12.08.2023

'Melodies of barrel organs' in the museum Collection Sound Library


The old barrel organ moans
The familiar waltz outside the window
Valery Bryusov

Nowadays, a barrel organ is a curiosity, more often seen in a museum than heard in the street. Nevertheless, the residents of Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam and some other cities all over the world still remember the way it siunds it, as you can still find lonely barrel organ players performing alone. Paying tribute to the time-honoured barrel organ, collectors and enthusiasts that are passionate about this instrument are constantly organizing various festivals and celebrations with participation of this old instrument, which has been considerably improved nowadays.

Today, on the day when the international festival of barrel organs takes place in the centre of Prague, we invite you to listen to the melodies of barrel organs (portable organs) that are presented in the museum Collection Sound Library. We present barrel organs (portable organs), with a variety of musical records, from the museum Collection Repository.

You can listen to the way some of them sound:
Barrel organ Original Raffin R20/67 “Konzert”. Orgelbau Raffin GmbH. Germany, Überlingenю. 2000
Barrel organ. Wilhelm Freidrich Holl, A. Holl & Sohn. Germany, Bremen. The 1950s
Barrel organ. Limonaire Frères. France, Paris. 1886-1897
Portable organ (barrel organ). Georgia, Tbilisi. Late 20th century. Organ builder Kitesov