Review: Music Machines

Author(s): Beverly Jerold

Review by: Beverly Jerold
Source: Early Music, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Feb., 2007), pp. 128-129
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4137281
Accessed: 25-03-2015 21:33 UTC

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Ex.1 Niemecz clock, no.5 (Hob. xIx:15),bars 22-4:

(a) JHWII.6; (b) RMM

BeverlyJerold

Musicmachines

(a)

Royal music machines:the music, ed. MariekeMorsman

and Bob van Wely (Utrecht:NationaalMuseum van
Speelkloktot Pieremont,n.d.), E24.95

In conjunctionwith an exhibitionof music machines

from its own collectionand othersin Europeand the
UnitedStates,Utrecht'sNationaalMuseumvanSpeelklok
tot Pieremonthas celebratedits 5oth anniversaryby
issuing a volume for the generalreaderabout these
withtranscriptions
of theirmusic.Datingfrom
instruments,
thelate16thto theearly19thcentury,the21machinesuse
sound sourcessuch as organpipes,strings,bells and a
musicaltoothedcomb.Mostemploya cylinderon which
pinsareinsertedto tripthe soundsourceas the cylinder
revolves.Pitchis determined
by a pin'splacementon the
widthof the cylinder.Thebook'schronological
arrangement of machineschartsthe extensionof range and
of the mechanisms.
technicalsophistication
increasing
The firstof the book'sthreesectionsdescribesbriefly
(in Dutch and English)the machines'music and the
thesecondsectionoffers
techniqueforpinninga cylinder;
a vividcolourphotoof eachinstrument,togetherwitha
shortdescription;
andthe thirdtranscribes
into notation
contents.Themachines
someor all of eachinstrument's
areexquisitely
craftedworksof art.Manyhave
themselves
moving parts, such as the 1582 automaton by Hans

Schlottheimin whichtrumpetersappearon the balcony

clock
andmovein timewiththe regals;the 17th-century
its
commedia
dell'arte
Samuel
Bidermann
with
by
figures
dancingaround;or the c.1774organby PierreJaquetDroz, in which la musicienne's
fingersplaythe 12 keys
to
hand.
In
each
a
36 keys
spinetby Bidermann
assigned
via
canbe playedmanuallyand20 of themautomatically
a cylindercontainingfourpieces.IntheChronosclockby
Roentgen& Kinzing(1785)organpipesplaythe melody
while a dulcimermechanismprovidesaccompaniment.
Certainothermachines,too, arebeautifullyconstructed
clocks,some of monumentalsize, and two arewatches,
one of whichproduces23notesby meansof an ingenious
playingmechanismof a fiatdiscandfan-typecomb.
Ofinterestto thescholaris thefactthatsomeof thelater
the CharlesClayclock(1738)up a
instruments
transpose:
and
the
Chronos
clock(1785)downa major2nd;
3rd
major
the Arakcheyevclock by Huwe/Hemon(1826-8)and
Column clockby Roentgen&Kinzing(1783)both transpose
128

EARLY MUSIC

FEBRUARY

(b)

down a semitone. This implies equal temperament,for

transpositioncould not otherwisebe accomplished.
It is not known who composed the music on most of
the instruments, although the Column clock includes
Gluck's 'Dance of the blessed spirits' (with bald parallel
octaves in bar 12) from Orfeo ed Euridiceand the Clay
clock has two pieces by Handel which are not included in
the 18 pieces (HWV587-604)that he wrote for a musical
clock. The JacobOttsen clock with a dulcimermechanism
(c.1770) offers a large collection of popular dances,
marchesand other pieces.
Musicallyspeaking,the most interestingmachine is the
one constructedin Vienna (1793)by JosephNiemecz, who
played in the orchestraunder JosephHaydn. It has 29 4'foot pipes under the cylinder and contains 12 pieces
ostensiblyby Haydn.Accordingto SonjaGerlach(preface
to JosephHaydn Werke[JHW], ser. 21 (Munich, 1984)),
seven pieces are corroborated by Haydn's autograph,
anotherthreeareprobablyauthentic,andtwo aredoubtful.
She observes (p.65) that rhythmic irregularitiesoccur
becauseof cracksin the cylindercover (now in Utrecht,it
was 'meticulouslycopied' in 2003). For the most part,the
small notes in the written sources were left unchangedin
the JHWtranscriptionbecauseit could not be determined
whether they fell on or before the beat, or were joined
together with the main note (p.66), a fact indicatingthat
theirvalueis virtuallyunmeasurable.It is usefulto compare
the transcriptionsof the Niemecz clock in the JHWedition,
which also offers Haydn's autographs and other
manuscripts,with those in the presentvolume (RMM).
WhereasJHW transcribesHaydn's ornaments in full,
RMM usually substitutes a symbol, so an ornament's
rhythmicplacementor length, or whethera trillbegins on
the upper or main note, cannot be determined.The JHW
transcription indicates that the great majority of trills
begin on the main note, and rangein length from a short
invertedmordent to, for instance,15notes in one beat. In

2007

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Ex.2 Clayclock,'MinuetfromAriadne',bars1-4:
(a)Handel'stransposedscore;(b) RMMtranscription
(a)

1tr

(b)

IPv ' -

makes cuts. Throughout this piece (ex.2a, in which the

composer'sscore has been transposedand the inner parts
removed for easier comparison), Handel consistently
distinguishesbetween notes precededby a small note and
those in Lombardrhythm, as in bars 2 and 3, indicating
that the execution should differ. RMM transcribesthe
small notes in Lombardrhythm (ex.2b).As JHWobserves
above, it is usually impossible to determine the exact
placement of small notes. The small notes are retainedin
many other RMM transcriptions.
Fortunately,the remainingmusic does not presentthe
transcriptionproblems of the Niemecz and Clay clocks,
and this handsome volume gives a valuable overview of
the varietyand ingenuity of music machines.
doi:10.1093/em/ca1135

L'1.7-''[IN

AdvanceAccesspublishedon January16,2007
IFI

I
t!

FrancisKnights

5d

Kingpenguin
RMM no.4 (bar 19), the two trill symbols approached
from below are transcribedas mordents in JHW11.5.
Two pieces have unusual notation: a main note
followed immediatelyby a small note a step below. At the
end of JHW II.7 (Hob. xix:16; RMM no.6), Haydn's
autograph explains that it signifies a short mordent (in
other words, the return to the main note is not notated)
and it is applied16times in this piece on each minim. The
same constructionoccurs in JHWII.6 (ex.1),where a brief
mordent at each occurrenceof the small note is effective.
In RMM,no.5,the placementof the smallnotes is irregular.
On the other hand, the transcriptionof a passagefrom
no.8 (Hob. xIx:26;bar 7) seems better in RMM-because
leaving the small note unchangedretainsan essential7th
on the beat-than in JHW C.2, one of the few instances
in which JHW violated its policy of leaving the small
notes intact.
Comparedwith the writtensources,some of which are
in Haydn's autograph,a number of discrepanciesoccur
in RMM: for example, no.1, bar 18, second quaver, a'
instead of c" (Hob. xix:11; JHW iI.);

or no.7, bars 21-2,

second beat, A major chord instead of D major (Hob.

XIX:25; JHW C.1, bars 11-12).

The one identifiablepiece by Handel on the Clayclock

('Minuet from Ariadne',part of the overtureto the opera
Arianna) follows his meticulous notation loosely and

Ivan March,EdwardGreenfieldand RobertLayton, The

Penguinguide to compactdiscs and DVDs, 200516edition
(London:Penguin,2005), ?25
The Penguinguides have been with us for so long that it
comes as somethingof a surpriseto find the latestincarnation stampedin silveron the cover as only the '3oth anniversaryedition'.In fact,the serieshad an earlierexistenceas
the Stereorecordguidefrom 1960 until 1975,when Penguin
took over publication;its venerabletrio of reviewers-Ivan
March,EdwardGreenfieldand RobertLayton-have now
been writingtogetherfor some four decades.
From the dawn of commercialrecordingsfor domestic
use at the end of the 19th century, there were concerns
about the duplication of repertory.Initiallysome collectors hoped for breadthratherthan depth-all of Haydn's
quartets,ratherthan half-a-dozen competing versions of
'The Lark'-but technologicalproblems,artist-ledchoice
of repertoryand economic rivalrymeant that it was soon
necessary to review new material and judge it against
existing recordings(and indeed, live performances).This
was the origin of Gramophonemagazinein 1922, later followed by other publicationswith differentwritersand different perspectives.However,the marketwas not so vast
that comprehensive coverage could not at least be
attempted, and Edward Sackville-West and Desmond
EARLY

MUSIC

FEBRUARY

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2007

129