The following links point to a small selection of sites (or books—go to the end) that are "special:"
General links about crank organs and mechanical music can be found e.g. in the Mechanical Music Digest, at the AMICA, or with a search engine on the Internet.
For legal reasons, I have to state the following: The contents of web sites linked on this page and elsewhere in www.haraldmmueller.de are not defined and presented by me. Therefore, I do not assume any responsibility for their correctness, and whether they are legal or illegal under the law of any country.
Jäger und Brommer, organ builders in Waldkirch (the Waldkirch, which once was the world center of mechanical music), not only build crank organs (as well as church organs), they are also active in keeping the organ tradition of Waldkirch alive, e.g., as co-founders of the Waldkircher Orgelstiftung (Waldkirch organ foundation)—and moreover, they built my 26er organ! They have everything from "20er" to organs with Ian Alderman's 26-note scale (like mine!) to big fair organs—e.g. the one designed by Otmar Alt for the 200 year organ building anniversary of Waldkirch.
Rudolf Klomfar—he punches paper rolls for me (and everyone else). He lives on 66 square feet filled with a punching machine, a few computers, and of course a few organs—or so it seemed to me when I visited him.
Mechanical Music Digest—the most important Internet mailing list + archive for mechanical music. Moderated and organized in an outstanding way by Jody Kravitz and Robbie Rhodes. A must for everyone interested in mechanical music!
Gesellschaft für Selbstspielende Instrumente in Germany is devoted to all aspects of mechanical instruments. Its journal is full of historical and restoring information.
Christian Wittmann - organ builder and arranger. Christian Wittmann builds perfect 20er organs - for rolls and also with MIDI control; Christian also built a Wurlitzer style 105 organ just for himself.
20er Favorites - a Seite of Gordie Davidson, which has - among others - recordings of some arrangements I wrote for Gordie; played on the great 20er "Bauchorgel" built by Christian Wittmann.
Charlie Moore's "Gem Roller Organ" web site. Using a computer-controlled pinning machine ("pin gun"?), Charlie produces pin rollers for the "Gem Roller Organ"—some of them with arrangements written by me.
The Crank Organ Ring is a web ring about crank organs (see bottom of my homepage).
NoteWorthy Composer—the music notation program I use.
Ramon Pajares' homepage shows what you can do with it. Very interesting: His collection of links regarding arranging and composing!
www.dolmetsch.com contains lots of information about harmonization and many other areas of music theory—mainly historical information, but also knowledge about jazz and about the many symbols and signs used in musical scores.
Not a WWW-Link, but in my opinion important for everyone who wants to arrange (or compose) music: Diether de la Motte's book "Wege zum Komponieren" (as far as I know, only available in German). Until now, I did not bring myself to working through it—I only read it, but this alone is worth it!
Organ music, but not in a church nor in a concert hall? Gershwin, Ragtimes, Hits? The Slapstick Rag by Helmut Schulte alone is worth a (virtual) visit to Potsdam's film museum!
... more will follow!
© 24.10.2010 HMMüller