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MMD > Archives > December 2012 > 2012.12.27 > 02Prev  Next


Crank-organ Plays With André Rieu Orchestra
By Rowland Lee

I'm certain Ingmar Krause [121223 MMDigest] is correct when he
surmises that it is the orchestra, rather than the organ, which is
actually playing in this excerpt.  There is a good musical pedigree 
for orchestrations which set out to imitate, or to conjure up an
impression of, mechanical music.

I'm sure everyone will know the "Carousel Waltz", from the Rodgers and
Hammerstein stage show and film, where it is not only the repeated
notes on the glockenspiel which remind us of a band organ, but also the
'wrong' notes in the melody which are deliberately characteristic of
the altered melody lines which one finds in instruments lacking a full
chromatic compass.  There is also an imitation of a small crank-organ
in one of Stravinsky's ballets -- Petrouchka, I think -- and
innumerable examples in film scores.

For me, however, the stand-out example of this type of orchestration
is to be found in Puccini's opera 'Il Tabarro' (the first section of
'Il Trittico') where a small crank-organ is visible on the stage but
the sound of the charming little waltz is created in the orchestra
using bass clarinet, 2 clarinets, 2 flutes, triangle and glockenspiel.

Puccini is slightly cruel here in that the two flutes both play the
melody line at a dissonant interval from one another, implying that the
organ is out of tune!

Rowland Lee, UK


(Message sent Thu 27 Dec 2012, 14:55:06 GMT, from time zone GMT.)

Key Words in Subject:  André, Crank-organ, Orchestra, Plays, Rieu

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