viagra sale this site ‘popup’, here drug ‘width=500,height=500,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0’); return false”>
Exquisite little clockwork instrument, complex of make, simple of mind: It requires no talent to play, and yet rewards with a tinkly, plinky little rendition of Brahms’ “Moonlight Sonata.” Crank it fast or slow, as is your mood, but you have no more control over its workings than over the behavior of a mousetrap. Use it, it makes but one kind of noise as the spines on its tiny drum pluck the vibrating metal tines of its tongue. This one is uncomplicated, devoid – but for the melody – of the kitsch that infects most music boxes. I’ve looked in vain for music boxes that play more challenging music, but alas they’re too expensive to contemplate, or too hard to find. Someday, someone will build one that plays Ramones tunes, and then we’ll know civilization has somehow changed for the better – or ended altogether.
Comments
3 responses to “#222 :: Music box”
Hey! 🙂 The “Moonlight” sonata is by Beethoven. Bit of the old Ludwig Van.
Its real name is “Sonata quasi una Fantasia”, and it’s opus 27, serially.
In February 2004, I did a chiptune version of the second movement, set to the drum track from James Brown’s “Funky Drummer”. There’s an MP3 download on my Web site.
I love your blog.
Why not build your own music box? It can’t be rocket science, and with guitar pickups placed right, you could make the tines sound like those of a Rhodes piano.
Hmm. I’ll need to go back and check whether it’s Ludwig’s Sonata or Brahms’ Lullaby – I think it’s the latter.
Hey, go ahead and provide a link to your chiptune version – I’d love to hear it.
Thanks for the kind words.
I did the build-your-own-music-box thing once – built a floor-standing xylophone with big, fat aluminum keys, all hand-milled and -tuned, in a hardwood/plywood case. It sounds great, but weighs something like 80 pounds, so it’s hardly little, heavy as it is.
Here’s an idea, get a programmer friend to code up a proggy that prints out pin patterns for music box barrels, then you can build your own.