A barrel organ (or roller organ) is a mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated. The basic principle is the same as a traditional pipe organ, but rather than being played by an organist, the barrel organ is activated either by a person turning a crank, or by clockwork driven by weights or springs. The pieces of music are encoded onto wooden barrels (or cylinders), which are analogous to the keyboard of the traditional pipe organ.
Read more about Barrel Organ: Barrel, Operation, Usage, Combined Barrel and Manually Played Instruments, Terminology
Famous quotes containing the words barrel and/or organ:
“When I die I want to decompose in a barrel of porter and have it served in all the pubs in Dublin.”
—J.P. (James Patrick)
“Nature is so perfect that the Trinity couldn’t have fashioned her any more perfect. She is an organ on which our Lord plays and the devil works the bellows.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)