I feel that I should stick my two cents in here to clear up a possible
misconception, that these back-packed barrel pianos sound "Turkish" or
"Greek" because they're mistuned.
When I lived near Chicago a few years ago, I visited a young
collector in the North Loop who was selling quite a few small mechanical
instruments. One that I almost bought, and still wish I had, was
a back-piano labeled "Turconi." That name suggested a Turkish-Italian
maker.
One of the tunes started out like a typical German waltz, but halfway
through, the Sultan strode into the harem! At least, that's how we
described the Turkish-style tune that stormed into the bass register,
as if to break up the waltzing. But the waltz chords and bass seemed
perfectly Western European, so we didn't think of the instrument as
mis-tuned. It seemed to hold its tuning well, unlike those Barcelona
souvenirs [barrel pianos].
The other tunes were "Turkish" the whole way through, as I recall.
This piano also rang a small bell three times at the end of the
"Sultan's" tune; perhaps that will give more clues as to its style.
Mike Knudsen
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