Traveling through Time with Music: An Encounter with Antique Instruments

Are you ready to time travel through music? Join us on a captivating journey into the world of antique musical instruments with our special guest, Craig Darlak. A proud owner of the 1984 Bruins violino pan organ, Craig gives us a fascinating insight into the making and mechanics of this historical piece. We're also treated to some enchanting organ melodies that resonate through time. 

But that's not all! We'll also talk about the power of regular exercise and its impact on brain health, focusing on low-impact routines for those with weak joints. We also share unique gift ideas like a carousel music box, perfect for adults and music lovers. As we wrap up, we express our profound gratitude to our supporters and remind everyone that the quality content we produce is protected by copyright. Whether you're here for the music, wellness tips, or innovative discussions, there's something for everyone in this episode. So sit back, relax, and let the narratives of history, music, and health carry you away.

Season 8 Introduction

Transcript

Emily 0:30

Welcome to the Open Forum in the Villages Florida podcast. In this show we talk to leaders in the community, leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live here in the villages to give perspectives of what is happening here in the Villages Florida. We hope to add a new episode most Fridays at 9 am. Our host, mike Roth, has been a Villages resident since 2017. He is the leader of three lifestyle clubs and created a fourth. Mike joined 20 clubs in the first year he was here in the Villages. Mike is a strong leader. Before coming to the Villages, mike was a successful business leader and had a successful podcast in Cincinnati called Cincinnati Business Talk. That shows 300 episodes are still available and has over 90,000 lessons. Mike is an instructor at the Villages Enrichment Academy teaching podcasting 101 for beginners. This podcast is a listener supported podcast. You can become a supporter for as little as $3 per month or you can choose to pay more. To become a supporter, go to Open Forum in the VillagesFloridacom and click on support in the black box. There will be shoutouts for supporters in episodes. As a supporter, you will get a direct email link to Mike.

Emily 1:41

In our new season 5, we are making significant improvements and changes on an ongoing basis. First is our new and better logo upgrades and recording equipment to allow easy access for remote guests. Second is a continuing increase in the use of AI in the creation of each episode. These include a transcript of each show. Please understand that there may be errors inserted by the AI that may not be caught before the transcript is published. However, this is a dramatic step forward. In fact, all the show's announcers are now all AI voices, including me. Emily Open Forum in the Villages, florida, has been publishing new episodes on YouTube for the last several months. If you have a book that you would like to turn into an audiobook, let us know via email to mike at rothvoicecom. Hope you enjoy today's show.

Mike Roth 2:29

So we're here at the historical musical instrument show in the villages and we have a few musical instruments. We're going to hear a few of them. Some of the music actually sounded good on these 100 year old playback devices. Sit back, listen and enjoy some of the seasonal music that these machines that are 100 years old managed to produce. Thanks for listening. Naturally, since these few minutes at the show were recorded in a large, open room, the sound was very echoey. It wasn't done in a studio and you can hear people talking in the background. Even given those disadvantages, I think it's an important recording that everyone should listen to. That's right.

Exhibitor 3:31

What is this?

Exhibitor 3:32

crank doing this is the rewind, oh okay, and then a roll oh, okay.

Mike Roth 3:37

So what were we just listening to?

Exhibitor 3:39

A Christmas song. That's a German Christmas song. This is a German made organ.

Mike Roth 3:43

Okay.

Exhibitor 3:43

So this roll came with it. Most of them are familiar to us, but that was yeah, it plays rolls of music, rolls of paper. Rolls of paper Like a player piano, right, right, and that says holes open up here. It plays those pipes.

Mike Roth 3:56

Oh, okay, so we're here at the antique musical instrument show. Correct, and your name is.

Exhibitor 4:03

My name is Craig Darlak Craig. I live in Delanaga, georgia, on the Tennessee board. Okay, so I brought this down to play here at the villages. This is a Bruins violino pan organ. It's the largest, best sounding organ here, but it sounds really nice.

Mike Roth 4:20

What was it made? When was it made About?

Exhibitor 4:22

1984. It was made. The man's name is on the front. His name was Mr Bruins. This is a violino pan organ made by Mr Bruins. It's a Bruins organ, orgol in German. He custom made it for Ralph Ralph Schack in California. He made each one by hand and when he finished making this one he passed away.

Exhibitor 4:44

Wow.

Exhibitor 4:45

And when Ralph Schack passed away, I bought it for Ralph Schack's mistake.

Mike Roth 4:49

Okay, where do you get new music rolls?

Exhibitor 4:52

You can get them here in America and also in Europe. They're not easy to get, but they are available.

Mike Roth 4:57

Is that something you find on eBay?

Exhibitor 5:00

You won't find them on eBay, but these are all Christmas rolls that I brought today. Okay, that's great. Thanks for sharing that.

Exhibitor 5:08

You're very welcome.

Exhibitor 6:47

How did they punch the hole?

Emily 6:58

How did they make that?

Exhibitor 6:59

They have a machine that does it Well. In the old days they used to well they had a foot pedal. And they moved it through the machine and hit the pedal and it would punch the holes. But now it's done with a computer. They feed a computer file into the machine and it just starts punching.

Mike Roth 7:20

So one was this.

Exhibitor 7:22

I made this organ myself so maybe 20 years old.

Mike Roth 7:27

Okay, so I'm recording this for Hope and Forum in the villages. Okay, it'll be released around the first of the year.

Exhibitor 7:34

Oh, okay.

Mike Roth 7:36

So is there anything special about this particular organ? When was it made you?

Exhibitor 7:41

made it yourself yourself. I made it myself 20 years ago, about 20 years, 20. A little over 20 years ago, I guess, and it has. They call it a 36 key organ. These keys pop up when there's a hole, oh, okay. And then it opens the valve which is in a box here, okay and the cranking you're doing is the bellows band. The air for the pipes Right. Yeah, the bellows, and also it moves the, the roller, the paper. The roll of paper here through it.

Mike Roth 8:20

Great, okay, thanks very much.

Exhibitor 8:22

Okay.

Mike Roth 8:23

What's the story on this one? This one looks like a lot older.

Exhibitor 8:27

Oh yeah, this has been in the late 1800s, 1890s, something. I haven't even played this one. We did a repair on this one for somebody that lives here at the villages. Okay, and we'll see. Thank you for that.

Exhibitor 8:51

I don't even recognize this one.

Mike Roth 9:05

It sounds like it's playing backwards. It could be.

Exhibitor 9:10

I bought a new roll for an output to an 80-back.

Mike Roth 9:14

Yeah, because it looks like it's been abused by again too close to the rollers. How old do you think this one is?

Exhibitor 9:24

This one is in the 1890s I would say Good.

Exhibitor 9:27

I used to be able to buy one of these from the Sears catalog for about $3 or something later.

Mike Roth 9:35

That's fantastic. I'll take one for three bucks yeah.

Exhibitor 9:43

I'll take one for you. It has three organs in the lobby.

Mike Roth 9:48

Okay, would you like to hear this organ?

Exhibitor 9:53

I've got a special tune for you.

Mike Roth 9:54

Oh, special tune. Wow, you may or may not recognize it, but I'll Okay. So before we play it, these look a lot more electronic than the 1890s units. They place off a computer chip. Okay.

Exhibitor 10:08

Which is really early for.

Mike Roth 10:11

Electronics.

Exhibitor 10:12

Electronic organs, because you know 16 tunes, where today they use an SD card that have a thousand tunes, of course, no paper rolls for you, not here. I've had lots of organs in the past. This is what I'm ending up with. This is portable and it's novel, because I play one or two organs at the same time.

Mike Roth 10:39

They synchronize.

Exhibitor 10:40

Hook together with this umbilical cord.

Mike Roth 10:42

This is a master.

Exhibitor 10:43

This is a slave.

Mike Roth 10:44

Good Ron. What village do you live in?

Exhibitor 10:48

I live in Bradenton Florida.

Mike Roth 10:50

Bradenton Florida.

Exhibitor 10:52

It's about a hundred and some odd miles south of here.

Mike Roth 10:56

Okay, so you came up special for this show.

Exhibitor 10:58

I left at 4.30 this morning.

Mike Roth 11:00

Oh boy.

Exhibitor 11:01

This for you.

Mike Roth 11:02

Okay, good. Well, you're going to be on open forum in the villages with your two organs. Well, great. Great, let's hear a song, okay.

Exhibitor 11:10

Well then, you probably want to hear something different than jingle bells. Yeah, I've heard that before, Because that was what I was going to surprise you with. But oh heavens.

Exhibitor 11:37

One, two, three, four, five, six. Okay, okay.

Mike Roth 12:17

Great. Thanks a lot, Ron. So I'm just watching it. You cranking it just for the Bellos Mm-hmm. Okay, and the electronics.

Exhibitor 12:27

Well, and it advances the music.

Mike Roth 12:31

Yeah, so what?

Exhibitor 12:33

I mean it advances the program. But the computer chip is what activates the pipes. Okay, great. Here's my card Great and because you're a good boy here's your free token.

Mike Roth 12:50

Okay, great Monkey organ rider.

Exhibitor 12:54

That's right. Thanks a lot. Always try to keep a low profile.

Mike Roth 12:58

You know, okay, low profile, thank you, Thank you Wow.

Exhibitor 13:47

So how much repairing did you have to do when you got it?

Exhibitor 13:52

Did it work perfectly when you oh well, I got it I got it eBay and they said it worked Really. And I got it and all it did was give me a squeak and a squawk and I turned it up. Friend of mine over there turned it up. The Bellos was full of holes.

Mike Roth 14:09

Yeah so it's getting in here.

Exhibitor 14:11

So somebody had tried to fix it. They put Band-Aids on the holes Literally Band-Aids. Now Band-Aids were all standing up like that. They were not staying where they were supposed to be. So, anyway, he repaired the Bellos for me. That was all I needed to get it playing Played fine Now.

Exhibitor 14:32

So you're turning and bringing the Bellos up and down. Is that what you're doing with the? This here is yeah, is that?

Exhibitor 14:37

that's. Is it up and down With the Bellos With?

Exhibitor 14:39

the Bellos Yep.

Exhibitor 14:43

They're pushing air up through these, if they the pins open these.

Exhibitor 14:47

Wow, oh, wow, yeah, I see that Wow.

Exhibitor 14:50

So that's the thing that you think about back in 1850. How did? They decide where to go to pin these holes. Yeah, because this thing is moving like that. It has to make three revolutions in order to play those notes, okay, and when it's all done, then it snaps back. But today we make new ones for new machines, and I think this is the one I want.

Exhibitor 15:25

Yeah, that's it.

Exhibitor 15:26

Yeah, nowadays with computers and all that stuff, we can take a piece of wood like that and we can make any piece of music we want, wow, and play it on this machine. And they start with a sheet of sheet music and they tell the computer we want the holes here and the computer says, oh okay, we got to put them in that kind of place and away they go.

Exhibitor 15:57

Should we make it the most important shot? Yeah, hello.

Mike Roth 16:38

Hi, and what do we have here?

Exhibitor 16:41

This is an interchangeable cylinder box, supposedly a cylinder. Okay, I can play it for you.

Mike Roth 16:47

Sure, what year was this one built in?

Exhibitor 16:54

What.

Mike Roth 16:55

What year was this one built in?

Exhibitor 16:56

You know it's about 120 years old, I think. I don't know. I'm not a good listener.

Exhibitor 17:09

Okay, it's very noisy in here.

Mike Roth 17:13

You raise the top to get more volume.

Exhibitor 17:15

You raise the dust cover, Dust cover okay.

Exhibitor 17:19

And then the dust gets in. Ha ha ha.

Mike Roth 17:22

But at least you don't have to keep cranking it.

Exhibitor 17:25

Yes, you do, it doesn't matter.

Mike Roth 17:27

Okay.

Exhibitor 17:34

Thank you, you can shut that one down.

Mike Roth 17:38

No, it snaps at the end of the song it shuts itself down, oh yeah. Look at that.

Exhibitor 17:47

Ha ha ha, you're gonna need to park it at home in the car. Hey, hi, lori's thinking me. Have you been in the car? No, I haven't.

Exhibitor 17:56

Lori's thinking me I'm not looking for this. No, I don't.

Exhibitor 18:04

They're selling those samples. No, no, no.

Mike Roth 18:09

I'm gonna be listening to an old Septus Cactus needle, let's record player 252, 40.

Exhibitor 18:57

You must do I can. So I can just say I have to find a way to grow and then to go away. I don't know what I'm talking about there. I don't know what I'm talking about there. I don't know what I'm talking about. It's not the other way. I don't know what I'm talking about there. Manifesting the final, final, final. This is a music box.

Exhibitor 19:35

It is the most important part of a phonograph Right and put a needle here. Okay, then this is the vibrate Right, just like this, and the sound come out inside.

Mike Roth 19:55

Okay, and that was a 78? It is.

Exhibitor 19:58

All 78. Back then and different size of record.

Exhibitor 20:06

Okay, yeah.

Mike Roth 20:22

Probably a one-sided record too.

Exhibitor 20:24

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Mike Roth 20:32

Yeah.

Exhibitor 20:34

Only one side.

Exhibitor 20:37

When I'm a mom and daughter. We found a lot of one-sided records Couldn't play it.

Mike Roth 20:44

I'm going to put it out on the podcast, just after the first of the year. Wow, that's great, you can listen.

Exhibitor 20:54

Great, thanks a lot. And this is a different shape of needle sharp, right and for bamboo.

Mike Roth 21:02

Make needles out of bamboo instead of cactus.

Exhibitor 21:05

This is a cactus, as you can see.

Mike Roth 21:10

This is ivory.

Exhibitor 21:11

Yeah, and this is diamond. Bamboo is only last, one time One time. I know.

Mike Roth 21:21

I guess that's better for the records yeah Watch. Do they have a different sound?

Exhibitor 21:27

Different sound is right.

Exhibitor 21:29

I would think they all make different sound.

Exhibitor 21:32

Yeah, it's a different sound. Oh, here we go. I don't know what to do.

Exhibitor 21:54

I want to do it up.

Exhibitor 22:10

Soft sound.

Mike Roth 22:11

Yeah, that is.

Exhibitor 22:13

Comparing in steel. Then after play this is no longer sharp anymore.

Mike Roth 22:21

Not sharp.

Exhibitor 22:24

So what I do this is needle sharp. Now, ok, slide needle here and I'm going to do a new needle.

Mike Roth 22:33

Oh, that's better than steel. We throw them all away.

Emily 22:37

Mentally, you're not going to have anything left.

Exhibitor 22:39

Yeah eventually after 15 times. This is going to be very short.

Exhibitor 22:45

This is the most difficult needle to find.

Exhibitor 22:49

Bamboo. Yeah, this I can find. So, needle sharpener, different shape, this kind of one. This is also needle sharpener Okay.

Exhibitor 23:03

I'll slide you here.

Exhibitor 23:06

Oh, I'll slide you here.

Exhibitor 23:11

Please sign up for your prizes.

Exhibitor 23:14

And I'll slide you here.

Exhibitor 23:17

Okay, sign your name and your account number. Okay, make it work.

Exhibitor 23:25

It's okay.

Exhibitor 23:27

And I have money, you have to go real close because it's. That's very cool. I'm in Christmas.

Emily 23:41

I think we're supposed to sign the red box.

Exhibitor 23:45

I'll take it, we're signing. What are you looking at?

Mike Roth 23:52

Boxes.

Exhibitor 23:52

It costs us $33. Parts to make each one. Parts to make each one.

Exhibitor 23:59

Bye.

Exhibitor 24:02

I still want to stop.

Emily 24:25

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll sign your name and your account number.

Exhibitor 24:46

Every two hours we're trying to give away a. She's done talking.

Exhibitor 24:53

I can talk. The cylinder boxes are on the next table. Here I usually have a big one here, but this is the intervals of how they made and worked, dating back to 1800. What was the benefit?

Exhibitor 25:14

Okay, that's usually the last question.

Exhibitor 25:17

When I'll tell you I'm going to answer this question directly.

Exhibitor 25:21

There's so many things I'm wondering. Sure People ask me questions.

Exhibitor 25:29

Yeah, I'm sure.

Exhibitor 25:30

Okay.

Exhibitor 25:33

Back in 1800, when they first started making these music boxes in Switzerland. It was developed by a watchmaker, swiss watchmaker, and so to answer this question, first, I'm going to back up and tell you about that. These are the keys that get plucked by the cylinder as the pin comes around and hits it. So when the pin hits the tooth they call, it will vibrate and it has to be stopped so that it doesn't. It's ready for the next note. So to stop it, there's a wire Different sizes but they're all small and that wire so consider, this is the tooth and this would be one of the weights that is on to get the note sound and that wire is bent up just barely touch, not to touch, but as close as it can. So the tooth comes down, hits the wire, stops, it's ready for the next note. Okay, in steel they used quill feathers for that.

Exhibitor 26:48

Stoppers.

Mike Roth 26:51

Dampers.

Exhibitor 26:53

So this one's broken because it doesn't have all the key for the notes Right. This one's broken. This is a show and tell about it. You could restore this, but it wouldn't be worth it Okay, because of amount of work it would take and it's not that sophisticated of a box and so what likely happened to this is that the speed is. There's a bit A governor and the governor's air an air governor like that and if the governor stops, then it'll spin freely and it'll wipe out the teeth and so on and so forth.

Exhibitor 27:37

You know happens to it. So to repair this, then you would take. You would take and cut this out completely, you'd make a blank okay and then the blank would be, then it's put in and it's disordered in place and then they would be cut to the right side the right no right, that's a lot of work, well that's just a simple part.

Exhibitor 28:10

Yeah, putting the damper, we can swipe down it is, there's dampers, man you know, oh yeah, and you got a this is a model that we made for that, to show it, so this will be theoretically, yeah, yeah, yeah there's different wire sizes so that's why that that's why they would pick from the coil the size of the okay they needed to do that with.

Mike Roth 28:37

Yeah yeah, yeah, and in the meantime typically a decent size box we have maybe 10,000 pins in it, all put in by hand.

Exhibitor 28:51

Wow, and these are the sizes of pins. This is actually tapered on a hand, laid where foot, foot better, and there's a score mark every so often and the hole in here is taper, is this? Is a taper straight hole.

Exhibitor 29:11

This is tapered gotcha and so it's a tapered press fit. So the pinner usually the wife and the house or the young women put them in, snap it off, do the next one and do that's what they get all eight thousand, and then this would go back to the late operator and cut them to the same length. So they're all the same, yeah that's not even get into it, start if you can see a fully story approximately 1890s.

Exhibitor 29:46

Okay, it's a disc box which is called that because of the disc steel discs the old one over there is zinc and this is a steel. Okay, we wanted Christmas music, so we bought four new ones. The little nubs on the bottom strike the star wheel, which in turn strikes the little pins.

Exhibitor 30:15

Okay, and that's what makes the sound okay, there's also single clothes, where they just have one side and it doesn't get you more sound and now the same display on a double, on a single.

Exhibitor 30:35

I believe it would. Yes, because when we bought these, we didn't have to delineate between this is only year old, okay, those over there were original of the box which kind of loud makes you want to move now, why is it?

Exhibitor 32:02

not flash. It helps to push this down to this spot. Okay, by being like that, it pushes this down.

Exhibitor 32:10

Line up over here there's a wheel on either side. Okay, okay, so it has to be like that because it has to push down against those little star wheels to get the sound okay, okay, next box also we

Exhibitor 32:25

have a few, not many, but but carousel costs us $30 to make them we're selling them for $25 in the box.

Exhibitor 32:38

I have to do is wrap the box. Great gift for an adult woman and not a kids toy.

Mike Roth 32:58

That's a big edit box, this shiny this is my growth and Dr Greg Curtis. We're talking about Alzheimer's disease, dr Curtis, and in past tips you've told our listeners to walk is a good exercise, five days a week. Is there any other exercise that they can do which will be beneficial to their brains, which is not going to be terribly exerting or can be accomplished by people who have weak hip joints or weak knee joints or shoulder joints.

Supporters and Copyright Notice for Show

Dr. Craig Curtis 33:25

Absolutely any type of exercise what we call moderate exercise can help brain health, such as a stationary bicycle, simply peddling a stationary bicycle. It's very low stress on the joints. It's very good for your heart and very good for your brain, thank you remember our next episode will be released next Friday at 9 am.

Emily 33:47

Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at Mike at Roth voice comm. This is a shout out for supporters Greg Panjian, tweak Coleman, Dan Kappell and Ed Williams, Alvin Stenzel and major supporter Dr Craig Curtis at K2 in the villages. We will be hearing more from Dr Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at Mike at Roth voice comm. We thank everyone for listening to the show. The content of the show is copyrighted by Roth voice 2023. All rights reserved. You.