12/195 'Alternate Tip' Lecoultre Freres Cartel circa 1862
Restored lid
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Restored movement
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This high quality Cartel, serial no. 32572, made by Lecoultre Freres around 1862, has a massive 195 note comb and plays 12 different Scottish tunes. (see below) The cylinder measures 18 3/4" (477mm) long by 2 1/8" (54.55mm) diameter.
The unusual 'alternate tip' comb has 50% of the notes without tips. Each untipped note is tuned to it's left hand companion and vibrates in sympathy with its partner to (allegedly) provide a richer sound, though this is not proven. Nevertheless it is an interesting discussion topic.
There was a lot to do to bring this music box back to its former glory, starting with dismantling and cleaning, getting the missing and damaged parts made alongside restoring the marquetry and re-polishing the box.
In conversation with James Preddy - otherwise known as The Music Box Restorer - I find that this was a 'transition' piece. This means that it was made at the beginning of the period of change from key-wind to lever-wind mechanisms which explains why there is no divider over the spring motor and you have to lift the glass lid to access the winding lever.
The unusual 'alternate tip' comb has 50% of the notes without tips. Each untipped note is tuned to it's left hand companion and vibrates in sympathy with its partner to (allegedly) provide a richer sound, though this is not proven. Nevertheless it is an interesting discussion topic.
There was a lot to do to bring this music box back to its former glory, starting with dismantling and cleaning, getting the missing and damaged parts made alongside restoring the marquetry and re-polishing the box.
In conversation with James Preddy - otherwise known as The Music Box Restorer - I find that this was a 'transition' piece. This means that it was made at the beginning of the period of change from key-wind to lever-wind mechanisms which explains why there is no divider over the spring motor and you have to lift the glass lid to access the winding lever.
Tunes 1 to 5 - Bonnie Dundee Quadrille Parts 1 to 5
Bonny Dundee is a very old Scottish folk-tune used for at least fifteen songs. A simpler version of the tune appears in the Skene manuscript around 1630 under the title Adew, Dundee. The title Bonny Dundee for the tune appears in an appendix to John Playford's 1688 edition of The Dancing Master, an English publication. The tune has been used for the following popular song:
O whaur gat ye that hauver-meal bannock?
Silly blind body, O dinna ye see?
I gat it frae a brisk sodger laddie,
Atween Saint Johnstone and Bonnie Dundee.
O, gin I saw the laddie that gae me't!
Aft has he doudl'd me on o' his knee.
But now he's awa', and I dinner ken whaur he's,
O gin he was back to his minnie and me!
"Saint Johnstone" refers to Perth, and "Bonny Dundee" is the town of Dundee. This song was parodied in English publications of the early 18th century with coarser wording, under the title Jockey's Deliverance, or the Valiant Escape from Dundee, to be sung "to an Excellent Tune, called Bonny Dundee." A 1719 collection titled the parody Jockey's Escape from Dundee; and the Parsons Daughter whom he had Mowd, and its chorus featured variations on "Come open the Gates, and let me go free, And shew me the way to bonny Dundee". Robert Burns rewrote the second verse of the original, so that the latter lines were "May Heaven protect my Bonnie Scots laddie, and send him safe hame to his baby and me." He added a concluding verse with the promise to the baby to "bigg a bower on yon bonnie banks, where Tay rins dimpling by sae clear", alluding to the River Tay.Another version of the original, titled Scots Callan O' Bonnie Dundee, refers to a callant (lad) rather than a soldier, and a "bonnie blue bonnet" instead of a bannock.
The tune is used for unrelated words in a broadside ballad published in 1701 under the title Bonny Dundee, suggesting that it was to be sung to this melody, and in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera published in 1765.
Bonny Dundee is a very old Scottish folk-tune used for at least fifteen songs. A simpler version of the tune appears in the Skene manuscript around 1630 under the title Adew, Dundee. The title Bonny Dundee for the tune appears in an appendix to John Playford's 1688 edition of The Dancing Master, an English publication. The tune has been used for the following popular song:
O whaur gat ye that hauver-meal bannock?
Silly blind body, O dinna ye see?
I gat it frae a brisk sodger laddie,
Atween Saint Johnstone and Bonnie Dundee.
O, gin I saw the laddie that gae me't!
Aft has he doudl'd me on o' his knee.
But now he's awa', and I dinner ken whaur he's,
O gin he was back to his minnie and me!
"Saint Johnstone" refers to Perth, and "Bonny Dundee" is the town of Dundee. This song was parodied in English publications of the early 18th century with coarser wording, under the title Jockey's Deliverance, or the Valiant Escape from Dundee, to be sung "to an Excellent Tune, called Bonny Dundee." A 1719 collection titled the parody Jockey's Escape from Dundee; and the Parsons Daughter whom he had Mowd, and its chorus featured variations on "Come open the Gates, and let me go free, And shew me the way to bonny Dundee". Robert Burns rewrote the second verse of the original, so that the latter lines were "May Heaven protect my Bonnie Scots laddie, and send him safe hame to his baby and me." He added a concluding verse with the promise to the baby to "bigg a bower on yon bonnie banks, where Tay rins dimpling by sae clear", alluding to the River Tay.Another version of the original, titled Scots Callan O' Bonnie Dundee, refers to a callant (lad) rather than a soldier, and a "bonnie blue bonnet" instead of a bannock.
The tune is used for unrelated words in a broadside ballad published in 1701 under the title Bonny Dundee, suggesting that it was to be sung to this melody, and in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera published in 1765.
Tune 6 - Ferne Leaves Waltz Part 1
Tune 7 - The Ripple Polka
Tune 8 - Scots Greys Gallop
Tune 9 - Lurline, Rondo and Chorus
Lurline is a grand romantic opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace to an English libretto by Edward Fitzball. It was first performed on 23 February 1860 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden by the Pyne and Harrison English Opera Company with Louisa Pyne in the title role. The libretto is based on the legend of the Lorelei.
The rondo is a musical form that contains a principal theme (sometimes called the "refrain") which alternates with one or more contrasting themes, generally called "episodes", but also occasionally referred to as "digressions" or "couplets".
Lurline is a grand romantic opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace to an English libretto by Edward Fitzball. It was first performed on 23 February 1860 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden by the Pyne and Harrison English Opera Company with Louisa Pyne in the title role. The libretto is based on the legend of the Lorelei.
The rondo is a musical form that contains a principal theme (sometimes called the "refrain") which alternates with one or more contrasting themes, generally called "episodes", but also occasionally referred to as "digressions" or "couplets".
Tune 10 - Highland Mary is a song composed in 1792 by Scottish poet Robert Burns. It is one of three works dedicated to Mary Campbell, with whom Burns was in love in the 1780s. The others, "Highland Lassie, O" and "Will Ye Go to the Indies My Mary?", were composed in 1786. "Highland Mary" consists of four stanzas that speak of Burns's affection for the lady, his melancholy at her death and his continued memory of her. The melody was that of "Katherine Ogie."
Tune 11 - Phillis is my only Joy is a song by Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet, English noble, dramatist and politician. It is said to be his most famous works.
Tune 12 - Beautiful Star in Heaven so Bright sometimes known as Star of the Evening by James Mason Sayles first published in 1855
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