The Music
music
Discovering the First Sound-
Reproducing Instruments
Welcome to the Music Salon,a space dedicated to the origins of mechanicals music, fascinating instruments that marked the history of automatic music.
Ingenious instruments reflecting two centuries of invention
Discover emblematic instruments such as The Serinettecreated in the early 18th centurye 18th century in the Vosges region. Using a finely pinned wooden cylinder, this small musical box was designed to teach melodies to birds… but it also found its way into bourgeois salons!
From the serinette to the barrel organ,these instruments gradually spread through the streets, in the hands of travelling musicians and street performers.
The evolution of musical technology
The 19th centurye , rich in innovation, saw the emergence of new processes that transformed mechanical music:
- - The use of reedsallowing a wider variety of sounds and the miniaturization of instruments
- - Sophisticated encoding systems: perforated cardboards, metal discs
- - Keyboards revolutionizing musical programming
Miniaturization and perfection: Singing Birds
With the arrival of the mechanical spring, instruments became more compact and even more sophisticated. As weight and hand crank were no longer necessary, craftsmen were able to create true technical masterpieces.
This led to the creation of singing birds,small marvels of ingenuity capable of reproducing birdsong with astonishing realism. A dazzling example of the refinement of mechanical music.