Re: The Tracker Organ
By Jan Kijlstra
Dear Robbie,
a short note about tracker bars. One could say that in mechanical music instruments the notes to be played are organized in rows. All the notes "D", for example, will be placed behind each other in the same row on the source (a disc, a roll, a book...). These rows are called tracks. These tracks must be read by a mechanism, in order to convert the information of the tracks to sound. The exchange of this information is in the tracker mechanism, in which we do find a bar, where each track does have its own "reading device". This bar, where the information of the holes in the tracks is read, therefore is called the tracker-bar.
So a tracker organ does have a lot to do with a tracker bar. In fact, without a device like the tracker and the tracker-bar you could not describe such an organ as a tracker organ. And I do know of tracker organs who use the tracker bar mechanism to operate the pipe pallets electrically. Besides that, almost every street organ is operated pneumatically, using a tracker bar. And I also have seen organs were the source is placed on a floppy-disc, read by a computer, but still using a tracker-bar. This does make it possible to play the old cardboard books as well as the electronic version.
So there are holes in a trackerbar, in order to be able to read the information from the source. This information is stored in the form of holes in the paper. If a hole in the source passes by a hole in the trackerbar something will happen: a tone will be produced, or a statue on the front will be moved, etc. This source consists of a medium with a group of parallel tracks on it. The holes in the source I would not call tracker holes.
There is a discussion about using electronics in mechanical music instruments. A lot of people do not like it. But they seem to forget that what they love so much always is the result of a series of technical developments and using new techniques. Another important thing to remember: if they don't follow the developments, the mechanical music instruments soon will be found only in museums.
On the other hand: if they accept electronics, there would be no need of building expensive instruments -- a computer and a couple of boxes will do. In this opinion even a radio is a mechanical music instrument.
Jan Kijlstra
[ A bar is a stick of wood or metal. Is the tracker bar, in the organ,
[ the stick of wood which connects the key to the valve(s)?
[ -- Robbie
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(Message sent Sat 18 Jan 1997, 15:04:05 GMT, from time zone GMT.) |
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