Description
Description:
Compact Disk
Marches and lively tunes played on the Tangley Calliope.
Volume 2: Barnum and Bailey's Favorite - The Billboard - Bombasto - Repasz Band - Arkansas Traveler - The Burning of Rome - We're Loyal to You, Illinois - The Line-Up - Robinson's Grand Entry - Stein Song - Indiana State Band - Loyal Knights - High School Cadets - Seventh Regiment - Gippsland March - Snow King - Notre Dame Victory March - On, Wisconsin
Compact Disk
Music Sample (mp3)
From the CD cover:
The Clowns
In "real life," our cover clowns Bob and Cathy Gibbons operate their entertainment company Fun Technicicians Inc. in Syracuse, New York. In addition to performing professionally, they help others learn the traditions of clowning through their widely circulated magazine called Laugh Makers
The Calliope
The calliope (not to be confused with the carousel organ) in the form we know it today is an American invention, (in 1855) and the original and those made for the next half-century use live steam to blow the whistles. Live steam presents many hazards and problems which encouraged the development in the early 1900's of the safer and easily-portable air calliope for use by circus sideshows and sometimes with the circus bands, carnival midways, or by anyone wanting to promote an event or advertise a product by attracting attention.
The most successful builder of air calliopes was a colorful and controversial character named Norman Baker, who named his 43-note instrument the "Calliaphone" and produced them under the company name "Tangley." Authorities 'guesstimate' that between 1914 and the early 1930's one and two thousand of them were built in his factory in Muscatine, Iowa. Most models could be played by special 10-tune player piano paper music rolls, the same variety that were used in the many nickel-in-the-slot saloon pianos of the era, thus eliminating the need for a musician at the keyboard.
A Ringling sideshow probably was the first operator of this one after it left the factory in the late 1920's; images of both the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey logo and their famed clown Lou Jacob are etched into the sides of the metal case. It had at least four owners before re Marion and Harvey Roehl acquired it in 1982 for their collection of automatic music machines, and by that time it was a wreck that required total restoration.
Steam Calliope Lore
Who among us old enough to have seen a circus parade down the main street of our own home town will ever forget the belching black smoke and the fireman shoveling coal as fast as he could to maintain a hot fire to keep up the steam pressure in the boiler, the steam blasting forth from all those big brass whistles as the artist at the keyboard did his best to drench our ears with the colorful music of the circus? And all of this on a heavy and colorful horsedrawn wagon adorned with magnificent wood carvings depicting mythological figures such as musically-inclined cupids and firebreathing dragons!
The calliope could be heard all over town, and the wagon was always the last in the parade - to make certain that the kids of all ages in town would follow it to the big tent on the circus ground. In the waning years of the 20th Century there can be fond memories of this kind of traveling entertainment, but real steam calliopes remain as museum pieces played on special occasions, cared for by circus buffs who can never hear enough of their joyful sounds.
Circus folk pronounce it "kally-ope" and others say "cal-eye-opee." River boat people, for example. Calliopes were ideal for the paddle-wheel steamers that plied America's inland waterways bringing entertainment to the towns along the rivers, for steam was right at hand from the same boilers that made it for the vessel's powerful engines. It was a simple matter for the entertainment companies on these vessels to let the folks in the next town hear them coming - just let the keyboard maestro loose and his musical talents would be heard for miles ahead.
The steam calliope is uniquely American both in origin and use. Jo Joshua Stoddard of Worcester, Massachusetts, patented his "Steam Piano" in 1855 and since then the country has never been quiet!
Credits
Recording by John Mersereau, Unamic Sound & Recording, Vestal, NY desIgn by James Weaver Graphic Design, Binghamton, NY
Photo by Ed Aswad, Carriage House Photography, Binghamton NY Calliope restoration by Tim Westman, Woodsville, NH
