My OpenLearn Profile
- Personalise your OpenLearn profile
- Save your favourite content
- Get recognition for your learning
- Subjects
- Science, Maths & Technology
- All content
- Music in Code
This page was published over five years ago. Please be aware that due to the passage of time, the information provided on this page may be out of date or otherwise inaccurate, and any views or opinions expressed may no longer be relevant. Some technical elements such as audio-visual and interactive media may no longer work. For more detail, see our Archive and Deletion Policy.
Today, listening to music is easy - we have CDs, MP3s, radio, television and the internet. But around a hundred years ago life was very different - either you had to play music yourself or have someone else play it for you. The 15 video tracks in this album demonstrate various ways to play music by mechanical means, with the ingenious use of levers, pegs, cylinders or paper rolls, and explain the principles used to create and control these music-making machines. This material forms part of TA212 Technology of Music.
By: The OpenLearn team (The Open University,)
- Duration 40 mins
- Updated Monday 8th March 2010
- Posted under Engineering & Technology, Music
Track 1: Music in Code
A short introduction to this album
© The Open University 2008
- Read a transcript of this track - you'll need a PDF viewer, such as Adobe's free Adobe Reader
- Download this track from iTunes U - you'll need Apple's free iTunes software
- See details of the Open University course this album comes from
- Discover more from The Open University and iTunesU at open.edu/itunes
Tracks in this podcast:
Track | Title | Description |
---|---|---|
1 | Music in Code | A short introduction to this album Play now Music in Code |
2 | The Decap Cafe Organ | The mechanical music manufacturer’s craft - how a robot organ plays music through code. Play now The Decap Cafe Organ |
3 | The Pin Barrel | What is a pin barrel and how does it create music? The mechanisms of pin barrrels in the Nickelodeon Collection at Ashorne Hall. Play now The Pin Barrel |
4 | Street Piano | The story of a traditional barrel piano from Warwick, its mechanism and repertoire. Play now Street Piano |
5 | Hand barrel organ | How the mechanism works, producing specific musical effects such as vibrato and trills. Play now Hand barrel organ |
6 | Musical Box | The manufacture and repertoire of a 19th century cylinder musical box. Play now Musical Box |
7 | Pin Disk Musical Box | Experts compare disc versus cylinder design. Play now Pin Disk Musical Box |
8 | The Paper Roll: Reiterating Piano | The piano melodica. How book music is made, how the mechanism works and how to add expression to the music. Play now The Paper Roll: Reiterating Piano |
9 | The Paper Roll: Organette | How the reed organ is constructed and how a paper roll controls the mechanism. Play now The Paper Roll: Organette |
10 | Reproducing Player Piano | The advent of electrically run instruments allowed composers to record musical interpretation directly onto the paper roll. Play now Reproducing Player Piano |
11 | Electromechanical Violin Player | How this American invention works, and an example of the sound it creates. Play now Electromechanical Violin Player |
12 | Banjo Orchestrion | A recently built paper roll instrument uses a computerised cutter working to Midi instructions. Play now Banjo Orchestrion |
13 | Electric Orchestrion | Instruments, lighting effects and scenery, all operated by instructions contained on a single paper roll. Play now Electric Orchestrion |
About the author
Author
Publication details
-
Originally published: Monday, 8th March 2010
Copyright information
- Body text - Content : Copyright The Open University
- Audio/Video tracks: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 The Open University 2008
- Image 'Music in Code' - Copyright: The Open University 2008
- Image 'Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, Soho' - Bill Henderson under CC-BY-SA licence under Creative-Commons license
- Image 'Close-up of a Sinclair ZX81 keyboard' - Quagmire's Photos under Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0 license
- Image 'Kinzua bridge' - Copyright: Production team
- Image 'Wall graffitti of a robot with laser guns' - jlmarallicensed for reuse under CC BY-SA 2.0 under Creative-Commons license
- Image 'Ants killing a tree' - Copyright: Patricia Ash
- Image 'Technology Evaluation' - Copyright: Used with permission
- Image 'Derek Matravers' - Copyright: The Open University
- Image 'Renewable Energy and the UK' - Copyright: The Open University
- Image 'Radar antenna at Mark’s Castle operations block at Trevescan-Cliff' - Copyright: RAF Mark's Castle
- Image 'Tay Bridge, collapsed' - Copyright: St Andrew's Valentine Collection
- Image 'Microsoft' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'Memorial to flight MH370' - thierry ehrmann under CC-BY licence under Creative-Commons license
Tags, Ratings and Social Bookmarking
Related content
Feeds
If you enjoyed this, why not follow a feed to find out when we have new things like it? Choose an RSS feed from the list below. (Don't know what to do with RSS feeds?)
Remember, you can also make your own, personal feed by combining tags from around OpenLearn.
- Latest OpenLearn pages
- Latest pages by The OpenLearn team
- Latest pages from OpenLearn - Music
- Latest pages tagged - code
- Latest pages tagged - music
- Latest pages tagged - control
- Latest pages tagged - forms
- Latest pages tagged - internet
- Latest pages tagged - IT
- Latest pages tagged - IT
- Latest pages tagged - life
- Latest pages tagged - listening
- Latest pages tagged - machines
- Latest comments on this page
Share this audio
Related content
Other content you may like

History & The Arts
Learning to groove
The story of Tomorrow's Warriors, teaching young people to love jazz - and training them for music industry success.

Science, Maths & Technology
Tay Bridge Theories: Peter Lewis
Peter Lewis's theories about the Tay Bridge Disaster, part of the BBC/OU's programme website for Forensic Engineering

Science, Maths & Technology
Eye tracking in research and evaluation
Ever wondered how eye tracking works and why The Open University should be interested in using it?

Science, Maths & Technology
John Perry Barlow: An Appreciation
John Perry Barlow, who died on February 7th, helped shape how we think about digital rights. Here, the OU's Mike Richards introduces a short obituary by John's friend, Cory Doctorow.

Science, Maths & Technology
DIY tech - just making it up with the Arduino
Arduino is an exciting, but simple way to get into electronics, as Tony Hirst explains

Science, Maths & Technology
How can Facebook decide who you really are?
Facebook's policy of insisting on real names is causing problems for people who value their privacy. For Ellery Roberts Biddle, the social network is overstepping its boundaries by demanding proof of identity without having proper policies in place to protect its users.

Science, Maths & Technology
Forensic engineering: Modern methods
A description of modern methods used in forensic engineering

Science, Maths & Technology
Disasters don't have maps
Joyce's response to the final lecture of the 2005 series of Reith lectures

Science, Maths & Technology
Beatrice Shilling (1909-1990)
Who was Beatrice 'Tilly' Shilling? Professor Carol Morris delves into the life of the gifted engineer.
Publication details
-
Originally published: Monday, 8th March 2010
Copyright information
- Body text - Content: Copyright The Open University
- Audio/Video tracks: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 The Open University 2008
- Image 'Music in Code' - Copyright: The Open University 2008
- Image 'Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, Soho' - Bill Henderson under CC-BY-SA licence under Creative-Commons license
- Image 'Close-up of a Sinclair ZX81 keyboard' - Quagmire's Photos under Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0 license
- Image 'Kinzua bridge' - Copyright: Production team
- Image 'Wall graffitti of a robot with laser guns' - jlmarallicensed for reuse under CC BY-SA 2.0 under Creative-Commons license
- Image 'Ants killing a tree' - Copyright: Patricia Ash
- Image 'Technology Evaluation' - Copyright: Used with permission
- Image 'Derek Matravers' - Copyright: The Open University
- Image 'Renewable Energy and the UK' - Copyright: The Open University
- Image 'Radar antenna at Mark’s Castle operations block at Trevescan-Cliff' - Copyright: RAF Mark's Castle
- Image 'Tay Bridge, collapsed' - Copyright: St Andrew's Valentine Collection
- Image 'Microsoft' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'Memorial to flight MH370' - thierry ehrmann under CC-BY licence under Creative-Commons license
- Image 'Peter Lewis' - Copyright: Production team
- Image 'Eye tracking results with participant' - The Open University under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
- Image 'John Perry Barlow' - Joi under Creative Commons BY 4.0 license
- Image 'The Arduino Diecimilla' -
by Randomskk, some rights reserved
under Creative-Commons license - Image 'The sign outside Facebook's HQ' - Copyright free: Denvit
- Image 'Velocity vectors capture the flow separation on the upper surface of a stalled wing (courtesy of Dr A Saddington, Cranfield University)' - Copyright: Dr A Saddington, Cranfield University
- Image 'Dr Joyce Fortune' - Copyright: OU
- Image 'Photograph of the engineer, Beatrice Shilling on her Norton racing motorcycle (1930s)' - Copyright: Fair Use
Other content you may like

History & The Arts
Learning to groove
The story of Tomorrow's Warriors, teaching young people to love jazz - and training them for music industry success.

Science, Maths & Technology
Radar: What happened next – Smaller
The race against time to develop smaller radar systems during the Second World War.

Science, Maths & Technology
Collapse at Kinzua: Tornado
The collapse of the Kinzua Rail viaduct revealed what might be the crucial clue to solving an engineering mystery dating back to 1879. Part 2: Tornado

Science, Maths & Technology
Technology can't make us less wasteful
Derek's response to the final lecture of the 2005 series of Reith lectures

Science, Maths & Technology
Taxes and privacy: A tech business reading list
Tax judgements, privacy concerns, wonky algorithms, Labour's digital plans and antitrust worries. OpenLearn brings you a quick guide to a busy day of technology stories.

Science, Maths & Technology
The Tay Bridge Disaster: Aftermath
The aftermath of the Tay Bridge Disaster, part of the BBC/OU's programme website for Forensic Engineering.

Science, Maths & Technology
Inspiring ants
Dr Chris Melhuish explains how the natural world has influenced his work in robotics

Science, Maths & Technology
Is Microsoft finally breaking the mould?
The launch of Microsoft’s new Xbox 360TM challenges some of our assumptions about firms and their capacity to innovate new products. Paul Quintas asks whether a company previously focused on software can become an apparent leader in hardware products?

Science, Maths & Technology
Can we find the rest of MH370?
It looks as if part of MH370, the lost Malaysian Airlines jet, has been found. Will this help us locate the rest of the plane?
OpenLearn Search website
OpenLearn Links
Footer Menu
Our partners
OpenLearn works with other organisations by providing free courses and resources that support our mission of opening up educational opportunities to more people in more places.


©1999-2020. All rights reserved. The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302). The Open University is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in relation to its secondary activity of credit broking.
Be the first to post a comment
We invite you to discuss this subject, but remember this is a public forum.
Please be polite, and avoid your passions turning into contempt for others. We may delete posts that are rude or aggressive, or edit posts containing contact details or links to other websites.