Original Catalogue Specifications:
-
Welte
Number 57
- Date: 1893
- Unit chassis inside free standing wrap-around case.
- Single semi-automatic roll mechanism with windmotor forward drive.
- Uses Welte 75-key rolls.
- Approximate Dimensions and Weight:
Height: 11' 0"
Width: 8' 0"
Depth: 4' 3"
Shipping Weight: 4,500 lbs.
52 Note Musical Scale -- 294 pipes:
- 34 Clarinette pipes from c' - a''', voiced at a 16' pitch. The
lowest 7 pipes are open wood flue pipes, with the remaining 27 having
wooden boots with tunable free reeds and tin resonators, which on this
organ are located inside the case.
- 52 Zinn pipes from FF - a''';
from FF - E, stopped 16' wood bass pipes;
from F - B, open wood pipes;
from c' - a''', open tin pipes visible as the front rank.
- 27 Trompette pipes from g' - a''', wood boots with tunable free
reeds, brass resonators forming part of the center sunburst arrangement.
The top 9 treble pipes are open wood flues.
- 25 Posaune pipes from FF - B, wood boots with tunable free reeds,
brass resonators, the five brass pipes visible on the left and right
sides of the center sunburst arrangement, with 8 more brass pipes
located toward the rear of the case and the remaining 7 in the center
sunburst group.
- 52 Gedeckt pipes from FF - a''', stopped wood pipes.
- 52 Octave pipes from FF - a''', 4' pitch; open wood pipes located
inside the case.
- 52 Wald Flöte pipes from FF - a''', open wood with cylindrical
mouths located toward the rear of the case.
- Triangle
- Snare drum (single beater with reiterating pneumatic action)
- Bass drum, with cymbal (loud and soft stroke)
- Kettle drum (tympani effect using two beaters)
Notes:
- The notation shown above is in German, whereby the English "a#" =
German "b," and the English "b" = German "h."
- There are 52 playing notes, beginning with F, skipping F# and then
chromatically up to A.
- The instrument contains seven pipe ranks, all of which are
automatically controlled from the music roll.
- An eighth automatic register controls the crescendo function (swell
shades).
- The music roll frame is of the Welte semi-automatic type: the music
roll shuts off at the end of playing and the operator must then shift
the roll frame into rewind mode. Earlier types required manual
rewinding, while later types were fully automatic.
- The wind pressure on this organ is 64 mm (2-1/2"). While standard
for certain brands of early orchestrions, this level of wind pressure is
very low compared to that used by orchestrions manufactured during the
1900s and that required very quick actions and comparatively loud pipe
tones.
Chronological History:
Circa 1893
Manufactured by M. Welte and Söhne, Freiburg, Germany.
Circa 1893
Henry Clay Frick Residence (Clayton), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Henry
Clay Frick (1849-1919) was a noted American industrialist and
philanthropist, who in 1871 organized the H. C. Frick Coke Company, which
was to become one of the largest coke-producing firms in the world. With the
aid of the great financial panic of 1873, Frick cleverly took control of his
competitors and the coal fields of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, greatly
expanding his control over mining and coking operations. Then, with the
finest metallurgical grade of coke under his firm grip -- a product that he
sold to Carnegie Steel -- Frick became a millionaire by the age of 30, as
well as being known as the undisputed "King of Coke."
Clayton,
the family home in Pittsburgh, was purchased in early 1883, and was enlarged
in 1891 to accommodate the family's growing needs, making the old 11-room
house into the spectacular 23-room chateau-style mansion that can be seen
today. A couple of years later, in 1993, the Welte Style 6 Concert
Orchestrion was brought into the house and installed in the front parlor. It
was originally powered by two clockwork motors powered by large weights hanging
on cables on the back of the case. The right-side weight
powered the music roll frame and pumped the four wide pressure feeders
(bellows) on the right side of the instrument. The left-side weight powered
four narrow pressure feeders, which are coincidentally located on the left
side of the feeder assembly, and that are also connected to and operate the
four narrow vacuum feeders directly under them. Once one of the weights
reached the floor it had to be raised again, a task that was accomplished by
turning a ratcheted hand-crank arrangement. Having to "wind-up" the
orchestrion frequently must have been an inconvenient and unwelcome chore,
so much so that in 1904, when electricity was becoming fairly commonplace,
Emil Welte was summoned to Clayton in order to convert the large orchestrion
to electric operation. The Welte orchestrion may have been moved to the
front sun porch at that time.
Frick eventually became a director on the board of many prominent
corporations, and in 1901 he took a leading part in the negotiations that
resulted in the formation of the United States Steel Corporation. When Frick
died in 1919, he left behind a fortune worth 145 million, most of which went
to purposes for which the public would benefit. His New York home, which
became his principal residence in 1905, was to house the Frick Collection of
art (http://www.frick.org).
In Pittsburgh his legacy included the 151-acre Frick Park, as well as some
of the city’s greatest buildings, which include the William Penn Hotel, the
Union Trust building, and the Frick Building. He also gave millions to
Harvard, MIT, and the Educational Commission of Pittsburgh, with other
generous gifts to hospitals located in coke and steel region towns.
Of four children (two sons and two daughters), the surviving daughter,
Helen Clay Frick, who was 31 years old at the time of Frick's death, was
bequeathed $6.5 million to be used for charitable and educational purposes.
After Helen Frick's death, the family home of Clayton became the Frick Art &
Historical Center (http://frickart.org/home/),
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Welte orchestrion still resides at Clayton,
and is one of only a few orchestrions of any make or type to have remained
in their original location. Clayton is open to the public, and the Welte can
be heard at the end of each tour.
Circa 1960
The Welte was "Modernized" in the 1960s. This was a fairly common
practice before automatic musical machine were generally considered to have
much, if any, intrinsic monetary or historical value, and such
"improvements" were vastly cheaper and more convenient then actually
restoring an instrument to its original state. To accomplish this particular
"modernization," vacuum and pressure blowers were added, bypassing the
original feeder pumps, and gear motors were added to the music roll frame,
taking the place of the original round belt drives and manually operated
linkages. While such attempts at "improvement" are now considered to be
flagrantly disrespectful, if not outright vandalism, such practices are
generally shunned by collectors today. Nonetheless, this early practice did
keep many machines operational, even if an unsightly fix, saving many of
these mechanical music relics from the dump heap.
1991
The
Welte orchestrion was beautifully and meticulously restored by Durward R.
Center in 1991, returning this superb example of an early and large Welte
Concert orchestrion to its original splendor. Moreover, the original factory
"modernization" by Emil Welte, done in 1904, and which upgraded the Welte so
that it could be powered by electricity instead of the original clockwork motors powered by heavy weights on the back of the case, was
left intact and restored right along with the rest of the machine.
During
the year 2001 the Frick Art & Historical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
released Orchestrion Favorites from the Frick, a new compact disc
album that was professionally mastered and produced, and that captures the
very heart and essence of the magnificent Welte Style 6 Concert Orchestrion
at Clayton, the Frick Mansion. This beautifully manufactured compact disc is
filled with popular and classical renditions that really demonstrate and
show-off the huge instrument. This splendid recording was made by the Frick
Art & Historical Center so that the enchanting sound of this classic
mechanical musical treasure could be enjoyed by countless music fans
everywhere. To obtain a copy of the Frick CD album go to the Audio Recordings page (under Resource Links), where a selection of CDs on various topics are available.
