The first time Retonio Breitenmoser saw a mechanical music instrument was in a museum in Europe.
He was spellbound at the sight of piano keys moving on their own to produce melodious tunes.
He was fascinated by the ingenious mechanism that made it work. Since then, the music and art lover from Switzerland has become a collector of mechanical music instruments.
During the past 35 years, Breitenmoser has travelled around the world to acquire a diverse range of items that includes key-wind cylinder and disc music boxes, phonographs, gramophones, jukeboxes, barrel organs and pianos.
He displays them in a museum in his Swiss hometown and has helped set up similar museums in several other countries.
Breitenmoser will exhibit 48 pieces from his collection at an exhibition in Dubai organised in collaboration with the Vindemia art and antiques gallery.
“Self-playing music instruments are a combination of art, science and entertainment.
"The earliest pieces made in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries cost almost as much as a house and were found mainly in the homes of the rich. They were also popular gifts for royal courts,'' Breitenmoser says.
“These instruments also played a central role in public entertainment and are an important part of our cultural history.''
The oldest piece in the exhibition is a Biedermeier writing desk with a Swiss music box by Mermond Freres worth Dh380,000.
The hand-engraved piece was made in 1820 and the music box, placed in the top cabinet of the bureau, was added in 1870.
“The sound is produced by a clockwork mechanism. Although the music box is 200 years old, the sound quality is excellent and comes with six different melodies,''
Breitenmoser says. “It was made by the same artisans who made the movements for the famous Swiss watches and clocks.''
Also dating back to the 1870s is the Double Singing Bird Automaton by Bontems. This exquisitely crafted piece consists of two birds in a gilded cage. When cranked up, it plays birdsongs.
Another version is the Station Automaton with a moving doll. “These instruments with coin slots were placed in railway stations to keep passengers entertained,'' Breitenmoser says.
Other versions of this device include the Monkey Organ that was used by street musicians in public places.
In the early 1900s, cylinder-operated automatons were replaced by the disc music box, in which the melodies were programmed on discs instead of cylinders.
Several versions of this earliest form of jukebox, called the Polyphon, can be seen in the exhibition.
These include the elaborate Polyphon Savoyard and a carved wooden disc music box with a selection of 12 discs.
The Polyphon Savoyard, a coin-operated disc musical box, has a painted terracotta man standing behind the music box.
The coin slot is shaped like an alms dish. “These pieces, made for restaurants and shops, had highly decorative designs,'' Breitenmoser says.
As music and dance became more popular, companies began to make bigger, more elaborate music boxes or Nickelodeons that could reproduce the music of an orchestra.
These were used in dance halls and cinemas during the era of silent films. One of the most popular models was the Hupfeld Symphony Jazz Orchestrion.
The instrument can play all kinds of music ranging from folk songs to Christmas carols and wedding marches.
Also on display is a 52-key DECAP Dance organ. Made in 1940, this carved and hand-painted music box plays the drums, base drums, wood block, cymbal and accordion with the added attraction of a moving carousel on top.
The advent of the radio and gramophone in the 1930s killed the industry of cylinder- or disc-operated musical instruments.
Well-known companies such as Wurlitzer moved with the times to build jukeboxes that played records.
The many types of jukeboxes at the exhibition include a 1920s Art Deco-style Rock-ola and the Wurlitzer 1015 Bubbler introduced in 1946.
With its eight bubble tubes, illuminated and colour-changing pilasters and shiny chrome-domed top, the American machine reflects the positive postwar attitude in the United States.
The coin-operated jukebox plays 78-rpm records. Art collectors and music lovers can also marvel at other pieces such as a carved walnut-and-rosewood Reuge disc music box with a red velvet-lined jewellery case, a Thorens disc player with a matching stand, antique gramophones such as the 1922 Tyrela oval gramophone built into a mahogany cabinet, a Lorenz Recordophone and a barrel piano by G. Rossi.
The highlight of the show is a Steinway piano that belonged to King Edward VII.
“He was the Prince of Wales when this piano was delivered to Marlborough House in 1898.
It was installed in the boudoir of his wife Princess Alexandra, a renowned classical pianist.
It was moved to Buckingham Palace after he was crowned and has been played by many royals, including Queen Elizabeth,'' Breitenmoser says.
Vindemia's CEO Ghada Kunash says she is surprised that most people in Dubai, including young Europeans, do not know about these instruments.
“But everyone who has seen and heard them has been fascinated. I hope someday we can have a permanent museum of mechanical musical instruments in Dubai with a wider range of exhibits.
"These are works of art replete with history and nostalgia and a perfect combination of aesthetics and entertainment.''
Jyoti Kalsi is a UAE-based art enthusiast.
Vindemia's exhibition of mechanical music instruments will be held at the Kempinski Hotel, Mall of the Emirates, from May 12 to June 3.
Art and Science of Melodies
The history of mechanical music instruments can be traced back to as early as the 9th century.
In Baghdad, the Banu Masa brothers, a trio of Iranian inventors, produced the earliest known mechanical musical instrument known as a “hydropowered organ''.
This cylindrical contraption remained the basic device to produce and reproduce music mechanically until the second half of the 19th century.
The bulk of music box production was concentrated in Switzerland, with instruments ranging from flute-playing clocks from the late 18th century to self-playing violins of the early 20th century.
By the middle of the 19th century, more sophisticated models were being designed. Some of the pieces such as the Apollionicon orchestrion took five years to finish.
Another piece, the Componium, can arrange sound combinations that would take about 230 years to hear.
