Street Barrel Organ

A barrel organ (also called roller organ or crank organ) is a mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated. The basic principle is the same as a traditional pipe organ, but rather than being played by an organist, the barrel organ is activated either by a person turning a crank, or by clockwork driven by weights or springs. The pieces of music are encoded onto wooden barrels (or cylinders), which are analogous to the keyboard of the traditional pipe organ. A person (or in some cases, a trained animal) which plays a barrel organ is known as an organ grinder. These organs were sometimes called Street Barrel Organs due to their portability and were often heard in various locations. Please use this artist for records which simply credit "Street Barrel Organ" as the artist