I don't know how many of you will have the opportunity to visit Tokyo
at any point, but I decided that this would be a good place to let
you know of a nice public display of MM instruments that I was able
to visit today while here on business (Am I correct Robbie?).

 [ Certainly, and I hope your boss approves too!  :->  -- Robbie

About 30 minutes outside Tokyo by train is the "Parthenon Tama
Automatic Musical Instruments Magic Sound Room".  Say that 3 times
fast!  It is a collection of eight instruments owned by the city of
Tama.  The instruments are (dates from their pamphlet):

  27" Orchestral Regina disk music box, c. 1896-1905
  Imhof & Mukle Chamber Organ, c. 1850
  Peerless Trio Orchestrion, c. 1900
  Welte Orchestrion, c. 1915
  Encore Automatic Banjo, c. 1903
  Mills Violano Virtuoso, c. 1915
  Hupfeld Phonoliszt Violina, c. 1910-1914
  Knabe Ampico grand, c. 1927

The instruments were all played, but to hear them all you need to hang
around a bit.  Demonstrations are given at 11 AM and 1-5 PM on the
hour, with four of the eight instruments played at each demo, so you
need to go through two demos to hear them all.

The instruments all played well (I thought).  The woman running the
demonstrations told me that despite all the humidifiers in the room,
the Peerless and the Hupfeld played much better in the summer (Tokyo
is _hot and humid_ in the summer).  The Welte Orchestrion was once in
the Packard house (as in Packard automobiles) and can be seen on pages
652-653 of Bowers' "Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments",
which I was kindly lent to browse while waiting for the next round.
The physical and musical magnificence of that instrument brought me
nearly to tears.  I don't know how one measures grand pianos, but the
Knabe Ampico was about 6 feet from the fallboard to the end of the
carved case.

 [ I'm told that the size of a grand piano is the width of the
 [ doorway needed by Polish piano movers.  ;->  -- Robbie

All in all, I would recommend that anyone with a few free hours in
Tokyo visit the collection.  I was the only one there the whole
time(!), and it was fun to get to put the coins into the coin operated
instruments.  As the case was, I was able to choose which of about 12
Regina disks and 40 Ampico rolls was played (I chose Rachmaninov
playing Chopin's Waltz Opus 18 - delightful!).

Admission was an absolute bargain at 200 yen ($1.50 at today's exchange
rate).  Two CD's were available for 1000 yen ($7.50) each of recordings
made of these instruments; you need to buy both to hear them all (I did,
of course).  If there is any interest, when I return to the U.S., I can
scan some of the photos in the brochure and make them available,
perhaps with some audio snippets.  Contact me directly if you would
like any more information and for details on how to get there.

Best Regards,
Jim West