Roger Wiegand states, "Don't even get me started on the crazy
coupling of the cymbal and bass drum endemic to almost all mechanical
organ scales."

I share Roger's frustration; the fact is, however, that historically
the bass drum and cymbals did usually share the same rhythms, with
the cymbals playing on the strong beats in military music, from which
so many popular forms derive.

For the same reason, those instruments also share a stave in older
orchestral scores and would often be played by one player, with one
cymbal attached to the top of an orchestral bass drum.  This is the
sort of playing style which is represented in earlier orchestrions
and band organs.

The idea of playing the cymbals independently on the off-beats is
a relatively modern one.  The transition to this kind of playing can
be seen in some later orchestrions such as the Hupfeld Sinfonie-Jazz
and the Weber Maesto, where the cymbal parts are independent and choke
cymbals and hi-hats start to appear alongside the crash cymbal.

Rowland Lee
UK