Performing Art's- Mechanical Instruments

              Mechanical instruments, The invention of the pinned cylinder in the 18th century began a curious chapter in the history of musical instruments. The ingenious device consists of a small cylinder dotted with portruding brass pins. As the cylinder turns, the pin plucks the metal teeth of a kin of a musical comb, producing a melody and or harmony. From such the cylinder came the barrel organ,  "piano mecanique," the handle piano, the music box, and, in 20th century, the player piano.
                That important composer took any of this seriously occupied a little known corner of musical history. Beethoven, for example, by thrilled by the coming of the mechanical era. He once wrote "Let us thank God for the promised steam cannons and for the already realized steam navigation..."

                This short enthusiasm made Beethoven a devoted friend of the new musical devices. He become facinated by the inventation of Johann Maelzel, Creator of the ear trumpet (for the hard of hearing),  an automatic chess player, a mechanical trumpeter, and- by stealing another inventor's idea-- the metronome. Beethoven agreed to compose a piece for Maelzel. The result was Wellington's Victory, Created for Maelzel's panhrmonicon, a kind of glorified music box that combined military band instruments with a powerful bellows, all enclosed in a case. Beethoven piece was, in fact, on the program of an 1813 charity concert, along with marched tooted by Malelzel's Mechanical trumpeter.