Today we will talk about what is a barrel organ. We are talking about a mechanical device whose task is to play musical works. Its inventor is the Italian Barbieri.
Description
To understand what the barrel organ is, you need 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." So called 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 “Katarinka” in Russia. Initially, this tool was used to train various songbirds. Then he bore the name "blackbird" or "chizhovka".
By structure, the device is a small organ without a keyboard. This is a box in which there are several rows of furs, sounding tubes, as well as a metal or wooden roller, supplemented by spiked fists. The organ grinder, twisting the handle, could play from six to eight tunes. All of them were recorded on a roller. Similar cam devices have been known since antiquity. In the Netherlands in the fifteenth century, instruments of this type represented complex stationary structures. They acted with a winding mechanism, hydraulics or weights. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, various barrel organs were used quite often in English churches, and psalms and hymns were played on them.
Interesting Facts
Next, we consider what a barrel organ in culture is, how often this instrument is found in various works. For example, one of Andrei Platonov’s plays is called “The Barrel”. In the fairy tale “The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio,” Papa Carlo is an organ-grinder. The song "Barrel" can be found in the repertoire of Pavel Kashin. Also worth mentioning is the Udelnaya metro station in St. Petersburg. A monument to the organ grinder is erected near it. The tool we are interested in is also connected with the surreal computer game Neverhood. Having played it, the hero awakened a terrible monster from sleep. In the work of D. D. Shostakovich, one can find the play “Polish-organ”, and in the novel “The White Poodle” by A. I. Kuprin, Martyn Lodyzhkin owned such a musical instrument.
Technologies
There is also a program called "Virtual street organ". Its purpose is voice communication over the Internet. The audio stream is transmitted using a special codec. This solution is distinguished by high sound quality when delivered via the Internet. It is possible to create conferences and install repeaters.