Details about what a barrel organ is

Today we will talk about what a barrel organ is. This is a mechanical device, the task of which is the reproduction of musical works. The inventor of it is the Italian Barbieri.

Description

To understand what a barrel organ is,it is necessary to find out the etymology of this term. It comes from the name of the French song Charmante Catherine, which can be translated as "Beautiful Catherine". This was one of the first works performed on this instrument. In addition, the device is also known as a street organ. If you are interested in what a barrel organ is, you should know that it was sometimes called "Catharinka" in Russia. Originally, this tool was used to train different songbirds. Then he wore the name "drozdovka" or "chizhovka".

By construction, the device is a small organ withoutkeyboard. It is a box in which in several rows are placed furs, sounding tubes, and also a metal or wooden roller, supplemented by spiked cams. The organ-grinder, twisting the pen, could reproduce from six to eight melodies. All of them were recorded on a platen. Such cam mechanisms have been known since Antiquity. In Holland in the fifteenth century, instruments of this type represented complex stationary structures. They operated by means of a winding mechanism, hydraulics or weights. In the 18th and 19th centuries, a variety of barrel organ was used quite often in English churches, psalms and hymns played on them.

Interesting Facts

Next, consider what a barrel organ in culture,how often this tool is found in various works. For example, one of the plays by Andrei Platonov is called "Sharmanka". In the fairy tale "The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio," Pope Carlo is an organ-grinder. The song "Sharmanka" can be found in the repertoire of Pavel Kashin. Also worth mentioning is the metro station "Udelnaya" in the city of St. Petersburg. Near it there is a monument to the organ-grinder. The instrument that interests us is connected with the surreal computer game Neverhood. Playing on it, the hero awakened from sleep a terrible monster. In the work of D. D. Shostakovich you can find the play "Polka the Barber", and in the story "The White Poodle" by AI Kuprin, such a musical instrument was owned by Martyn Lodyzhkin.

Technologies

There is also a program called"Virtual barrel organ". Its purpose is voice communication via the Internet. The audio stream is transmitted using a special codec. This solution has a high quality of sound when delivered over the Internet. It is possible to create conferences and install repeaters.

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