A Brief Glimpse at the History of Welte
From the beginning, Welte orchestrions were the premiere automatic musical instrument
of choice for Royalty and the very wealthy, a trend that began circa 1849, when
Michael Welte exhibited his immense automatic pipe organ (pictured at left),
receiving generous critical acclaim and numerous awards for the device. At the
time, his invention was an astounding advancement in technology, and reportedly,
the fame of the huge automatic musical instrument drew crowds from near and
far. The public nicknamed the instrument "orchestrion," because it successfully
imitated a many-voiced orchestra. Since that time the term orchestrion has become
synonymous with virtually any automatic musical instrument attempting to imitate
a small to large orchestral ensemble. Thus it is that Michael Welte's early
pioneering accomplishments in building spectacular, mammoth self-playing orchestras
paved the way for his company's rapid climb to fame and fortune, with his handsome
orchestrions being renowned on a worldwide basis.
Michael Welte began very modestly, after five years of apprenticeship with
the master craftsman Joseph Blessing, by opening a small factory in Vöhrenbach,
Germany, the town that was his birthplace in 1807. The little factory began
business in 1832, with Michael Welte constructing musical clocks and other small
musical cabinets on his own. The Welte firm prospered by word of mouth,
quickly becoming well known and respected for not only the architectural beauty
of its products, but for the quality of workmanship, too. In 1865, Michael Welte's
oldest son, Emil Welte, established a Welte showroom in New York City, where
he exhibited a number of large orchestrions, along with flute playing clocks,
which the company still manufactured in small numbers. Immediately successful,
or so it was stated by Welte advertising literature, the addition of the new
American showroom, coupled with other already established markets for Welte
products, soon compelled the company, in 1872, to move to nearby Freiburg. Here
a new and larger factory was erected alongside railroad transportation. This
allowed immediate access to rail transportation, enabling the company to better
accommodate the wildly growing demand for Welte instruments, and, in addition,
Freiburg had a much larger workforce to draw from than did tiny and relatively
remote Vöhrenbach.
By 1905 the line of products grew to include the soon to be acclaimed Welte
Mignon Reproducing Piano, as well as retaining may of the older style products,
such as the extensive line of Cottage and Concert Orchestrions. During
the next few years Brass Band Orchestrions, Philharmonic Orchestrions, "Brisgovia"
Piano Orchestrions, residential pipe organs, theatre organs, home player pianos,
and other related items would be added to the Welte roster. All in all, as most
historians and enthusiasts of automatic musical instruments will concur, instruments
built by Michael Welte & Söhne were among the most eye-appealing, magnificently
ornate and stunningly beautiful of all the large orchestrions ever manufactured.
Thus, it is no wonder that they were so appreciated and treasured by the Royalty,
wealthy industrialists and fine commercial establishments that sought the privilege
of owning a fine Welte instrument.
Revolutionizing the Industry
Paper Music Rolls versus Heavy Pinned Music Cylinders
In the year 1887 the firm of M. Welte and Söhne began using inexpensive,
easy to mass produce and handle paper music rolls, the first orchestrion manufacturer
to do so. The new music roll system soon replaced the use of the very expensive,
cumbersome and easily damaged heavy wooden pinned music barrels or cylinders.
Another advantage, by switching over to the easily mass produced, lightweight
and interchangeable paper rolls, a huge repertoire of inexpensive music became
available, extending the functionality and enjoyment of the large orchestrions
many fold, something that had been impossible to accomplish with the heavy,
individually manufactured and pinned music cylinders.
Still, even with its technologically innovative music roll system, the Welte
orchestrions remained largely the same, relying upon techniques and methods
that had been developed during the earlier pinned music-barrel era. The heavy
music cylinders and clumsy mechanical tracker linkages were completely replaced
with new, fast acting pneumatic actions, all operated from the music roll, which
was beautifully displayed in an ornate cast-iron music roll mechanism. Nearly
all else, however such as the massive pipe chest, a foundational component of
the orchestrion, remained essentially identical. The revolutionary pneumatic
valve-chest system was constructed so as to easily be connected by thin wires
to the old tracker style lever and pallet-valve pipe chest. To accommodate the
vacuum requirements of the new pneumatic stack system, another set of feeder
bellows, which created a partial vacuum, was added to the older, already established
pressure system, both remaining separate, but interconnected by modifying the
mechanical linkages that once powered only the pressure bellows.
The "Refined" Sound of Welte
Generally, the music associated with Welte Cottage, Concert and Philharmonic
orchestrions -- the focus of this section of my web site -- is what a connoisseur
might call "refined." This term, "refined," in this case, was meant to infer
that the volume and style of the music was ideal for a home or concert situation,
where the raucous or barroom style music of the "ordinary" commercial orchestrion
would not have been considered appropriate or appreciated. Indeed, Welte music
has a refined and enduring quality, and tends to be classical in styling.
While the Welte family, in one form or another, manufactured many, many styles
and types of automatic musical instruments, circa 1832 to 1950, it is mainly
the Welte Mignon Reproducing Piano, followed by the Cottage, Concert and Philharmonic
instruments, that have survived in the greatest numbers. Although considered
rare today, that so many Welte instruments have survived, especially the very
large examples that are difficult to move or store, is indeed a testament to
the both the musical and visual qualities of these instruments. As you browse
through the Welte pages, you will probably also concur that it is in part due
to the extraordinary beauty of the large Welte machines that has contributed
greatly to the survival of so many of these early pinned-barrel and paper roll
operated mechanical devices. Compared to "ordinary" commercial orchestrions,
the staying power of the early Welte instruments is remarkable, with at least
one specimen (the Nidd Hall Welte - described elsewhere) remaining in its original
location, and in some kind of playing condition, for nearly one-hundred years!
