Wurlitzer / Philipps Orchestrions

Philipps Pianella / Wurlitzer PianOrchestra
Tracker-Bar Scales

Mandolin (P.M.) and Concert (P.C.) Tracker Scales

There are some common terms used by Philipps and Wurlitzer to describe musical instrumentation that differs from standard pipe-organ usage. For instance, what did Wurlitzer mean when they described a PianOrchestra as having Brass Trombones, French Horns or Saxophones? Did they use reed pipes to create the tonal representations for each of these three orchestral instruments, as might be assumed from the advertising, or not? For answers to these kinds of questions, please see the page on Pianella/PianOrchestra Musical and Pipework Terminology.

* PM Tracker position 1: Tracker hole #1 is still subject to a degree of interpretation, with a DeRoy scale stick referring to it as "Flagotten," an apparent misspelling of Fagott, which is equivalent to Bassoon. In the only known Philipps Model 34 "Luxus" (style 34-A Mandolin PianOrchestra, the largest in the imported Wurlitzer Mandolin PianOrchestra series) it is used for Clarinet. Wurlitzer Mandolin PianOrchestra rolls use perforation #1 frequently, and rarely, if ever, perforation #2, which, according to the DeRoy scale is for Clarinet. If the largest imported Mandolin series machine was the 34A, for instance, having only one reed voice, a clarinet, it would make sense for Wurlitzer to only use perforation #1, since that is how the largest Mandolin series machine was tubed, omitting any use of perforation #2, no matter whether it might have officially been intended for a clarinet, or not.

** PM Tracker position 2: Wurlitzer Mandolin PianOrchestra rolls rarely, if ever, use this hole. One Philipps scale stick notes it as "Clarionet," another as Clarinette. There is a reed pipe known as Clarionet, which is not a Clarinet pipe, but the term Clarinet has occasionally been mislabeled as Clarionet. All considered, it is highly likely that tracker position #2 is correctly intended as Clarinet, although, in actual practice, it was perhaps not used, even when a Clarinet rank was present. See "PM Tracker position 1," above.

*** PC Tracker position 14: In the three surviving (two style 32 and one style 32A) Concert PianOrchestras, the actual instrumentation contains either a rank of clarinet pipes or oboe pipes, but not both types simultaneously, although the Wurlitzer catalogue description lists these machines as containing both clarinet and oboe voices. In the three observed Concert PianOrchestras, tracker position #14 is tubed  to turn on a rank of 30 metal Quintadena pipes, which are a beautifully toned flute voice. However, an old, unsubstantiated tracker bar scale by a Wurlitzer distributor in Dallas, Texas, suggests the possibility that this position might have been used to control a clarinet voice in instruments containing both actual clarinet and oboe reed pipes.

Tracker positions 28 and 51: These two positions interrupt the otherwise continuous musical scale represented by the tracker bar. Art Reblitz has noted that these two positions coincide with the piano action brackets in the 61-note keyboardless piano used by Philipps. Thus, he concludes, it appears as though during the very early years of production Philipps must have used deck boards with valves where there were no piano pneumatics, using the "extra" valves for controls, instead of placing these control valves m in a separate box. Other manufacturers occasionally did the same thing, except that they did not arrange these functions on the music roll so as to interrupt the note scale.

Tracker Scale Deviations: If the original tracker bar tubing is intact, and the register connections for a particular machine do not precisely conform to the appropriate above scale, it does not necessarily mean the instrument is incorrectly tubed. For instance, an instrument, such as the style 40 PianOrchestra with only two ranks of pipes, may have two or more tracker bar holes teed together. A rank of harmonic flutes might conceivably use either the flute or the piccolo register perforation, or both, the similarly voiced registers teed together. While this kind of arrangement may not "correctly" utilize the full intent of the music roll, it does cause pipes of a similar voice to sound, rather than leave a "hollow" or "dead" passage in the music. In machines with a single rank of pipes, the usual solution is to omit any register control, leaving the pipework turned on continuously.

Regular & Style 17 PianOrchestra Tracker Scale

The Regular (or early style PianOrchestra) and the style 17 PianOrchestra scale is noteworthy in its use of separate bell-note perforations. This feature allowed independent use of the bells, rather than playing them in unison with the piano (and any other register that was turned on), as was the case with all the later model Mandolin and Concert PianOrchestras.

According to Wurlitzer catalogue literature, the largest of the Regular PianOrchestras boasted 165 pipes, producing violin, clarinet, flute, piccolo, violoncello and saxophone. Apparently it had a rank of reed pipes, the single rank probably being termed as clarinet for the upper compass and saxophone for the lower range. With only two tracker bar register control functions, it is anybody's guess how the registers were tubed to control the largest style.

Most surviving Regular or Style 17 PianOrchestra music rolls are either the very early, somewhat fragile, red paper rolls perforated in Germany, or the later red paper rolls perforated by Wurlitzer in North Tonawanda, New York. Only three or four of the later, very durable Wurlitzer green paper rolls are known to exist. By dating the tunes on these green paper music rolls, it is apparent that style 17 music rolls continued to be manufactured through 1915, and probably much later, although production was in all likelihood rather limited, as the Regular and Style 17 models became increasingly obsolete.

Tracker position 11: Tracker bar perforation #11 is not used on any of the known style 17, Mandolin or Concert series PianOrchestras, although occasional references to its use have been noted on various Philipps and Wurlitzer tracker scales for these instruments. Some models of the Regular PianOrchestra (the very early circa 1903-1907 machines) featured "automatic" mechanical figures on the front of the case, such as a bandleader, which "kept time to the music." I have noted references to tracker bar hole #11 as "Director," "Bandleader," "mechanical figure" or "automatic figure" for the Regular PianOrchestra, as well as for later style 17, Mandolin and Concert models, too. Thus, tracker bar hole #11 is labeled "automatic figure," although that particular function for hole 11 cannot yet be proven beyond any shadow of doubt.

Tracker positions 28 and 51: These two positions interrupt the otherwise continuous musical scale represented by the tracker bar. Art Reblitz has noted that these two positions coincide with the piano action brackets in the 61-note keyboardless piano used by Philipps. Thus, he concludes, it appears as though during the very early years of production Philipps must have used deck boards with valves where there were no piano pneumatics, using the "extra" valves for controls, instead of placing these control valves m in a separate box. Other manufacturers occasionally did the same thing, except that they did not arrange these functions on the music roll so as to interrupt the note scale.

Copyright © 1998-2007 Terry Hathaway - All rights reserved