This page contains text excerpts and
photographs that are copyrighted and that are used herein by special
permission of the D.C. Ramey Piano Company. Be it further noted
that the author of this site is not affiliated with the D.C. Ramey Piano
Company, nor shall any person or entity associated with this web site assume
any responsibility or liability for any of the materials or products
mentioned on this page, and that may be produced, sold, and/or distributed
by the aforementioned Ramey Piano Company.
Part
of the information below is excerpted from the booklet entitled "The
inComplete History of the Banjo-Orchestra®," authored and copyrighted by
the D. C. Ramey Piano Company (see inset at right). The booklet can be
purchased for $5.00, plus tax (for Illinois residents) and
shipping. Please send any inquiries or orders regarding the booklet or the new
Ramey Banjo-Orchestra® to:
D. C. Ramey Piano Company
17768 Woodview Drive
Marysville, Ohio 43040-9711
(708) 602-3961
The Original Banjorchestra
| From THE MUSIC TRADES -- November 6, 1914 |
BANJORCHESTRA, THE NEWEST FOR TANGO TEAS AND MOVIES
Connorized Music Co. Produce Wonderful Instrument
to Replace Dance Palace Orchestras --
Invention of James O'Connor......
 |
 |
The Connorized Co.'s Newest Product, the
Banjorchestra |
The Banjorchestra is the product of the Connorized Music Co. and
is the brain child of James O'Connor, the president of this concern.
The case design on the first instrument shown, and which is pictured
herewith, is by Arthur Conrow, Mr. Connor's able assistant. The
Banjorchestra is a composite instrument of the banjo, piano, snare
drum, bass drum, triangle, tambourine, and castanets......
As head of the Connorized Music Co. the demand for tango and
other dance music assuming unusual proportions was indicative to him
of the necessity for a thorough, competent, complete, and dignified
dance orchestra as well as an orchestra that would provide music of
the kind that the Banjorchestra produces.
The Banjorchestra is 6 feet 9 inches high, 3 feet 5 inches wide
and 2 feet 7 inches deep. The first example shown is finished in
Mission oak, and this style of finish will prevail unless otherwise
specified. For special purposes the Banjorchestra will be
manufactured to harmonize with the surroundings of the place where
it will be housed......
On Monday of this week THE MUSIC TRADES representative was given
a demonstration by James O'Connor and Arthur Conrow in the
Connorized Music Co.'s factory, at East One Hundred and Forty-fourth
street and Austin Place. The demonstration was arranged so as to
give such dramatic value as was necessary in order to gain
absolutely uninfluenced by visualization, and when THE MUSIC TRADES
representative stepped from the elevator to the spacious
roll-cutting and experimental rooms of the Connorized company's
plant the instrument was in operation. The effect was absolutely
bewildering in that heretofore in all his rounds of musical
instrument factories (and it may be mentioned, tango parties) a more
perfect dance orchestra had not been heard by him. Mr. O'Connor
caused ten selections to be played, ranging from the lightest
operettas to the heaviest orchestra music, and in every requirement
exacted the instrument excelled itself......
The Banjorchestra will prove a handsome addition to the
equipments of halls, assembly places and other locations where
tangoing is indulged in and orchestra music is required, and a
demonstration justifies the prediction that in the Banjorchestra the
Connorized Music Co., or, more particularly, James O'Connor and
Arthur Conrow, have created a "winner." |
With such a glowing prediction for a wonderful future, what happened to
the Banjorchestra? How many were made, and where are they now? Aside from a
couple of advertisements with pictures and descriptions of the instrument,
who has actually seen one? The most complete Banjorchestra was discovered by
Rick Crandall at Knott's Berry Farm. The D. C. Ramey Piano Company has since
restored this instrument. It was serving as a "puppet show" nickelodeon. The
banjo and traps had been removed and replaced with dancing puppets. The
front soundboard remained where the banjo and traps were mounted, and the
placement of the banjo and trapwork could still be seen, due to the shadows
made from sun bleaching of the sounding board surface. The piano and banjo
valve chests were left intact.
There is another Banjorchestra (or the remains of one) at the Musée
Mecanique at the Cliff House in San Francisco, California. The banjo and
traps were removed by Jim DeRoin, who sold the banjo to Tom Fretty, who
later sold it to David Ramey, Sr. Maybe a third instrument exists, but that
is yet unconfirmed. Only two incomplete instruments is all that are known to
have survived.
But to turn back the clock, there were two different companies who
advertised their own style Banjorchestra. The first was the Connorized Music
Company, and the second was the Engelhardt Piano Company. The Connorized
Music Company was established by W. Scott O'Connor, the last known owner of
the "Encore" Automatic Banjo patents. O'Connor was the major owner of the
American Automusic Company, the main manufacturer and sales agent of the
"Encore" and sole producer of music rolls for it. The "Encore" was a coin
operated automatic instrument featuring a lone banjo operating from an
endless paper music roll, introduced in 1897. The original production of the
"Encore" ceased by 1906. However, they have been made once again, on an
individual basis, by the D. C. Ramey Piano Company since 1978.
The first Banjorchestra was built by the Connorized Music Company in
1914, as stated in the Music Trades article. A later advertisement from a
1915 Music Trade Review features three pictures of a differently styled
mahogany cabinet. This later ad shows a view with the back opened, revealing
a 44-note piano similar to those made by the Pianova Company and used in
early models of the Mills Violano Virtuoso. The drum in the pictures looks
like it was a banjo pot (a banjo without the neck attached). It probably had
two beaters to serve as "bass and kettledrum" without any snares. On close
examination of the pictures in the ad, there are numerous inconsistencies to
be found. The pictures are not simply photographs. They appear to have been
altered or retouched, or perhaps they are not photographs at all, but artist
renderings of a proposed idea.
The Connorized Music Company was a music roll manufacturer and is not
known to have ever manufactured pianos. It is suspected that O'Connor never
went into production of the Banjorchestra, but that the manufacturing rights
were given or sold to the Engelhardt Piano Company of St. Johnsville, New
York. The two extant machines were clearly made by Engelhardt, as they have
the name cast in the piano plate. The banjo in one of the machines is the
identical banjo used in the "Encore." The two extant Banjorchestras are not
the same as either of the two styles advertised, but closely resemble the
instrument advertised by Engelhardt.
The
Engelhardt Banjorchestra (made by the Engelhardt Piano Company) was
advertised in a cabinet identical to the Engelhardt "F," finished in
mahogany, featuring a Piano, Automatic Banjo, Chinese Drum, Tambourine,
Triangle, Snare Drum and Bass Drum Effect. The pianos of the extant
Banjorchestra are straight-strung 58-note pianos, which play 42 notes. The
cases are built of solid quarter-sawn oak, and not finished in mahogany.
They appear to be Engelhardt "F" cases, except the cases were built over 4"
wider to allow for the interior mechanisms and the piano back to swing out,
like a Mills Violano Virtuoso. The only drum in the machine was equipped
with two beaters (probably a reiterating beater for a snare drum and a
single stroke beater that struck with the snares dampened for the Chinese
drum). It appears from the picture that this drum is a banjo pot. The "bass
drum effect" mentioned in the Engelhardt ad was nothing more than a felt
bass drum beater that struck the piano soundboard. The ad also claims that
the roll mechanism is "directly connected with pumping apparatus by shaft,
thus eliminating belting." However, this is not the case with the extant
machines, which employ a couple of leather belts to operate the roll
mechanism. The ads were somewhat misleading as to what a Banjorchestra
really was.
Although it is known what components make up a Banjorchestra, since no
original rolls or even a tracker bar have been found it is not known how the
music was arranged, nor how they actually sounded. The Banjorchestra played
42 piano notes and it did not use the upper treble notes on the 58-note
piano. The banjo had the full playing capability of the "Encore" Banjo, as
the original valve chest had four picker valves and 40 fret valves. It was
common in American coin pianos to use a 65 or 88-note tracker bar. But even
if the Banjorchestra used an 88-note tracker bar, by the time 42 holes are
taken for the piano and 44 for the banjo, only two holes would be available
for all the traps, expression, music roll rewind and shut-off controls.
Perhaps it was somehow tubed to simultaneously play the piano and banjo, but
this would be a little tricky, since the frets of the banjo must be down
before the string is picked in order to get a clear tone.
On a banjo roll, the fret hole comes up before the picker hole, giving it
sufficient lead-time before the note is plucked. If it was simply "teed" to
the piano, the piano note would play before the banjo. If the fret lead-time
on the roll were eliminated, the banjo would sound sour. Another problem
with playing the banjo and piano with the same tracker bar hole is that
there are overlapping notes in the fretting of a banjo. There are 40 frets,
10 on each string, but the banjo is only capable of playing 24 different
fretted notes (for example, G# of the same octave can be played by the C or
G string). Some piano notes would have to be tubed to two banjo notes. If
this kind of tubing scheme was used it is hard to imagine how the original
instrument would have sounded.
A major stumbling block for the original Banjorchestra was that the banjo
had an animal-skin head. Skin heads are notoriously very sensitive to
humidity, shrinking or expanding with the slightest change. This shrinking
and expanding not only affects the tuning of a banjo, but it also affects
the picker mechanism adjustments, too. The pickers will pick the strings
lighter as the head expands, to the point where they might miss the string
altogether. So, on a cool, damp morning, the banjo would be faint and flat;
by mid-afternoon it would be loud and almost in tune. The earlier "Encore"
Automatic Banjo constantly had problems like this. Today, all this can be
avoided simply by using a plastic head, because with a plastic head the
banjo becomes quite consistent and reliable. A lone banjo going a little
flat is one thing, but if it is combined with a stable piano, the skin head
banjo will rarely be in tune, with the piano and the resultant music perhaps
a little hard to enjoy. Maybe this constant tuning trouble is why only two
Banjorchestras are known to have survived.
The New Banjo-Orchestra®
Some
80 years later, the concept of a Banjorchestra was reborn by the D. C. Ramey
Piano Company. This was not a surprising move, since the company was already
involved in manufacturing the new Encore Automatic Banjo. The
Banjo-Orchestra was merely an extension of the Encore, adapting it by using
technology and craftsmanship that had been developed many years earlier when
working with various coin-in-the-slot pianos and orchestrions. Thus, by
using the two ads, as well as measurements from the two extant machines,
along with the combined experience of Dave Ramey and his son, Dave Ramey,
Jr., representing 50 years of dedication and work in pneumatic coin-piano
restoration, the new Banjorchestra was created. However, since it is more of
a re-creation than an exact reproduction, it was named the Ramey
Banjo-Orchestra, so as to differentiate it from the original instrument.
The Ramey Banjo-Orchestra is being produced in limited numbers, the first
of which was unveiled to rave reviews at the 1994 Music Box Society
International Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas. The Banjo-Orchestra consists
of an automatic banjo supported by tambourine, triangle, bass drum, snare
drum, castanets, wood block and cymbal, and is accompanied by a 61-note
piano. All instrumentation is visible from the front, including the piano,
with the banjo and trapwork out in front, beautifully showcased in a cabinet
of either quarter-sawn oak or mahogany, with a three-door hinged front that
is fitted with glass panels.
The
outward appearance of the new Banjo-Orchestra is like that of the late model
Connorized Banjorchestra. The cabinet was, in fact, custom built by
carefully scaling the pictures in the 1915 Connorized ad, which showed the
cabinet with a one-piece plate glass front that had to be lifted out in
order to tune the banjo or expose the instruments for increased volume. The
Ramey Banjo-Orchestra was first built this exact same way, but the awkward
front proved to be too cumbersome to be constantly opened for displaying and
listening to the instrument. Therefore, it was redesigned with a
three-glass-paneled front that can be easily opened to access the banjo and
trapwork, as well as offer the option of listening to it with the front
opened or closed.
Decorative corner filigrees were added to allow the music to penetrate
the front when the doors closed, and to tie it in aesthetically with its
ancestor, the "Encore" Automatic Banjo. Both the Engelhardt and Connorized
Banjorchestras utilized a decorative backboard, a sort of "second sound
board," located in front of the piano, which was used to mount the banjo and
trapwork. Thus, the piano is completely concealed. The Engelhardt
Banjorchestra was first restored leaving the "decorative" soundboard as
original, which meant that the piano was more or less enclosed, causing it
to sound a bit subdued or muffled. It was then decided to restore the
instrument with the banjo mounted on a middle support, with the traps
mounted on the side of the case, which allowed the piano to be exposed and
much more clear and present in tone, the same arrangement used in the new
Banjo-Orchestra.
The Ramey instrument uses a newly cast 61-note overstrung, full perimeter plate.
Seeburg used this same type of piano in their models K and KT to great
success. The extant Banjorchestras both have a 58-note straight strung
piano, playing only 42 notes, while the new Banjo-Orchestra plays all 61
notes. This type of piano is of a superior design both structurally and
acoustically. And, as with the original Banjorchestras, the piano of the
Ramey Banjo-Orchestra swings out for easy access and servicing.
The design of the roll frame in the Ramey model is based on the
exceptionally durable Western Electric, Style A, tracker frame, which had
proven itself as completely reliable ever since its inception in the 1920s.
This wonderful dependability stems in large part due to the gears always
being in mesh, so that there is no grinding of engaging or disengaging
gears. The tracker bar has 100 holes, which, by means of a little
multiplexing, allows full piano accompaniment to the banjo. This means that
the piano can play the full range of its scale and is able to carry the
Melodie Violin with full treble capability. In contrast, it is believed that
the Engelhardt Banjorchestra piano could only play accompaniment. This full
range is achieved by means of some simple multiplexing, with some
tracker-bar positions tubed to both the piano and banjo, but that can only
play one or the other, whichever is called for by a multiplexing control
switch. By multiplexing certain tracker holes, there are effectively enough
holes in the tracker bar to not only correctly play the piano and banjo, but
to individually operate each trapwork device, as well as control the
expression of the piano and traps separately from the banjo.
The music rolls for the Ramey Banjo-Orchestra, of course, have to be specially
arranged. For this job, Art Reblitz, a noted music-roll arranger, first
helped to create a tracker scale specifically designed for this new
instrument, before any music could be arranged and laid out for roll
cutting. Original "Encore" Banjo rolls were used as a base for arranging
some of the new music. Mr. Reblitz also adapted certain European orchestrion
arrangements for the Banjo-Orchestra's 10-tune music rolls. These historic
orchestrion arrangements were inspired by 78 R.P.M. phonograph records of
American dance band arrangements, played by some of the best 1920s jazz
bands, and represented melodies that could easily have originally been
available for the Connorized or Engelhardt Banjorchestras.
Transcribing and adapting many of the wonderful old orchestrion
arrangements permitted the Ramey Banjo-Orchestra to enjoy some of the finest
music ever arranged for automatic musical instruments. Now, some of the
music from the best orchestrion music-roll arrangers, such as Gustav Bruder,
who arranged the magnificent Weber Maesto music, would live on in a new way.
But even with the arranging and transcribing out of the way, the new music
rolls had to be very accurate if the Banjo-Orchestra was to sound like a
real orchestra. The extremely rapid picking of the banjo and its
relationship to the piano and the fast acting trapwork had to remain
musically in sync, or the desired musical effect would be lost. To ensure
the necessary degree of accuracy for the new music rolls, all the rolls are
cut on a state-of-the-art computerized perforator. And, unlike most American
coin-in-the-slot pianos, the music rolls for the Banjo-Orchestra are
arranged to be played exclusively by this type of machine, so that the music
roll layout perfectly fits the instrument, rather than it having to
accommodate several models, each of which is different in its musical
capabilities. This singularity of use means that the music arranger does not
have to compromise his composition in any way, so as to make sure it sounds
reasonably good on a group of differently equipped instruments. The end
result is a quality of music unlike anything normally heard on a commercial
coin-in-the-slot piano or orchestrion of yesteryear.
That the obscure Banjorchestra was re-born some 80 years after its
inception is due to the remarkable interest, enthusiasm, and fifty years of
combined restoration experience by Dave Ramey, Sr., and his son, Dave Ramey,
Jr. Thus, in 1994, it was -- with due consideration of Mr. Ramey's rich and
successful history of restoration and rebuilding experience -- very fitting
that he receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Musical Box Society
International, and at the same Annual Meeting where he unveiled the Ramey
Banjo-Orchestra for the first time.
What does the future hold for the Banjorchestra? A possible third
original Banjorchestra is rumored to have been found in the eastern United
States. It is said to be in complete original condition, with the tracker
bar and all components intact, along with a collection of original music
rolls! This suggests that it may someday be possible to know, once and for
all, how the original Banjorchestra music was arranged. Unfortunately,
however, this potentially historic find is yet to be confirmed or examined,
because the person claiming to have the instrument has not yet allowed
anyone inquiring to actually see it, although many people have pushed for a
viewing. Nonetheless, one way or another, it may someday be possible to see,
hear, and enjoy a completely original Banjorchestra, alongside the
instrument it was to eventually inspire -- the Ramey Banjo-Orchestra.
Please direct any inquiries regarding the new Ramey Banjo-Orchestra or audio recordings of the Banjo-Orchestra to
the company, as follows:
D. C. Ramey Piano Company
17768 Woodview Drive
Marysville, Ohio 43040-9711
(708) 602-3961
