could you imagine this playing at a train station? like an old train station with wooden bars and big clocks? people wearing top hats, big choo choo trains. magical
The best part is that to make a melody for this, you first have to calculate the angle at where to put all the tones from sheet-music. Then you have to shift everything the linear distance it takes to turn a star wheel just enough to sound a tone. THEN the combs and star-wheel assembly has to be perfectly aligned within 10ths of millimeters on all the music boxes that are produced. On this particular model, the innermost track moves at about 2 millimeter per second. At 120 bpm, that's 0.25mm for each full 16th note.
Johni Kruger The funny thing is that in the modern era of today, the engineering feats dwarf those of 100 years ago. The only reason we perceive it as so impressive is that we tend to underestimate the capabilities of people 100 years ago. It really is humorous to think about. However the craftsmanship of things like this impress me more, it truly is amazing, by today's standard as well.
The local art gallery where I grew up in the UK had a single disk polyphon which had been adapted to take modern coins. We used to play it every time we visited. And I remember seeing a horizontal polyphon in a music box museum elsewhere in the UK with a disk featuring 'As the World Falls Down' by David Bowie. It's a really iconic instrument.
The Polyphon comes from my beautiful city Leipzig 😊. "Mein Leipzig lob ich mir, es ist ein Klein-Paris und bildet seine Leute" that quote is from Goethe 😊
Oh, wonderful memories. When I was a high school Rotary exchange student in Australia in the early 80s one of the families had a Polyphon disc changer similar to that one. It didn't acept pennies but the discs were 13-15 inches if memory serves. It was the largest of their music box collection which also included a Symphonia and a Britania. The Polyphon seems to have favoured marches as I still have a recording of theirs playing Soldiers of the Queen. Thank you for showing us this beautifully preserved music box.
It is cool how they figured out the concept of resonant de-tuning that long ago. I didn't really think about it until I started programming patches on a synthesizer and it really fleshes out the sound.
This is the same principle used in traditional gamelan orchestras, where one set of instruments is tuned a few beats apart from the other, giving it that characteristic "shimmering" sound.
Martin, if you are ever in the U.S., the Shelbourne Museum in Vermont has a marvelous collection of music boxes. Some of them are disk units like this one, and several have mechanical figures that move with the music. That is just one part of what is actually a group of many buildings, each housing its own museum collection.
So funny that I just saw a simpler version of this very music machine in a restaurant in Tokyo! They had a drawer with the discs, since that model didn't have a selector, but it was really nice to hear it play live.
They have one of these at a local museum in my hometown. There really is no way describe how they sound besides “absolutely magical.” I cannot hear one of these without grinning from ear to ear. Especially when they’re playing a Sousa march, which I also can’t hear without grinning from ear to ear. 😍😍😍
I'm from Brazil and came to Utrecht inspired by the Marble Machine and by automatas. I went to the Speelklok Museum and wow, now I know what was your feeling there, was mind blowing! Thanks for make it public!!
I found this series today and I'm binge watching all of the videos on it. I hope they find more interesting and unique instruments and museums to keep this series going. The history behind these instruments is intriguing as well, there's a sort of magical historical quality to it. To think that people so long ago thought how to construct these technical objects on their own with no guides is inspiring. The fact that they still can play music is almost like a musical time machine. I imagine the bars where these music bars were played where men with mustaches sat eating peanuts and drinking whiskey late into the night while the sound of laughter and the glass of beer bottles moved the music to the background. I just get this sort of magical picture in my head of what it might have been like. Thanks for sharing these videos.
I'm sure that the disc they're handling is a smaller, much less valuable disc they're using as a demonstrator, and have decided to use for this sacrificial purpose. It's used to help people get involved and understand the function of the machine, without exposing the much larger, rarer, and more valuable discs to wear and tear, and possible damage.
Scott Anderson - I agree. Maybe this disk already has some kind of defect and can therefore still be used for this type of demonstration and can't be played any more. I remember back in the days of _expensive_ hard disk drives, I saw one (that would originally cost more than 10k Deutschmarks) on exhibition that was "working" with the whole cover removed - you could see the disks spinnng and the heads moving, and you knew that it didn't do any good to the drive. But Later I learned that it had suffered from a head crash before, was therefore no longer trustworthy, didn't have any data on it and was run like this for demonstration purposes. Or to rephrase ist - these people are trained professionals. They know what they're doing. :D
Wes Tucker I have an old music box that uses these discs. They are designed to bend, as they must when the arm comes down to press them against the roller. The tension allows the points to play properly.
It is probably a broken disc, that they have for demonstration purposes. In our college computer museum we have similar things, like broken opened hard drives, fried CPU's, floppy discs and other stuff, that we use to show our visitors and can give it to them for look without worrying about other valuable items. Sorry for broken english, i'm russian.
Absolutely love these videos. Thanks for putting these together. I will likely never be able to make the trip there myself, but these are a wonderful substitute.
Awesome to learn about the mechanics and the tonal theory at once. I have no connection to music or mechanics via my professional work but I find it super interesting to learn about other fields as well. :D
Polyphon built some of the first successful disc-changing musical boxes, but weren't the only maker. More famous in the USA are the Regina Co. of Rahway, N. J. who built self changing boxes (and more conventional single disc types) by the thousands. Regina were actually an immediate corporate descendant of Polyphon. Further, it should be mentioned that the Symphonion Musikwerke, also of Leipzig, the earliest commercially successful disc box maker and major competitor of Polyphon and Regina, made a relatively few disc changers of different design that are extremely rare today. Also, the American F. G. Otto and Sons, makers of the popular "Capital Cuff", "Criterion", and "Olympia" musical boxes, attempted to introduce their own disc changer, but, despite many mechanically awkward workarounds in the design to try to get around Regina's patents, still had the pants sued off them by Regina and only about 15 were built, of which I think 2 are known extant today.
Funny thing; I live in the netherlands and before seeing this video I didn't really know about this museum. Soon after seeing this video I visited this, and also saw the marble machine! Thanks for introducing me to this amazing museum in my own country.
I love tunes played by music-boxes. I congratulate and praise those who makes much efforts to make these types of music-boxes. I also congratulate and praise those who installs these types of music-boxes in some chiming clocks to make it play these types of musical chiming melodies just before or soon after striking the hours on bell or gong. I like such type of clocks. Nowadays these types of music-boxes and chiming clocks are electronically imitated by some quartz clocks because they contains circuit board of electronically recorded and programmed sound chips connected to speaker.
It would have been nice to include the information about the bells in this model. Not all Polyphon (or other company) disc music boxes had bells in them. Some also had an option for bells On/Off with a switch. I believe the bells are activated by a certain section on the disc.
Es genial! Será interesante colocar minicamaras dentro de la caja, para que los visitantes puedan conocer como trabaja todo el mecanismo. Felicitaciones por haber conservado estos tesoros.
How many people help you with theses videos ? Usually, it's well made, but recently, it's even better ! Congratulations ! Keep making such good things !
Need you to make a live concert in spaiiiin💖💖💖 i admire all about you, wintergatan, your channel and the people who works with you, you're all awesome!! You all give me faith to human being again😍💕 Faithful fan from spain here maaan💖 all you do is magic!!
I laughed aloud at the first stains of The Washington Post March. I'm from Washington, DC, and have heard or played that, and a lot of other Sousa, through my life. :-)
the difference of using a cylinder and disc on music boxes deconstruct the whole dimensionality of the 'gadget'. got to admit, this series made me want to dissect those historical instruments just for the sake of curiosity like any other toys and stuffs i ever posessed while i was a kid.
antique technology is so cool, everything is mechanical with gears and cogs and stuff, no electricity or motors. you never see stuff like that in today's world
It's so cool! I love machines like these! This is actually the reason why i subscribed you. I saw the video of the Marble Machine and though: woooow! cool! I also want/wanted to built something like this. :) Good luck with the Marble Machine X
What a beautiful antique machine :) I might visit the Speelklok Museum coming days maybe. It’s 1.5 hours by public transport from where i live. Fingers crossed that the marble machine is still there. That would be awesome to see :) Ah it was only there until the 20th of August. Shit happens :-)
Someone probably said this already: the guide mentions the bass notes can be off a little sometimes, because of the different speeds the bass notes in the middle basically have a lower resolution. If the pin is a little too much to the left or to the right it has a bigger impact on the timing than more to the outside of the ring.
Does any happen to have any information about how cylinders or discs for music boxes were made originally? I would love to actually see a cylinder being laid-out, the holes drilled and the pins inserted. Must have been a painstaking process by a real craftsperson. Is it possible to find someone today who can repair a damaged cylinder, not that I need that done to my antique music box?
When it comes to creativity in inventions and quality in craftmanship, this one music box alone may best the finest of the industrial assembly line. On the other hand, that's just because this is a beautiful little wonder isn't it? You don't suppose we could play the toreador march, or maybe Le Chanson De L'Oignon on the music box? I suppose a peg, a hammer, and a really precise arm were all it took to make those discs back then.
Please don't apologise for your English, it's a great thing that you can even write perfectly in another language when it's not your mother tongue. ^_^
Nice. Scary watching you bend disc. Bought a antique player at auction but spring had sprung. Always someone who over winds things like Ahem someone who bends metal disks ahem. Found a company bought ALL the spring inventories. Replacing spring would cost 4 times what cabinet cost so gave it to a antique store as a display piece. Hopefully someone in museum can fabricate parts.
Have you ever been to house on the rock in wiscconsin theres is a ton of these self playing music machines i suggest you check it out im sure you will love it if you haven't yet
could you imagine this playing at a train station? like an old train station with wooden bars and big clocks? people wearing top hats, big choo choo trains. magical
yes
Choo choo trains :)
LOL
OMG YES
@@denimanemone yes
These people were absolute masters back in the day. It's amazing what they used to create.
So true!
Wintergatan The engineering involved is pretty unreal. Makes what you're doing all the more great. Thanks for these videos =)
The best part is that to make a melody for this, you first have to calculate the angle at where to put all the tones from sheet-music. Then you have to shift everything the linear distance it takes to turn a star wheel just enough to sound a tone. THEN the combs and star-wheel assembly has to be perfectly aligned within 10ths of millimeters on all the music boxes that are produced.
On this particular model, the innermost track moves at about 2 millimeter per second. At 120 bpm, that's 0.25mm for each full 16th note.
"used" to create. I totally agree with you
Johni Kruger The funny thing is that in the modern era of today, the engineering feats dwarf those of 100 years ago. The only reason we perceive it as so impressive is that we tend to underestimate the capabilities of people 100 years ago. It really is humorous to think about.
However the craftsmanship of things like this impress me more, it truly is amazing, by today's standard as well.
2 men perfectly describing chorus without using the word
The local art gallery where I grew up in the UK had a single disk polyphon which had been adapted to take modern coins. We used to play it every time we visited. And I remember seeing a horizontal polyphon in a music box museum elsewhere in the UK with a disk featuring 'As the World Falls Down' by David Bowie. It's a really iconic instrument.
The Polyphon comes from my beautiful city Leipzig 😊. "Mein Leipzig lob ich mir, es ist ein Klein-Paris und bildet seine Leute" that quote is from Goethe 😊
Oh, wonderful memories. When I was a high school Rotary exchange student in Australia in the early 80s one of the families had a Polyphon disc changer similar to that one. It didn't acept pennies but the discs were 13-15 inches if memory serves. It was the largest of their music box collection which also included a Symphonia and a Britania. The Polyphon seems to have favoured marches as I still have a recording of theirs playing Soldiers of the Queen. Thank you for showing us this beautifully preserved music box.
It is cool how they figured out the concept of resonant de-tuning that long ago. I didn't really think about it until I started programming patches on a synthesizer and it really fleshes out the sound.
This is the same principle used in traditional gamelan orchestras, where one set of instruments is tuned a few beats apart from the other, giving it that characteristic "shimmering" sound.
Oh my goodness! That sounds exactly like heaven to my ears! I've been loving music box for so long and this one here is just pure eargasm for me!
Martin, if you are ever in the U.S., the Shelbourne Museum in Vermont has a marvelous collection of music boxes. Some of them are disk units like this one, and several have mechanical figures that move with the music. That is just one part of what is actually a group of many buildings, each housing its own museum collection.
So funny that I just saw a simpler version of this very music machine in a restaurant in Tokyo!
They had a drawer with the discs, since that model didn't have a selector, but it was really nice to hear it play live.
They have one of these at a local museum in my hometown. There really is no way describe how they sound besides “absolutely magical.” I cannot hear one of these without grinning from ear to ear. Especially when they’re playing a Sousa march, which I also can’t hear without grinning from ear to ear. 😍😍😍
Amazing! The Polyphon Music Box looks gorgeous and sounds beautiful!
I'm from Brazil and came to Utrecht inspired by the Marble Machine and by automatas. I went to the Speelklok Museum and wow, now I know what was your feeling there, was mind blowing! Thanks for make it public!!
I found this series today and I'm binge watching all of the videos on it. I hope they find more interesting and unique instruments and museums to keep this series going. The history behind these instruments is intriguing as well, there's a sort of magical historical quality to it. To think that people so long ago thought how to construct these technical objects on their own with no guides is inspiring. The fact that they still can play music is almost like a musical time machine. I imagine the bars where these music bars were played where men with mustaches sat eating peanuts and drinking whiskey late into the night while the sound of laughter and the glass of beer bottles moved the music to the background. I just get this sort of magical picture in my head of what it might have been like. Thanks for sharing these videos.
2:12 when he bends the music disc, I freaked out !
I'm sure that the disc they're handling is a smaller, much less valuable disc they're using as a demonstrator, and have decided to use for this sacrificial purpose. It's used to help people get involved and understand the function of the machine, without exposing the much larger, rarer, and more valuable discs to wear and tear, and possible damage.
Scott Anderson - I agree. Maybe this disk already has some kind of defect and can therefore still be used for this type of demonstration and can't be played any more.
I remember back in the days of _expensive_ hard disk drives, I saw one (that would originally cost more than 10k Deutschmarks) on exhibition that was "working" with the whole cover removed - you could see the disks spinnng and the heads moving, and you knew that it didn't do any good to the drive. But Later I learned that it had suffered from a head crash before, was therefore no longer trustworthy, didn't have any data on it and was run like this for demonstration purposes.
Or to rephrase ist - these people are trained professionals. They know what they're doing. :D
Wes Tucker I have an old music box that uses these discs. They are designed to bend, as they must when the arm comes down to press them against the roller. The tension allows the points to play properly.
Wes Tucker same
It is probably a broken disc, that they have for demonstration purposes. In our college computer museum we have similar things, like broken opened hard drives, fried CPU's, floppy discs and other stuff, that we use to show our visitors and can give it to them for look without worrying about other valuable items. Sorry for broken english, i'm russian.
wintergan is basically the only thing i have left at this point but like its ok
dan objectivity
what about osrs?
What hello? Why did I advertise another great TH-cam channel?
Thanks so much for bringing us this peek into this wonderful museum!
Absolutely love these videos. Thanks for putting these together. I will likely never be able to make the trip there myself, but these are a wonderful substitute.
This is the polyphon model 5 music box that plays 22 1/2" disc and has 16 saucer bells it is a beautiful nice sounding polyphon music box good video.
I went to the exhibition, passed out, took a picture with Martin, WORTH IT!!
Animusic Pictures at an Exhibition
Cathedral Pictures
What I love about this series is the historical references - the dates of the patents and the period of the instrument.
Awesome to learn about the mechanics and the tonal theory at once. I have no connection to music or mechanics via my professional work but I find it super interesting to learn about other fields as well. :D
Ein sehr schöner Klang. Tolle Maschine.
My favorite instrument from music Mondays is the piano with the three violins
I watches the marble machine video at least 50 times and showed it to all my familly 😊
Experimentar En Casa what are you doing here....
Xd
You're easily my favorite youtube channel. Absolutely adore your uploads.
This series seems a wonderful candidate for the BBC, and for PBS in America!
This is the coolest series ever, super excited every monday!
Antique things are always so beautiful, you can see the care that went into it.
Polyphon built some of the first successful disc-changing musical boxes, but weren't the only maker. More famous in the USA are the Regina Co. of Rahway, N. J. who built self changing boxes (and more conventional single disc types) by the thousands. Regina were actually an immediate corporate descendant of Polyphon.
Further, it should be mentioned that the Symphonion Musikwerke, also of Leipzig, the earliest commercially successful disc box maker and major competitor of Polyphon and Regina, made a relatively few disc changers of different design that are extremely rare today. Also, the American F. G. Otto and Sons, makers of the popular "Capital Cuff", "Criterion", and "Olympia" musical boxes, attempted to introduce their own disc changer, but, despite many mechanically awkward workarounds in the design to try to get around Regina's patents, still had the pants sued off them by Regina and only about 15 were built, of which I think 2 are known extant today.
This info paraphrased from "The Encyclopedia of Disc Music Boxes" by Mr. Q. David Bowers.
Love this series. Love Wintergatan. Keep up the good work:)
Beautiful surreal sound. Some of the overtones are a bit nightmarish in that spooky, childhood way. Love it.❤
Funny thing; I live in the netherlands and before seeing this video I didn't really know about this museum. Soon after seeing this video I visited this, and also saw the marble machine! Thanks for introducing me to this amazing museum in my own country.
I need to buy or have that machine in my house... The version of Washington post and tone is by far the best. Bioshock feels all day.
Yesterday i have got to see the marble machine! It was incredible!
The Victorian Era was a wonderful Era for marvelous and wonderful inventions without the technology we have today - it's a credit to them!
I know he knows what he's doing, but when he started bending that music disk back and forth like that my heart skipped a beat.
This just has to be the most beautiful thing ever.
Europe has some great museums!
This is the coolest museum I've ever seen
That giant hand-crank machine is amazing. I would love to see it focused.
Spain's national library shared an article with one of these discs. I just had to see how they worked. Great vid!
I played this song in a brass band. this is a memorable song ：D
I really really love all these videos as well as all of the videos detailing the process of creating the Marble Machine X, Well done man!
I love tunes played by music-boxes. I congratulate and praise those who makes much efforts to make these types of music-boxes. I also congratulate and praise those who installs these types of music-boxes in some chiming clocks to make it play these types of musical chiming melodies just before or soon after striking the hours on bell or gong. I like such type of clocks. Nowadays these types of music-boxes and chiming clocks are electronically imitated by some quartz clocks because they contains circuit board of electronically recorded and programmed sound chips connected to speaker.
Amazing technology for a machine that's nearly a hundred and twenty years old Love it.
Amazing channel. Keep the awesome work buddy
It would have been nice to include the information about the bells in this model. Not all Polyphon (or other company) disc music boxes had bells in them. Some also had an option for bells On/Off with a switch. I believe the bells are activated by a certain section on the disc.
I was looking thru the comments to find anything just about that! I thought I heard bells, yet nobody mentioned them...
I saw one of these in a restaurant during my trip to germany a while ago and was wondering how exactly it worked, pretty cool to see this video now.
hope you can upload the outro music you always use in the video, really like it 😊
Mikorinn chann me too
I think he has a video featuring it full length though...
jan harald what? Where?
It's pretty rad, it's called darude sandstorm
Abam Apam..?
Adib Iman nope,gamba je abam apam,orangnye org lain 😂
I cannot get enough of this content.
That musical piece reminded me so much of the Toreador's March (yes, from FNAF, yes I know I'm trash)
Es genial! Será interesante colocar minicamaras dentro de la caja, para que los visitantes puedan conocer como trabaja todo el mecanismo. Felicitaciones por haber conservado estos tesoros.
What a beautiful looking machine
Swell video....magical disc changing music machine !! Have cd's of antique players playing & have ordered a antique home model , this week. JR
Thanks for recording in stereo. This sounded amazing with headphones.
Easily the best channel on TH-cam.
How many people help you with theses videos ? Usually, it's well made, but recently, it's even better !
Congratulations ! Keep making such good things !
Thank you for sharing this, It is beautiful machinery with enchanting sound. I hope they make a Wintergatan disk!
cool to discover how music and music machines have evolved over the last centuary, thanks, keep doing a great job
Need you to make a live concert in spaiiiin💖💖💖 i admire all about you, wintergatan, your channel and the people who works with you, you're all awesome!! You all give me faith to human being again😍💕
Faithful fan from spain here maaan💖 all you do is magic!!
Wow.. masterpiece of Hunan intelligence. Fantastic
I laughed aloud at the first stains of The Washington Post March. I'm from Washington, DC, and have heard or played that, and a lot of other Sousa, through my life. :-)
Best of luck, you truly deserve every view you get
I'm surprised you were never shown in my music class. Your videos would prove so well :3
the difference of using a cylinder and disc on music boxes deconstruct the whole dimensionality of the 'gadget'.
got to admit, this series made me want to dissect those historical instruments just for the sake of curiosity like any other toys and stuffs i ever posessed while i was a kid.
antique technology is so cool, everything is mechanical with gears and cogs and stuff, no electricity or motors. you never see stuff like that in today's world
what a beautiful system
Thank you for recording this in stereo! Very nice imaging!
Fun! I have seen horizontal drum music boxes before. I can't hear all the notes... but I still like the feel of it...
wow absolutely gorgeous
My family owns something similar that is twice the size. It is nice that the box can play.
I LOVE this series.
The semitone sounds haunting as heck!
This is absolutely beautiful. I own a toy music box that uses discs
that sounds amazing
man, i love this channel so much
The editing of this vid is amazing!
It's so cool! I love machines like these! This is actually the reason why i subscribed you. I saw the video of the Marble Machine and though: woooow! cool!
I also want/wanted to built something like this. :)
Good luck with the Marble Machine X
What a beautiful antique machine :) I might visit the Speelklok Museum coming days maybe. It’s 1.5 hours by public transport from where i live. Fingers crossed that the marble machine is still there. That would be awesome to see :) Ah it was only there until the 20th of August. Shit happens :-)
Someone probably said this already: the guide mentions the bass notes can be off a little sometimes, because of the different speeds the bass notes in the middle basically have a lower resolution. If the pin is a little too much to the left or to the right it has a bigger impact on the timing than more to the outside of the ring.
Its like Music Box of Wintergatan's Box without paper to progam
Music machines are great! Thanks!
so does that cute museum clerk have an instagram?
Does any happen to have any information about how cylinders or discs for music boxes were made originally? I would love to actually see a cylinder being laid-out, the holes drilled and the pins inserted. Must have been a painstaking process by a real craftsperson. Is it possible to find someone today who can repair a damaged cylinder, not that I need that done to my antique music box?
I tink its time to visit the Speelklok museum its not far away for me
I'll be going to this place in early November.
It would be really cool if you could make a new disc for the Polyphon so that it could play a Wintergaten tune.
When it comes to creativity in inventions and quality in craftmanship, this one music box alone may best the finest of the industrial assembly line. On the other hand, that's just because this is a beautiful little wonder isn't it?
You don't suppose we could play the toreador march, or maybe Le Chanson De L'Oignon on the music box? I suppose a peg, a hammer, and a really precise arm were all it took to make those discs back then.
Hi Martin!
Would you write piece of music for Floppotron?
Sorry for my English)
i would love that! great idea
Wintergatan 😄
Ah yes, the Floppotron!
I approve! B)
Please don't apologise for your English, it's a great thing that you can even write perfectly in another language when it's not your mother tongue. ^_^
But it's best to point at once so that in the event of an error someone suggests that you did not mean that )
Your outro song is the best 😍
Hi Martin the technique of the detuned notes is also common in pipe organs search vox Celeste stop sry for my bad English
The creation of the Polyphon Music Box is one of the greatest achievements in human history.
@JAPAN
I really love these videos.
Nice. Scary watching you bend disc. Bought a antique player at auction but spring had sprung. Always someone who over winds things like Ahem someone who bends metal disks ahem. Found a company bought ALL the spring inventories. Replacing spring would cost 4 times what cabinet cost so gave it to a antique store as a display piece. Hopefully someone in museum can fabricate parts.
Have you ever been to house on the rock in wiscconsin theres is a ton of these self playing music machines i suggest you check it out im sure you will love it if you haven't yet
Beautiful - thank you!
No way! I have the sheet music for Washington Post this is so cool!!!
Ich komme aus Australien. Das ist ein tolles Video. Bitte zeigen Sie mehr. Du bist ein Genie. All the best from Down Under, mate!
A penny at the turn of the century.....only a Rockefeller could play it. lol. Thanks for the video.
I really hope you've filmed an episode with 'the goat', the one they where they tried to imitate a human voice, but it sounds like a goat.