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MMD > Archives > December 1998 > 1998.12.17 > 11Prev  Next


Arranging and Making Book Music
By Hans van Oost

The Richter firm never delivered organs with metal keys, only barrel
organs and keyless organs.  All of these instruments had a scale that
was laid out in the same order as the pipes were placed on the wind-
chest.  Typical examples of this kind of layout can be found in Mr.
Bowers' book, "Treasures of Mechanical Music Instruments".  The same
system of layout was used by all German makers, except Wellershaus.

Marking books for a German scale is a tedious work.  The biggest
problem for noteurs is the handicap that it is almost impossible to
read back what you marked, unless you were very well acquainted with
the scale, like the factory markers.

Mr. Schollaert, a well-known Belgian noteur, made music for many
different scales.  He did not have much knowledge of marking music
for German scales, so he never did.

In the Netherlands, Mr. Carl Frei of Breda rebuilt many organs, under
which were some Richter barrel or book organs.  In doing so, he changed
the layout of the keyless "scrambled" scales to a more logical scale,
often devised by himself.  It was much easier to mark music for such a
changed scale, and Mr. Schollaert had no problems dealing with them,
so that's why there is a Schollaert book with Mr. Roenigk's organ.

Hans van Oost, KDV, Netherlands


(Message sent Thu 17 Dec 1998, 19:52:55 GMT, from time zone GMT+0100.)

Key Words in Subject:  Arranging, Book, Making, Music

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