On February 3rd, my workshop appeared on the show Handcrafted America. This half-hour program on the Inspiration Network (INSP) interviews craftspeople from all over the country to, as they say, rebut the claim that “They don’t make ’em like they used to.”

Shooting the segment took place on two very hot days in August of last year. The host, Jill Wagner, tried her hand at comb tuning, watched some of the automated processes, and discussed with me the complicated process of turning the location of pins on a cylinder into long lists of numbers on a computer, then into sheet music, then into computer instructions for drilling new cylinders.

the episode promo can be seen Here.

Part of the work I do is to put custom musical programs on existing commercial movements. This can be enjoyable, especially when the box is for a special occasion such as the birth of a baby or when the job is original music done for the composer.

One particularly nice example of the latter just got shipped out to the composer. This was re-working of a Sankyo 3/72 movement (three tunes played on 72 teeth). Although commercial boxes do not have the large combs and brilliant tone of a traditional 19th century design such as I make from scratch, I though this piece came out very well. The composer, Chris S H, of New York, did a great job of composing a program that was both lively and intimate and which well suited the Sankyo. You can hear it below.

This summer I was contacted by a production company which was doing a series for the Discovery Science Channel on how machines work. They wanted to look into the intricacies of a multi-tune musical box. After filming in my shop for a day, they worked their magic with 3D graphics. It is my hope that this 10 minute piece will be a good explanation of the music box mechanism and an opportunity to show the world how special a traditional music box can be. I was briefly interviewed. Without knowing much about what their piece will look like and what information it will cover, I can’t tell you how complete or accurate it will be, but I hope you will find it interesting if you choose to watch. The episode containing the music box segment airs on the Science Channel on Thursday the 11th at 10:00 PM Eastern Time.

I completed a very interesting and unique box recently for a customer interested in early music. The box plays a transcription of four pieces from Bach’s French Suite #1 in D minor.

The program is unusual in that it is a note-by-note transcription of the piece, not an arrangement. Making a transcription program is challenging, as the maker can’t use octave substitutions, modified ornamentation, or other tricks of the arranger’s art to fit the limitations of the comb. Because of this, fully 88 teeth were required to play four minutes of relatively un-ornamented music. The Sarabande and one Menuet each fit the playing time of the cylinder perfectly. The other Menuet was divided into two tracks, the second of which is a few seconds short of filling the entire cylinder track. This is a box which makes no compromises to the exigencies of the musical box format; a program for the musical purist.

It is unusual to hear Bach on a traditional sounding musical box. Although a few Bach works are available on modern musical movements, I know of no programs from that era that included one of his works. The classical programs for 19Th century musical boxes we almost exclusively contemporary work. Yet the musical box is wonderfully matched to Bach’s music. The work was composed prior to the invention of the piano. Bach intended the piece to be played on the harpsichord, and would have played portions to himself on the harpsichord as he composed them. Like the musical box, and unlike the piano, the harpsichord is a plucked instrument. The very bright tone, sharp attack, and rapid decay of a musical box is reminiscent of a harpsichord. Also, both the harpsichord and the musical box have no dynamic variation. All notes are sounded at the same volume each time they are played, again, in contrast to the piano (which owes its very name, short for fortepiano or pianoforte, to the fact that it can be played both softly and loudly). The shared musical character of the harpsichord and the musical box makes music written for the one especially appropriate to be played on the other.

You can hear the results here:

Sarabande                        Menuet I                          Menuet II a                              Menuet II b

This is a unique program, designed to the exact preferences of the customer, and a remarkable new way of presenting the Baroque musical style.

We recently delivered a custom musical box which we are very excited about. The box was commissioned as a 20th wedding anniversary present. There are only two tunes, both performed at the wedding it commemorates. We were enormously pleased to have the services of Peter Mansfield (www.mansfieldmusic.net) to arrange the pieces for this musical box.

Arranging for musical box is a nearly lost art. With a sharp attack, enormous range, and short sustain in the treble, the musical box is at once versatile, articulate and challenging to arrange for. To these musical characteristics, add the mathematical complexities of choosing a comb scale: The arranger must specify which notes in the chromatic scale over six octaves he will and will not use over the course of arranging all the tunes on a box. Then he must choose which of these notes he will use more than once in a short interval as multiple teeth tuned to the same note will be required for these. Peter took on this challenge and, we think, succeeded brilliantly. The arrangements are rich and textured like traditional musical box arrangements yet free of the virtuosic excesses to which 19th century arrangements were prone. A traditional sound rendered fresh and original. Click here to hear this unique box play Simple Gifts. Peter is a composer, arranger, and keyboard player who has worked with many performers, including The Boston Pops, Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and Elisabeth von Trapp. Please visit his site to hear more of his work. We are excited to be working with him where new material and custom arrangement are required.

[See image gallery at herzmusicbox.com] Welcome

It has been a long road to perfecting the Herz musical box but here we are! The Herz musical box is now for sale. In future I will write more about the process of development, but for now, thank you for reading and below is or first posting of our activities here at the shop:

PINK????

[See image gallery at herzmusicbox.com] This picture is of four cases being finished now. The appallingly ugly pink paint job is the first step in producing the traditional faux rosewood finish. This garish color will slowly be covered by layer after layer of paint and glaze (a translucent coat of paint just tinged with pigments) to create the mixture of colors and textures that are characteristic of exotic tropical hardwoods. When completed, with a hand-rubbed varnish on top, the pink will add a rosy warm hue to the subsequent darker layers.