Mechanical organ

For mechanical action in pipe organs, see tracker action.

A mechanical organ is an organ that is self playing, rather than played by a musician.

Usually, mechanical organs are pipe organs although some instruments were built using reeds similar to those found in a harmonium. Since the 1950s, some instruments have been built using electronics to generate the sound, though still operated by mechanical or pneumatic means. From the 1990s pipe organs have been built that are operated by MIDI rather than the earlier mechanical means.

Originally, the music for mechanical organs was stored by pins on a large barrel. Such instruments were called barrel organs. Such organs only have a very limited repertoire, both in the number of musical selections that could be stored, and the length of tune that could be accommodated.

In the 1890s, book music was invented. This meant that the length of music was no longer constrained. Being physically much smaller than a barrel for a similar instrument, it is much easier to manipulate the music, and so a greater variety of music could be played.

Rather than the book music, some instruments are operated by a music roll.

See also

• Barrel piano
• Barrel organ
• Componium
• Dance organ
• Fairground organ
• Musical box
• Orchestrion
• Organ grinder
• Piano roll
• Player piano
• Reproducing piano
• Serinette
• Street organ