Music Old and New
By Jim Canavan
My two cents on the ongoing thread regarding mechanical music and music appreciation. As a member of the "thirty-something" generation (at least for another 4 months!), I've loved classical music since I was about three or four years old, when my mother introduced it to me via her 1940's era classical 78s.
This was also the beginning of my love affair with 78-rpm records and old phonographs in general, and when the 90-something lady next door gave me a box full of 1920's era 78s -- well, you can guess the rest. I don't remember when I was first introduced to a player piano, but I know I've wanted one since I was about 12. It took me until I was 37 before I had the discretionary funds (and room) to buy a restored one -- but it was worth the wait!
Whenever I play one of my phonographs for "newbies" in the world of early music machines, they always express amazement at how "good" the sound quality is. Why? Because what they're used to hearing (in every antique mall or flea market) is a scratched, 1940's-era electrically recorded 78s played on an unrestored 1920 acoustic Victrola. It's up to us collectors to invite the public to see and hear what a properly-restored mechanical music machine sounds like.
Like many others here, I enjoy a wide range of music, from grand opera to 20's dance bands to rock & pop, and so do most of my thirty-something friends! Likewise, my interest in phonographs and mechanical music has gotten several of them interested in these things also. And I guess that's my point: the more visible (and audible) that player pianos, organettes, nickelodeons, etc. are to younger people, the more our hobby will flourish, long after those who remember the heyday of these instruments are gone.
And as for the music played on these instruments? There's room in the hobby for all tastes, just as there was back in the instruments' heyday!
Jim Canavan
CYBRFLASH@aol.com
Alexandria, VA |
(Message sent Mon 10 Feb 1997, 14:56:49 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
|
|
Mechanical
Music Digest™ Archives
