What is music & what is noise?

I am sitting here at the end of the band organ season for those of us
up North, and I'm pondering on experiences from the past summer season.
I admit my personal opinion is biased because I enjoy mechanical music
in all forms.

My cause for confusion is the many requests to "turn it down!"
I get endless compliments on the restoration job, on the presentation
of the attraction, how wonderful this and that as well as the usual
rude requests to know how much it's worth, but always, "It's great but
it's too loud."  The organ is a Style 125 brass front Wurlitzer.

What really confuses me is that just five hundred feet away will be
a Tilt-A-Whirl ride playing some truly awful hit parade noise through
a many hundred or thousand watt amplification system, that has no
trouble drowning out my organ, and that is just considered part of the
carnival atmosphere!

To the best of my knowledge, player pianos, nickelodeons, coin pianos
and band organs of all sizes, did not come with a volume control.
Yes, coin pianos did have a loud soft knob, but they never did make
the music fade into the background!

I have seen many carousels located inside buildings with band organs
playing where the organ can be loud, but why playing out doors in the
open space and being constantly asked, "Is there a way you can you turn
it down," is a real mystery to me.

Should the instrument be out of tune and the trumpets squawking like
wounded ducks, perhaps it might annoy someone, but I keep my instrument
in top sounding condition at all times.

This has happened so frequently that I am starting to have self doubts
and really wonder if there is a way to cut the power of a band organ.
Do others have similar experiences?  Is there a way to tone it down?

Best in mechanical music!

Ken Vinen
Aylmer, Ontario, Canada

 [ Larry Kern wrote that sometimes "annoyances can be replaced
 [ with inattention!"  See his article on this topic at
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/Digests/200306/2003.06.04.09.html
 [ -- Robbie