John Wolff's Web Museum

20-note Roller Organ Music

Introduction

This page presents a small collection of 20-note Roller Organ music from the 1880s to the early 1900s, preserved in computer format as freely downloadable MIDI files.

These antique wooden rollers from my own collection have been scanned mechanically and/or optically, and converted electronically into computer MIDI format. Some of these MIDI files are based on "as-played" recordings taken from an original Gem mechanism; some on pin-by-pin transcriptions from high-resolution optical scans; some on a combination of both. The scans can copy the rollers as they exist today, but they can not automatically account for 140 years of "wear and tear", mechanical damage, and the natural ageing and movement of the wooden cores. The files below have been edited (where necessary) to present the music as our ancestors would have heard it when the instruments and rollers were new.

Resources for further information

• The Gem Roller Organ page on this site describes the workings of a typical roller organ.
• Details of the religious tunes below can be found in sites such as The Cyber Hymnal.
• Details of the secular tunes can usually be found through Google or Wikipedia.
• The late Todd Augsberger's web site at rollerorgans.com still contains comprehensive details of all of the known rollers.
• Feedback and comments are always welcome via the Enquiry Form.