Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • Winter 2022 21 As a cellist, I was especially interested in the 1925 Mills Violana, an automatic violin player with piano. Notes were played by spinning wheels instead of with a bow, and strings were mechanically picked up and plucked instead of pressed down with fingers. Charlie Mack, a very knowledgeable docent, challenged me to listen closely to the music and determine what else was so unusual about its sound besides these aforementioned features. I correctly answered that I heard more than one violin; he explained all four strings could be played simultaneously because this automated violin had a flat bridge whereas on a normal rounded bridge, string musicians can play only double stops. Beginning in 1925, jukeboxes, which added singing and also enabled patrons to choose musical songs with coins, became popular, eventually replacing nickelodeons. e oldest of the many music boxes in the collection, is an 1884 roller organ that according to the invoice cost $6.74 plus seventy cents for shipping. A church organ is limited to notes for preludes, hymns, and postludes; on the other hand, a theater organ can also produce colorful sounds like a police whistle, doorbell, telephone ring, horse hooves, siren, and a cow bell. During my visit, I gained an appreciation for theater organists of long ago. Each organist had to be familiar enough with the movie to be shown to be able to choose music and produce sounds that were in sync with the production on the screen. Sheet music scores did not exist for silent comedies. e music heard in different theaters was not identical. It was very enjoyable to watch the last five minutes of e Battle of the Century, a hilarious film from 1927 starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, as one might see and hear it in a theater in bygone days. Apparently more than 3,000 banana cream pies —perhaps banana — were thrown in the filming of this silent comedy. e entertaining movie was accompanied by a CD recording with Dave Calendine, Chairman of the American eatre Organ Society, playing the museum's 1924 Wurlitzer organ — formerly in Detroit's Cinderella eatre. I wish I lived closer to this museum in order to attend its annual silent film series. Near the organs was a player piano that can make twenty-six notes sound at once. e guide dramatically demonstrated that steadily pumping its pedals like an accelerator is not easy; he held on to the keyboard to prevent flying backwards off the bench. e expensive 1925 Aeolian Duo Art Weber reproducing piano played a recording of soloist George Gershwin accompanying himself on the piano in the Andante movement from his Rhapsody in Blue. is instrument with dynamic range sounded realistic— quite unlike other automated predecessors. In the period before sound recordings became high quality, a recording like this one saved the sound of great pianists and composers of the day. e gem of the museum is located on the upper level: a 1922 dance organ of eofiel Mortimer that is hand-carved from lime wood. Prominent in the original art deco portrait in a top panel of the proscenium (or façade) is his eldest daughter. Visitors who recognize the flower in her hair will understand why her father chose "Amaryllis" as the name for this gigantic instrument. At 32 feet wide and 18 feet tall, it misses the ceiling by a mere four inches! A gi shop offers a selection of musical gis and recordings on instruments in the collection. Jayne I. Hanlin is an initiate of Alpha Omicron and current member of the St. Louis Alumnae chapter. Mrs. Hanlin, the sister of famed pianist Malcolm Frager, is the co- author of Learning Latin Through Mythology (Cambridge University Press, 1991). A Wld of Music For more information, visit: https://musichouse.org At top, 1925 Mills Violana, an automatic At top, 1925 Mills Violana, an automatic violin player with piano. Above, Michigan's violin player with piano. Above, Michigan's Music House Museum. Music House Museum.

• Cover