Today, in our ‘Exhibit in detail’ section, we present the Aeolian Pipe Organ, created by craftsmen from The Orchestrelle Company in 1913.

The Aeolian organ, stored in the museum Collection, is a remarkable example of the exceptionally spectacular and entertaining category known as “residence organs.” Instruments of this elite class were custom-built for affluent houses in the early decades of the 20^th century. Besides to manual playing, they were reproducing music automatically from perforated paper rolls. Moreover, thanks to special registers, these organs were rendering not only sacred or classical repertoire but contemporary music of fashionable genres in the 1910-1920’s – jazz, blues, ragtime and swing. In some premises, the pipes of such organs were hidden behind walls, in basements or in attics.

It is documented that similar instruments were located in the Royal Castle in Windsor and the Imperial Palace in Beijing, as well as in the mansions of the Churchills, Dodges, Rockefellers, Fords and other famous families between the two World Wars. In the 1930s, similar organs were installed in concert halls, seminaries, cinemas, and cruise ship lounges.

On December 6, 2019, the Aeolian Pipe Organ, stored in the museum Collection exposition, received the status of a got the status "Science and Technology High-level Achievement”.

The Aeolian organ consists of two major parts – a mahogany body with the set of organ pipes and a remote control with bench. Flue organ pipes are assembled into fourteen registers – five lower registers of stopped wooden pipes and nine middle and upper registers of open metal pipes. The remote control has two manuals with sixty-one keys and foot keyboard with thirty keys. Vertical rows of register switches are to the right and left sides of the manuals. Volume control buttons are beneath the keys. A row of regulators and switches is above the manuals. Organ key action is electric. 286-mm wide electro-pneumatic device for paper music rolls reproduction is mounted at the top of the remote control. In automatic mode, information is read using a tracker bar with 116 holes located in two rows. The signals of the pneumatic system are converted into electrical signals that control the organ pipes. The nuances of performance are controlled manually, in accordance with the instructions on the paper music roll. The remote control is connected to the pipe block by multi-circuit cabling.
The set for the Aeolian organ includes about 500 rolls.
As a rule, they were recorded using special devices, ‘auto-perforators,’ which were connected to control panels or installed inside manuals and, during the organist's performance, independently marked perforations on blank paper. Thus, this technology was the first method of author's sound recording that conveyed individual nuances of touch. Each music paper roll created using this method is a transcript of the musicians’ hands movements with their unique style, temperament and talent. Their popularity in the 1910s led to the first precedents for the extension of copyright to musical performances in the United States. Some composers went further and even wrote music specifically for Aeolian self-playing instruments that humans cannot physically perform.

The museum Restoration center was conserving the Aeolian pipe organ for more than two years. The console was completely reassembled, the electrical control system was recreated, and more than 300 sound pipes were repaired and tuned. Now the rich sound of this instrument is able to "transport" the listener through space, and the music playback technology can "manage" time. By bringing this organ back to life and making the museum Collection its new "residence", our restorers, in a sense, brought back to life the great musicians of the early 20^th century – we can listen to their style of playing the instrument and enjoy the manner of performance preserved on paper music rolls.

The item card contains 16 tracks with authentic sound, digitized from paper music rolls included with the Aeolian pipe organ. These are classical works by leading composers reproduced in the unique sound of our organ.

Museum Collection also features other automatic instruments by the Aeolian Company, as well as a more advanced model of a residence organ built by the Welte-Kimball company.