There is an Internet letter circulating that shows pictures of
a marvelous mechanical musical instrument that [purportedly] was
designed and built by students at Iowa State University or some such,
and that it was designed with parts from John Deere farm equipment.

It is no such thing.  The picture is a still photograph from an
Animusic production,  http://www.animusic.com/dvd-info-clips-1.html
and is part of the web site for Animusic which produces, well...,
animated cartoons.  But these are cartoons that should fascinate lovers
of mechanical music, because they are essentially fantasies about it.

I've seen an entire section of one of the DVD's before; these clips
aren't as good, but they give you the idea.  See especially 'Pipe
Dreams,' 'Drum Machine,' and the Aqua Harp (or whatever it's called).
I suspect that the artists were inspired by player pianos and Violinos
- Violonos - Violanoes - Viva Zapata.

I apologize if you've seen this before -- for all I know, I might have
first seen Animusic on MMD.

Mark Kinsler
Lancaster, Ohio USA
http://www.mkinsler.com/