Information about Barrel Piano

A barrel piano (also known as a "roller piano") is a forerunner of the modern player piano. Unlike the pneumatic player piano, the barrel piano was operated by turning a hand crank. Barrel pianos were popular with street musicians, who sought novel instruments that were also highly portable. They are frequently confused with barrel organs, but are quite different instruments.

Operation

The central element of the barrel piano was a wooden barrel that contained strategically placed pins that would control the music when the barrel was turned. The operator used a hand crank for this purpose, and could control the speed of the music by turning the crank slower or faster. Barrels typically contained a small number of short tunes; therefore, the musical repertoire was limited by the number of barrels one could afford and transport around.

Barrel pianos typically had a range of 40-48 [Non-Chromatic scale] notes, in contrast to standard pianos that normally had 85 or 88 keys.

History

Barrel pianos were first developed in the early 19th century as an attempt to mechanically automate piano music. They never found their way into homes in any significant quantity, instead being favored by street musicians and other entertainers. It is believed that the production of barrel pianos originated in London [1], although one of first prominent manufacturers, Welte, was based in Germany [2].

Variations

Some manufacturers, such as Favienta of Barcelona, Spain, produced barrel pianos with advanced accessories, such as:

• A model that could play the standard six-tune barrels as well as a barrel of three tunes. The three tune barrel had a threaded addition on it and the cylinder moved slowly on its vertical axis as you cranked. At the end of the third tune, the keyframe moved out of the way of the barrel pins, the barrel shifted to the start position, and the first song started over.
• A model that added an electric motor for continuous unassisted playing.