House on the Rock, WI - Part 1: The music machine

This music was played by a machine on real instruments... the guy who built the House on the Rock also was fascinated by music machines and he built a lot of them^^ This is just one of them... they are huge...

If you see this live, it is creepy as hell!

[KatyKatetheLeeKaylee]

Incredible rendition of the famed piece! I hope one day to hear it live!

[KawhackitaRag]

This is the "Mikado" fantasy music machine designed and constructed by Art Reblitz, John Hovancak, and Alex Jordan, Jr in the 1970s. It is based upon the pipes from an 84-key Mortier dance organ, originally built sometime in the 'teens (possibly circa 1914). The elaborate front you see is actually the original Mortier front, re-painted in red and gold, with many added pieces which are later fabrications, such as the overhanging "roof" and lanterns. The moving figures are new, too.

[KawhackitaRag]

The "Mikado" sounds in good shape here, and this is a nice quality video, thanks for the post!

[KawhackitaRag]

Instead of the Mortier chassis, the original Mortier pipes are mounted on custom-built electro-pneumatic windchests, not unlike those used by theatre pipe organs, which I believe were built specifically for this installation. Instead of a normal keyframe and folding cardboard music books, the organ plays (played?) off of a paper roll frame, the same type used by "O" roll orchestrions, but with a custom scale designed by Art Reblitz. Finally, the percussion is mostly newer construction, too.

[KawhackitaRag]

The original Mortier chassis was not used, probably because House On the Rock would need a full-time maintenance person to service the original Mortier keyframe and windchests, which, although perfectly reliable for continuous performance at a Belgian Dance Hall (with regular maintenance), are not equipped to deal with all the temperature and humidity changes at HOTR, not to mention the presumably long time between service calls. So, the original chassis is now in a collection in Illinois.

[andrewbarrett]

+shanagittel Thanks! I'm too young to have had anything to do with the construction of this instrument. I'm just an enthusiast of self-playing musical instruments who has been reading about the history of "The Mikado" in internet enthusiast forums such as the "Mechanical Music Digest" archives. The new (1970s) scale for this instrument is in the book "Treasures of Mechanical Music" by Arthur A. Reblitz and Q. David Bowers (Vestal Press, 1981) which is today a rare book, but used to be found in larger libraries.

[KawhackitaRag]

This tune is "Danse Macabre", composed by Camille Saint-Saens, and arranged by Art Reblitz specifically for this instrument.

Fun fact: although this instrument was designed/re-built to have a Japanese theme, NONE of the three tunes it plays are actual Japanese tunes! "Danse Macabre" is French, "Ritual Fire Dance" by Manuel De Falla is Spanish, and "Harem Bells" was composed by the famous organist Korla Pandit, who, although he claimed to be East Indian, was actually African-American!

[ShanaGittel]

So knowledgeable about this wonderful machine! Did you build it, or something =)?

[KawhackitaRag]

If you want to see a video of a nice original Mortier dance organ, check out the video of the 97-key "Four Columns" organ posted by Youtube user "nickn5nl".