Mechanische Musikinstrumente

Joseph Haydn composed special music for musical clocks, and obviously did so in close cooperation with his colleague at the Esterhazy court, the court chaplain and librarian P. Primitivus Niemecz, who became well-known for his skills in building musical automata. Two flute clocks (from 1792 and 1793) bearing Niemeczs signature are extant, two others are attributed to him. A further flute clock, made by Johann Joseph Wiest, was on exhibition until 1804 in Deym´s art gallery in Vienna, thus...

Originally, Mozart’s Adagio and Allegro KV 594 was to be played on the organ automaton of an opulent diorama presented by Count Deym in Vienna in 1791, in memory of field marshal Laudon; technical problems, however, seem to have prevented this piece from ever being played. Thanks to the new CD released by the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the music of this composition is now brought to life as a virtual reconstruction. Without the expertise gained during the...

From 1791 on Count Deym presented in his art gallery a pompous, temple-like diorama showing life-sized wax figures, the so-called “Laudon’s tomb”. The music for this picture came from a barrel organ playing Mozart’s KV 608. This musical automaton and the original cylinder with Mozart’s piece pinned on it have been lost since 1821. But it seemed possible to restore the original sound and performance, thanks to quite a number of contemporary communications and treatises, other existing historical...

While the CD published in 2002 featured the flute clock around 1800, this CD presents the larger flute works of the Biedermeier period. . With their collections of barrels these flute works document a pronounced fondness of the public for the opera. The musical performance of the instruments had exceeded the limits of the small flute clocks, and with the possibility of playing barrels of up to 4 ½ minutes’ duration, arias could now be played at full length, and whole scenes – with some...

Even the earliest reports state that such instruments were incorporated into clocks as well as other pieces of furniture. The smaller flute clock, however, went out of fashion rather quickly, apparently being replaced by the smaller barrel organs which are associated with clocks belong to the early days of this type of automata. The present CD is dedicated to these instruments. This type of Viennese flute clock was made only as a mantle clock. The small organ work with its pipes, bellows,...

In the first two decades of 19th century Anton and Josef Olbrich in Vienna and Franz Rzebitschek in Prague started to make musical boxes. These instruments represented strong competition to the Swiss models and won prizes at national and international exhibitions. This second CD focuses on operatic melodies, encompassing operatic music from Rossini`s Il Barbiere(1816) to Verdi`s Rigoletto (1851) on instruments which cover a period of around 50 years. Italian opera dominates, beginning with...

From the early years of the 19th centuryon also in the Austrian empire, in Vienna and Prague, musical boxes were made. They are appreciated nowadays by collectors and conoisseur for their fine craftmanship and outstanding quality of tone. It was Anton Olbrich in Vienna and Frantisek Rzebitschek in Prague in their first years who created what is known today as the „Viennese style“ musical box movement. The movements were built in mantle clocks, picture clocks and also in cassettes. The...