Museum Speelklok Collectie

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Actions	Details Remove from selection Add to selection Image(s) TitleMusical Automaton Nightingale Birdcage, with Slide Wistle Movement Creator Blaise Bontems (manufacturer)‎ PlaceParis (France) Year ca. 1880 Object number1032 Object categorymechanical wind instruments, automata with musical movements Object nameautomaton with slide whistle, automaton with program cam DescriptionThis taxidermied bird sits in a brass cage with gilded base. The mechanism works by means of a spring, which operates a program disk. On this disk is programmed the "melody" (or: the chirping of the bird). The program is augmented by a surprise mechanism. In the piston whistle, a piston (which looks like a stick) in a whistle is pushed in and out at lightning speed, determining the pitch. The mechanism that provides the movement of the bird is also connected to the playing mechanism, so that it appears as if the bird is really singing. Accompanying textsWe can perhaps not exactly speak of music here, but rather of twittering. For this instrument contains a piston flute, which can play different pitches but does not play a melody made from equally-spaced pitches, as is usually the case in European music. A bird's chirping is imitated here by just one pipe containing a sliding stick. Only gliding (constantly moving) tones are programmed on the program disk. You could call the bird in its cage an automaton: it is, after all, a moving figurine in the shape of living creature, which made its appearance in living rooms for entertainment in the 19th century. Dimensions geheel height: 49 cm geheel width: 25 cm geheel depth: 25 cm Keywordsgeluidsbron: slide whistle Digital references

Image(s)

TitleMusical Automaton Nightingale Birdcage, with Slide Wistle Movement

Creator Blaise Bontems (manufacturer)‎

PlaceParis (France)

Year ca. 1880

Object number1032

Object categorymechanical wind instruments, automata with musical movements

Object nameautomaton with slide whistle, automaton with program cam

DescriptionThis taxidermied bird sits in a brass cage with gilded base. The mechanism works by means of a spring, which operates a program disk. On this disk is programmed the "melody" (or: the chirping of the bird). The program is augmented by a surprise mechanism. In the piston whistle, a piston (which looks like a stick) in a whistle is pushed in and out at lightning speed, determining the pitch. The mechanism that provides the movement of the bird is also connected to the playing mechanism, so that it appears as if the bird is really singing.

Accompanying textsWe can perhaps not exactly speak of music here, but rather of twittering. For this instrument contains a piston flute, which can play different pitches but does not play a melody made from equally-spaced pitches, as is usually the case in European music. A bird's chirping is imitated here by just one pipe containing a sliding stick. Only gliding (constantly moving) tones are programmed on the program disk.

You could call the bird in its cage an automaton: it is, after all, a moving figurine in the shape of living creature, which made its appearance in living rooms for entertainment in the 19th century.

Dimensions

geheel height: 49 cm
geheel width: 25 cm
geheel depth: 25 cm

Keywordsgeluidsbron: slide whistle

Digital references

Details