Invisible Hands (1975)

look ma no hand hi everybody I'm Vicki car I sing but I do not play the piano like P revi believe it or not that's who's playing this piano right now this is a 1923 performance by The Immortal ignas Yan peski interpreting Chan's Pines just as if he were here today playing this golden piano with invisible hands there is no intermediary such as a phonograph you're seeing and hearing this piano recreate pev's performance half a century ago with none of the nuances lost or changed but you know this reproducing piano is just one of the inventions you'll hear today all played by invisible hands of fine musicians here we are amidst the world's greatest collection of automatic musical instruments in fully restored perfect working condition in the Merl Norman Tower of beauty Beauty at San silar California imagine if you can the days before television movies radio and Stereos humans have always needed music and have played it themselves when they could those with enough money hired live musicians to play for them and many people turned to the Forerunner of today's phonograph the automatic musical instrument middle class parents saved for years to buy a play of piano so their family could enjoy good music and Emperors and queens and multi-millionaires bought full reproducing pianos like this one or miraculous orchestrions which I'll show you later let's see how these instruments worked peski signed each piano rooll after he cut it then on this full expression piano it reproduces not only all the notes he played but also all the complex expressions of tempo phrasing and dynamics that make each musician's performance unique this brass track has 80 holes representing individual piano keys if a perforation in the piano roll corresponds to a hole in this bar it will play that piano key now when these little holes appear on the piano row certain notes on the piano will play louder than others I'm sure you're wondering how a tiny perforation on a paper roll can move these piano keys with a force of P's powerful hands the answer is called pneumatics it's the same principle that plays nearly all automatic instruments pneumatics means using the action of air pressure or vacuum to make something move you see these Bellows when a hole on the paper roll is open a little bit of air moves down through the tube to a valve which opens up a port and applies vacuum suction to a Pneumatic Bellows each Bellow supplies the force needed to push a certain key or pedal want to see what makes the role move to create this pneumatic action the role is driven by this little electric motor thank you Mr PFI and now I promised you orchestrions an orchestrion is like an automatic Orchestra this Hub Feld Excel the is equal to an 18-piece orchestra it could play anything from a symphony to a popular song notice the Exquisite craftsmanship every item in the Merl Norman collection was chosen for visual Beauty as well as musical quality this orchestrion took three years to make and was completed in 1926 a few years later production of important orchestrions ended complet completely and today most Americans have never even heard of them you can choose from 10 different rades at a time just like a juke box in fact when Americans stopped making orchestrions the biggest company switched to Juke boxes these are real accordion which could be taken out and played by hand this orchestrion uses 20 of those black pipes to represent the sound of one OBO each pipe plays a different OBO note and there are several hundred pipes here watch this my hand is covering up this little hole that makes the drum beat now I pull my hand away from this hole and let air move through to the pneumatic Bellows see kind of sounds like the natives are coming aren it they're here this orchestrion played for 40 years in a restaurant in Holland and boy did it have fun people came from all over Europe to see and hear it couples used to hold hands to its music or dance but now we're going to try something different I don't think it's ever been done in the movies before a singer for the first time is going to sing with an orchestrion music Mr hufeld [Music] please when it's spring time in the rock I'm coming back to you little sweetheart of the mountains with your bny eyes of blue once again I'll say I love you while the bird sing all the day when it's spring time in the Rockies in the Rockies far away [Music] fantastic did you ever think the Rockies could swing like that you know I haven't enjoyed such a fascinating partner since I danced at the White House the first orchestrion was invented in Sweden in 1789 the year our American Constitution was born Beethoven he composed music especially for an orchestrion and the CR heads of Europe all hurried to buy one this is why [Music] these music roles were like early computer programs in fact the first big American computer company took over an orchestrion Factory and used its expert workers to make Computer Logic systems look at these huge Bellows that pump air and they create a vacuum for this entire orchestria [Music] while these orchestr and pianos enjoyed their Heyday the photograph was still a squeaky squawky box here's a very early Columbia gramophone in case you can't understand the voice on the cylinder uh he's singing anyone's welcome at my house come after breakfast bring your lunch and leave before [Applause] [Music] supper and now let's look at some of the earliest automatic Music Makers oh here is a rare music musical watch from France made before 1800 and Charming little music boxes like this with the play things of royalty in ancient times automatic pipe organs were programmed to play Simple tunes by placing pins in a pattern on a revolving Barrel then came the music corillian and churches which used the same principle to play church bells protuding prongs on a revolving cylinder were the heart of this 1880 music box these pins pluck the teeth of two identical comes for twice as much sound as you'd get from one [Music] comb I wondered why a Cosmetic Company like Merl Norma displays music instead of makeup and they explain exp that these instruments symbolize dedication to Excellence and beauty and craftsmanship and a company should strive for those goals [Music] too and now let's return to a really special piano it was presented Emperor France ysep ruler of the Austrian Hungarian Empire on the 50th anniversary of his Reign apart from its beauty it's just an ordinary piano but you can see it's being played in an extraordinary way this automatic player built especially for the France Yos piano is called a for ziter in German that means something that is set in front when this for ziter is set in exactly the right position it placs the keys with felt covered fingers guess whose hands are guiding this for ziter the great Norwegian composer Edvard Greek playing his own album blot Opus 28 now here's an orchestrion made in 1921 right here in America this Wonder life of colorful gems would revolve as the music played and the automatic role changer could play 30 songs without repeating itself so would you like us to perform another song we're so glad you asked okay fascinating Rhythm you got me on the go fascinating Rhythm I'm all a quiver what a mess you're making the neighbors want to know why I'm always shaking just like a fli each I get up with a sun start ho never sto to find it night no work has been done I know it didn't matter but now you're going wrong when you start to patter I'm so unhappy won't you take a day off decide to run along somewhere far away off and make it snappy oh how I long to be the one I used to be fascinating Rhythm or won't you stop picking on me thank you thank you and now let's look at some other instruments that entertained our [Music] grandparents now let me show you what a nickel could really get you in the good old days this self-playing violin has its own piano accompaniment people used to dance to these violins in restaurants and in private homes you see that's a real violin each string is stopped at the correct interval by Electro magnetically controlled fingers the Bowing action of a human artist is duplicate by these four rosin Celluloid discs that revolve and play one to four strings at a time would you [Music] believe aha now here's an automatic banjo these four banjo strings are plucked by tiny little fingers little leather covered buttons stop the strings along the Fret at the correct spot this paper roll calls the tomb these banjos oh they were popular around the turn of this Century but they're very rare today in case you want to know more about the Merl Norman Tower of beauty it's quite new and it's located near Los Angeles group Tores can be arranged by appointment this Grand salon displays some of the world's loveliest Classic Automobiles all in restored driving condition each car here is able to drive out for a spin at any time another example of functional fine art created in a spirit of excellence and [Music] elegance this Avan wasan touring car once belonged to Rudolph [Music] Valentino now back to the golden dway and the invisible hands of P rsky I hope you've enjoyed this visit to romantic past when skilled Craftsmen joined with talented musicians to generate Beauty for Eye and Ear they devoted their art to the vision of the poet who proclaimed music the greatest good that Mortals know and all of heaven we have below