nursery rhyme for the baby - but she was nearly six by then). Since that time, I have:

• reverse-engineered original 14, 16, and 20-note rolls to establish the factory timing and punching characteristics.
• successfully transcribed the music from these original rolls into computer format, both manually and with a home-made optical scanner.
• developed a method for "digitally re-mastering" to restore the original note timing and spacing, removing manufacturing defects and correcting the effects of paper stretch and ageing.
• archived a collection of 20-note organette rolls onto CD in digital and audio form.
• built a prototype of a computer-driven roll punch, and punched over two million holes.
• manufactured hundreds of roll spools and 2-piece covered boxes.
• produced "playing copies" of original rolls for my own use, and copied a number for associates.
• produced new organette and crank organ rolls from original arrangements.
• produced a reference catalogue of the 20-note Celestina rolls which I have processed (PDF file, 93kb), and prepared an index of tunes (PDF file, 53kb).
• exchanged rolls with associates in several countries.

While it has been very rewarding to use computers and modern electronic technology to produce new music for these instruments from the 1880s, it is also rather humbling to realise that the craftsmen who produced the original rolls probably never had the benefit of anything electrical - not even an electric light!