Posts Tagged ‘Drehorgel’
MIDI Accordion plays Mechanical Concert Organ
A WORLD EXCLUSIVE… Me playing the newly midi -ized concert (fairground/street) organ “De Arend” live in real time using my MIDI accordion… very cool indeed!
The world’s biggest accordion expander perhaps? This certainly beats any electronic sound generator boxes, as everything you hear is coming from real instruments, all still operated pneumatically (the MIDI system uses an electro-mechanical relay chest I made to interface to the organs pneumatics).
Not the easiest setup to play, but interesting none the less, with similarities here to a theatre organ. Sorry for the odd slip up here and there, but obviously these were deliberately put in to prove I’m playing live (!) and remind you this is the first time ever I’ve played a mechanical organ like this (a fun but strangely disconcerting experience as I’m so used to listening to these machines play by themselves!). I could really have done with a bigger keyboard as couldn’t fit all the counter melody notes on the top end of the treble, and had to transpose an octave up in order to access the register setting notes to change the ranks of pipes being played.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the video, and please post your comments below.
Don’t forget to take a look at my other videos for details of the MIDI interface system and videos of the organ playing from both this and traditional perforated cardboard.
Duration : 0:9:59
Magic Piano Accordion Duet (2 Accordions, 1 Player!)
Filmed at the Twinwoods Mechanical organ Festival 2008, this video shows me playing two accordions at once with the aid of a midi link
The accordion I’m wearing and playing is a 120 bass Crucianelli which in addition to its beautifully handmade musette tuned reeds, also has a midi output. Connecting this output to Chris Does Magic Accordion, an amazing self-playing instrument made by organ builder Alan Pell, I’m thus able to play a duet with myself in real time – cool or what!
Here you’ll hear a quick test rendition of Serenade No. 13 by Carl Frei – look at my other accordion videos and you can hear the same piece played on just one accordion, plus more videos featuring this midi accordion in action.
Duration : 0:1:0