Carl Frei: Difference between revisions
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Pre WW1, street organs were hand cranked and easily portable, but fell out of tune and repair due to the undulations of the cobbled Dutch streets. Frei started maintaining organs, but noticed that many owners wanted something louder (thanks to the increased street noise made by early cars), and distinct (thanks to the wider availbility of the record player). |
Pre WW1, street organs were hand cranked and easily portable, but fell out of tune and repair due to the undulations of the cobbled Dutch streets. Frei started maintaining organs, but noticed that many owners wanted something louder (thanks to the increased street noise made by early cars), and distinct (thanks to the wider availbility of the record player). |
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Frei began to make his own organs, with a number of innovations. Firstly he devised a new organ register called the "bourdon céleste," which replaced the high-maintenance [[clarinet]]s and [[vox humana]]'s with two rows of stopped pipes with very bright intonation, one row tuned slightly sharp to the other.<ref>http://www.draaiorgel.org/english/street%20organs.htm</ref> He also developed the 20 note roll scale for street organs, more popularly known as the 20 note Raffin scale because the vast majority of 20 note organs have been built by [[Josef Raffin]].<ref>http://www.melright.com/music/faqpage.htm</ref> The "Carl Frei Traveling Concert Organ" was considered to be the largest traveling Fair Organ in the world, which had 112 keys.<ref>http://members.aol.com/tgcnc/frei.htm</ref> |
Frei began to make his own organs, with a number of innovations. Firstly he devised a new organ register called the "bourdon céleste," which replaced the high-maintenance [[clarinet]]s and [[vox humana]]'s with two rows of stopped pipes with very bright intonation, one row tuned slightly sharp to the other.<ref>http://www.draaiorgel.org/english/street%20organs.htm</ref> He also developed the 20 note roll scale for street organs, more popularly known as the 20 note Raffin scale because the vast majority of 20 note organs have been built by [[Josef Raffin]].<ref>http://www.melright.com/music/faqpage.htm</ref> |
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Besides rebuilding older organs, Carl Frei started building new ones according to this concept. The biggest street version of these, with 90 keys, were true "castles of the street;" while the "Carl Frei Traveling Concert Organ" was considered to be the largest traveling Fair Organ in the world, which had 112 keys.<ref>http://members.aol.com/tgcnc/frei.htm</ref> |
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Carl Frei Jnr was his son, who carried on the organ building tradition. |
Carl Frei Jnr was his son, who carried on the organ building tradition. |
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Revision as of 16:19, 23 March 2008
Carl Frei was a German organ builder company that manufactured Dutch fairground and crank organs.
Carl Frei Snr was an organ builder, composer and music arranger who worked for Gavioli, but on the later's demise left to form his own company. After World War One, Frei moved to Breda, Holland to repair what were popularly know as Dutch Street Organ's, but were in actual fact built in almost every mainland European country except Holland, which were there most populous market.
Pre WW1, street organs were hand cranked and easily portable, but fell out of tune and repair due to the undulations of the cobbled Dutch streets. Frei started maintaining organs, but noticed that many owners wanted something louder (thanks to the increased street noise made by early cars), and distinct (thanks to the wider availbility of the record player).
Frei began to make his own organs, with a number of innovations. Firstly he devised a new organ register called the "bourdon céleste," which replaced the high-maintenance clarinets and vox humana's with two rows of stopped pipes with very bright intonation, one row tuned slightly sharp to the other.[1] He also developed the 20 note roll scale for street organs, more popularly known as the 20 note Raffin scale because the vast majority of 20 note organs have been built by Josef Raffin.[2]
Besides rebuilding older organs, Carl Frei started building new ones according to this concept. The biggest street version of these, with 90 keys, were true "castles of the street;" while the "Carl Frei Traveling Concert Organ" was considered to be the largest traveling Fair Organ in the world, which had 112 keys.[3]
Carl Frei Jnr was his son, who carried on the organ building tradition.
References
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