Spanish Barrel Pianos
By Dan Wilson
I've just spent a very enjoyable four weeks in Spain, doing almost nothing but lie in the sun and read. But automatic pianos will come and find you out ... in a bar by the beach at Torre Guardiaro I suddenly became aware I was sitting back to back with a very large and gloomy barrel piano, being used as a plant stand. It was missing its crank handle but everything else was in place, including the tune selector and tune sheet, which was rather surprisingly typed. The fretwork was fairly simple and suggested a late date of around 1910. The maker's plate was missing.
When I expressed interest, the bar girl led me to a second piano, which she said worked, although the regular customers rather preferred it not working. This was one of the classic undersized type of around 1890 of which a few were still playing in the streets of London during and just after WW2. In this case the tune sheet was not only typed but on a Madrid piano-tuner's headed notepaper, printed in classical late 1930s or 40s style with a six-digit phone number. There was a maker's plate "LUIS CASALI Torres Amat 1 Barcelona" and a smaller repairer's plate "J DE BERNARDI (unreadable address) SALAMANCA".
The tunes were as follows:
Anonymous "1910" piano Luis Casali piano ---------------------- ----------------- Nota de las Piezas (Cilindro) 1 Vals, Fandanguillo de Almeria 1 Vals Peteneras 2 Paso-doble, El Gallo 2 Pasodoble El Fallero 3 ld - Las Cosarias 3 " Las Leandras 4 ld - Valencia 4 " El Gato montes 5 ld - El Gato Montes 5 " Vaya torerazo 6 Schotis, Rosa de Madrid 6 Schotis La Violetera 7 Mazurca, La Verbena de la Paloma 7 Habanera La Paloma 8 Habanera, El Ven y Ven 8 Mazurka, Santa Lucia 9 Tango, A media Luz 9 Rok, Ahora te puedes marchar 10 Jota, T R E M P S 10 Jota Aragonesa
Can anyone tell me an absolute earliest date for either of these lists ? Spanish belle-epoque pop is not my strong point. I later met a piano repairman who spoke some English and according to him, coin-operated roll-playing pianos were very rare in Spain, being German and confined to the Madrid area. But barrel pianos were common in bars in the bigger centres where there were piano workshops to maintain them right up to 1939. Unlike in England, where traditional pubs prefer quiet and barrel pianos were mostly hired out by the day for street use, Spanish examples were (he said) all used in bars.
Dan Wilson
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