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Polyphon Musical Box Magic

MUSIC FROM A POLYPHON DISC MUSICAL BOX MADE IN 1898 IN LEIPZIG When our forefathers were celebrating New Year’s Eve on December 31st. 1899 Queen Victoria was in the fifty third year of Her reign and Britain was at the height of her power. Her huge and powerful Navy ‘Ruled the Waves’ and the boast was that ‘the sun never set on the British Empire’. The world, however, was on the verge of tremendous change and upheaval though, as yet, the storm clouds of the twentieth century were but a wisp on the horizon. The musical box had grown in popularity throughout the reign of Victoria and had become the favourite mechanical musical instrument for home entertainment. However, it possessed the double disadvantage of being able to carry only a limited selection of tunes on each cylinder and of the high cost of the instrument itself. A greater variety of music was available by purchasing extra cylinders for the interchangeable cylinder boxes, but these cylinders were very expensive and beyond the pocket of the average person. This all changed in 1885 with the perfection and marketing of the disc musical box by Paul Lochman. This development made it possible for people to select discs of the latest music and build a collection according to their individual taste. By the 1890s the disc musical box industry was highly competitive and flourishing both in Europe and America. Penny-in-the-slot musical boxes (and automatic pianos) were to be found in public houses, cafes, hotels and places of amusement and the boom continued into the first decade of the twentieth century. ROY MICKLEBURGH CYLINDER MUSICAL BOXES The metal comb with tuned teeth is the basis of all cylinder and disc musical boxes and was first commercially manufactured by Antoine Favre of Geneva in 1796. The cylinder musical box industry evolved out of this development and provided the wealthy upper classes with domestic automatic musical entertainment. The Swiss dominated the production of these precision instruments throughout their period of popularity which lasted from 1820 to around 1880. The Nicole Freres company are acknowledged as having been the finest cylinder musical box makers and today their instruments command the highest value in the auction room. The cylinder musical box usually has a single brass cylinder containing from six to a dozen tunes, with the movement set in a beautifully inlaid wooden box. It might also boast two or more tuned combs—for loud and soft (‘fortepiano’) tones and have attachments which modify the sound to give zither, harp or other effects. It might even have bells and drums operated by butterfly ornamented strikers. To buy a large cylinder musical box with organ attachment or one with interchangeable cylinders would have cost a great deal by any standards and to own a cylinder musical box at all would have been an indulgence of the rich. The commercial desirability, as well as the need for greater musical variety, of a more generally affordable instrument led to the next development and a change of geographical location. DISC MUSICAL BOXES The heavier industrial area of Leipzig in Germany now became the centre of activity for the manufacture of disc musical boxes following Paul Lochmann’s development in the mid 1880s of the metal disc. The basic music making mechanism of the tuned steel comb remained but the means of operating this comb was novel. Lochmann’s Symphonion company started to mass produce various sized metal discs with protrusions punched out of them so as to play the tuned comb via a star wheel system. One tune per disc was the norm but these discs were relatively cheap and the boxes too were more within the reach of the less well-off. The musical box industry was a huge success and the rival Polyphon company set up in Germany followed by Regina in New Jersey and several other makers. Disc sizes ranged from about 4” up to 27” and the box sizes from tiny table models to enormous and highly decorated pieces of furniture. Tonal differences between the various makers are great and one can soon spot a Polyphon from a Symphonion from a Regina. The musical arrangements also can be of great complexity and interest and well worth preserving by means of modern recording. Many of the instruments on this recording came from the late Roy Mickleburgh’s collection in Bristol. Without his collecting zeal and generosity in allowing us to record his instruments, the preservation of this fascinating stage in the history of entertainment and popular music would not have been possible. This recording (and the many others that we have issued featuring music from his collection) is dedicated to his memory. GEF LUCENA