From early man’s use of hollow logs to craft the first drums to the digital media we know and love today, our fascination with music has persisted throughout history. It’s truly a universal communicator with the ability to evoke great joy, humor, sorrow, and everything in between.
It was the desire to capture and recreate this wondrous medium that led to the birth of the music box. Of all the rare antiques a collector seeks, music boxes provide an array of possibilities limited only by the imagination of their creators. From the most intricate singing bird boxes that fit in the palm of your hand to grand Orchestrions made for entertaining large dance halls, the evolution of these mechanical marvels is a story of innovation that spans nearly five centuries.
So let’s explore how the music box came to be and discover how it developed into one of the most intriguing works of mechanized art ever made.
In The Beginning: The Carillon
It is believed that the first notions of creating self-playing music began with the carillon. This bell system originated in 1510 in Flanders and was located in the bell towers of churches and government buildings to indicate the time of day, church services or other secular events. The system initially required a “ringer,” now known as a “carillonneur” or “carillonist,” to play a keyboard and pedalboard, with each stick-like key corresponding to a particular bell. These mechanisms contain a minimum of 23 bells, with the largest known being the 78-bell carillon located at Hyechon College in South Korea.
Round and Round It Goes: The Cylinder
While the position of a carillon player remains alive and well today, the desire to automate the instrument without having to rely on a musician led to the rise of the first cylinder mechanisms at this time. Since carillons resided within the belfries that also contained the town’s clock, it was a natural progression to merge the two mechanisms using a giant cylinder in order to achieve automated bell music that sounded at specific times of the day.
This large cylinder, or drum, would contain pins that were placed in specific spots along the cylinder that corresponded to a system of levers and hammers, each with its own bell. The drum would be turned at an even tempo to achieve a pleasant melody. These cylinders and pins were often removable, and the task of the carillonist would be to replace or adjust the cylinders and pins to attain the desired song.
Having effectively achieved automated music, it wouldn’t be long before ingenuity would strike again. This time, in Switzerland.
Bringing Music Indoors: Switzerland
Nicole Frères "triple signed" cylinder music box, interior. The cylinder is accompanied by bells, a drum and castanets, playing 8 songs on a single cylinder.
Switzerland has a prestigious and lengthy history of technical prowess, as even today the country is renowned for its amazingly precise timepieces. Though it is difficult to pinpoint the origination of the very first music box, historians agree that it was invented in the late 18th century (circa 1770) and was small enough to fit in a pocket watch by utilizing many of the techniques and concepts of watchmaking.
The next brilliant mind we encounter in the evolution of the music box is Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a watchmaker located in Geneva that is credited with the tiniest of musical boxes, the singing bird box, sometime in the mid-1780s. By this time, Droz became legendary, especially amongst royalty, for his astounding automaton creations that featured mechanized dolls that played diminutive musical instruments. With the advent of these miniaturized musical mechanisms, Droz built upon his knowledge of automatons to create a small snuff box that contained a diminutive automaton bird. The inside would be fitted with a winding watch mechanism that operates a bellows and several cams. The bellows created the bird’s whistling, while the cams controlled the notes produced by the whistle and the motions of the bird.
The renowned Charles Bruguier created this rare, early Swiss fusée singing bird box circa 1860.
The first singing bird boxes, which later became known as “tabatières” for their resemblance to snuff boxes, had fusée-driven movements that allowed the birds to play longer and have a greater range of motion. In later examples of the 19th century, chain-driven movements accounted for the majority of bird box mechanisms. All of these miniature music boxes were typically created by two craftsmen: a watchmaker for the machinery and a jeweler for the case, as the finest and most prized examples were fashioned of precious metals, enamel, tortoiseshell and all manner of luxurious materials.
The Birth of an Industry
While Droz’s diminutive birds enchanted Europe’s nobility and high society, Swiss watchmaker Antoine Favre-Salomon was on his way to his own musical revelation. Salomon took the theories of the carillon and decided to replace the bells with small tuned metal strips to achieve, essentially, a miniaturized version of the mechanism. In 1796, his vision was realized, and the comb, and the music box we know today, was born.
The comb not only allowed music on a smaller scale but also effectively allowed for a greater range and precision of sound. This advancement effectively gave rise to the cylinder music box industry. Switzerland remained the center of music box production throughout the invention’s prime, and the bustling business soon spread throughout Europe and across the Atlantic to America. In total, it’s estimated over 10,000 artisans were employed in the music box industry. Makers such as Nicole Frères, B.A. Bremond, Mermod Frères and Charles Paillard came on the scene, creating some of the most beautiful and prized cylinder boxes ever devised.
Swiss interchangeable cylinder box, circa 1880.
Paillard, in particular, made great advancements in cylinder music box quality and is credited with introducing the Sublime Harmonie. For years, music box makers searched unsuccessfully for a way to increase the volume of their music boxes without creating a harsh, tinny sound. In 1874, Paillard invented a way to do just that with the Sublime Harmonie, an invention that called for the use of two or more combs of equal scale, each tuned alike or with a slight intentional dissonance in order to provide a louder volume without harshness.
This cylinder music box is accompanied by additional cylinders, allowing the owner to play any tune they liked.
With this innovation, consumer demand for more depth and variety in sound became even greater, which led to cylinders that comprised more pins and combs with over 300 teeth, which could hold far more notes than the 88-note piano keyboard. Not only that, but cylinders could now hold more songs and play uninterrupted. Other instruments began to be incorporated into the box’s mechanism, including drums, bells, mandolins and castanets, paving the way for the interchangeable cylinder system. With the tremendous advances in sound quality and range, the cylinder mechanism could play a limitless array of music to suit every taste. Consumers could select the exact songs they wished to hear on their music boxes. The possibilities were endless.
Saving Space: The Disk
Symphonion's upright disk music box, circa 1890. The most advanced player of its time, the disk allowed for even more musical selections to be played with ease.
It seemed that the popularity of the cylinder was unstoppable until inspiration struck again the late 1880s in Leipzig, Germany. Seeing a way to make the music box even more convenient for customers, the Symphonion Musikwerke developed the interchangeable disk music box. The zinc or steel disks worked by the same principle of plucking a comb to create music. The difference was in the way the comb was plucked, with different makers creating disks of varying diameters and tooth size so that one maker’s disk could not be used on a competitor’s music box.
Compared to cylinders, disks were easier to manage and change, as well as cheaper to create. This allowed music boxes to be more affordable and, therefore, available to a wider audience. Also, firms could create these disks faster, giving consumers the chance to easily purchase the latest tunes from their favorite composers. Cylinder music boxes continued to have a strong following, but undoubtedly, the disk became the dominant means of at-home music entertainment. Companies such as Symphonion, Regina, Polyphon and a host of others, all based in either Germany or Switzerland, with many having branches in the United States, controlled the music box scene.
Close up of the Symphonion disk music box within its artfully constructed upright cabinet.
…And The Hits Just Keep Coming
The Arburo Orchestrion was once a fixture in bustling dance halls, cafés and fairgrounds throughout Belgium and the Netherlands in the early 20th century. The orchestrion effectively replaced the need for an entire band by playing actual, stand-alone instruments.
As is always the case, all good things must come to an end. By the turn of the 20th century, the vast majority of the great music box makers had gone out of business as an array of ingenious inventions paved the way for even more change in the world of music. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented his iconic phonograph (and in 1885, the gramophone of Alexander Graham Bell), which not only reproduced sound, but could also record it. Later in the 19th century, the pianola, or player piano, furthered automated music by engineering a piano with an automated mechanism that utilized perforated paper rolls to control the actions of the instrument. Developing the concept of paper rolls came with the rise of the orchestrions. Companies such as Arburo of Hoboken, Belgium, created these magnificent music machines that essentially took the place of entire bands by playing actual, stand-alone musical instruments. They possessed powerful motors, pipes and vacuums that played everything from organs and drums to triangles and accordions.
The orchestrion operated using paper rolls, like the earlier player pianos, to direct the instruments within. The mechanism contained a powerful motor, pipes and vacuum play the instruments, creating a breathtaking level of sound.
The final blow to the music box’s popularity came with the breakout of World War I in 1914 and the global impact of the Great Depression that lasted from 1929 through the late 1930s. Keeping in mind that the cost of even a basic model disk music box equated to approximately a four-months’ salary for the average American worker, it’s clear why the once robust industry deteriorated.
From the golden age of the music box remains an incredible, albeit an increasingly small number, of these fascinating mechanical music relics. The finest examples that remain were well cared for and maintain a beautiful condition and unbelievable sound quality. Though the zenith of the musical box may have passed, their brilliance lives on with every note they play.
Browse our collection of antique music boxes to discover a musical addition for your home. And if you want to shine some light on your music box, learn about different chandelier styles and see how you can illuminate the antiques and space in your home.
Watch and Listen to the Music Box Collection
