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Band Organs, also known as fairground organs and sometimes as carousel
organs because of their widespread use on carousels,
have been around since the 1700's. They are automatically played, the music being
stored on either folding cardboard books or paper rolls having holes punched them
to activate the individual notes, sound the percussion, and turn the registers (stops)
on and off. Early organs also used a pinned cylinder such as a music box. These
were known as barrel organs. Many of the organs also had animated figures such as
bandleaders to lead the "orchestra". Band organs manufactured in Europe by companies
such as Gavioli (Paris) and Bruder (Germany) were designed to sound like concert
orchestras or dance bands. Many dance halls throughout Europe featured these organs
rather than a live band. Band organs manufactured in the USA by companies such as
Wurlitzer were designed to sound like military marching bands and had a harsher
sound than their European cousins. Military band organs used lots of brass pipes
such as trumpets to achieve the military sound.
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Listen to a Concert Band Organ similar to the one shown above
Hire a Band Organ for your Event
The organ shown was manufactured by Gavioli & CIE, probably in the late 1800's as
Gavioli closed its doors in the early 1900's. The picture was taken many years ago
at Euclid Beach, an amusement park in Cleveland, Ohio..
The Computer Connection: Early data processing systems used punched
cards to store data, an idea derived from the storage of music on the cardboard
books and paper rolls. The technology evolved and new data storage technologies emerged to include punched paper tape, magnetic cards, magnetic drums with
fixed or flying heads, magnetic tape, magnetic disks and disk cartridges, and CD's.
As computer (electronic data processing) systems were gradually reduced in
size from the huge early systems that were powered by vacuum tubes and transistors
(and took tons of air conditioning to cool) to todays PersonalComputers and laptops,
people wanted to play
music on their new PC's. Many different methods of storing music in files were devised,
including a technology known as the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI.
So we have come full circle - what the band organs gave to the computer industry,
the computer industry has given back to the band organs in the form of MIDI players
for the organs. The old rolls and books are being converted to MIDI files, and new
music is being written for the organs in MIDI format!
In 1973, Rich Allen LeVangie was working as a site engineer on
a stock market quotation system. Rich always had a love for music having played
the Saxophone since his youth, and had a particular love for the band organs having
listened to them at the amusement parks in the area. He noticed that most of them
were falling into disrepair and decided to do something about it. Doing research
(without the help of the internet, of course) he found books about organ building
and technology and studied them. He was also referred by a friend to a man in N.
Tonnawanda, NY who had what was left of the Wurlitzer Band Organ business. Rich
spent some time
in N. Tonnawanda to augment his study. He then founded the Bay
Ridge Organ Company and obtained contracts with three of the areas amusement parks
to restore and maintain their organs. In 1978, Rich left the NY area to accept a position as a top level
computer support engineer for the international division of a major computer vendor,
and the organ business was left behind.
Today, Rich Allen Data Systems carries on the
tradition of Bay Ridge Organ Company, providing Band Organ tuning, repairs and restoration
as well as MIDI additions to the organs. There has been a big resurgence
of interest in band organs, and we are proud to have played a small part in
this resurgence.
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