Musical clock

A musical clock is a clock that marks the hours of the day with a musical tune played from a spiked cylinder either on bells, organ pipes, bellows, combs and even dulcimer strings. The earliest ones began in mainly churches and would be used to mark times for the public and for farmers in fields to tell them when it was sunset dawn and lunchtime.

Some musical clocks play a tune each hour whereas others are known to play every 3 to 4 hours. This might have originated with the Angelus and/or Liturgy of the Hours.

The earliest known domestic one is by Nicholas Vallin, made in 1598, and it currently resides in the British Museum in London. This clock plays a different piece of music on every 1/4 hour. However some purists argue this clock is still technically a quarter chiming clock due to the quarter past melody only being around 8 notes long. The hour melody is certainly a tune though.

In terms of domestic clocks—most particular early ones—all the European clocks played tunes on carillons of bells from a large spiked drum within the clock. Many of these were in bracket clock form and there are a majority of longcase ones too. Some played their tunes each hour while others played every 3 or 4 hours usually either preceded or followed by the hour strikes.

The Syncopated Clock

"The Syncopated Clock" is a piece of light music by American composer Leroy Anderson, which has become a feature of the pops orchestra repertoire.

Composition

Anderson wrote "The Syncopated Clock" in 1945 while serving with the U.S. Army and assigned as Chief of the Scandinavian Desk of Military Intelligence in Washington. Anderson had been invited by Arthur Fiedler to guest-conduct the Boston Popular ("Pops") Orchestra during their annual Harvard Night. Anderson wanted to introduce a new work to Fiedler and composed a song about a clock with a syncopated rhythm. The idea of the title reportedly occurred to him before he wrote the music. In a few hours he wrote the music, scored it for orchestra and then mailed it to Boston Symphony Hall. Fiedler had the orchestra parts copied from the score. Then, with a three-day pass, Anderson traveled from his home in Arlington, Virginia to Boston, where he conducted the premiere on May 28, 1945.

Anderson recorded the work for Decca Records in 1950 with the best musicians selected from New York orchestras. This was true for all of his recordings for Decca, billed as "Leroy Anderson and his Orchestra". Anderson's "orchestra" was an assemblage of musicians hired by Decca specially for Anderson's recordings.

In Motion

In Motion may refer to:

Cuckoo clock

A cuckoo clock is a typically pendulum-regulated clock that strikes the hours with a sound like a common cuckoo's call and has an automaton cuckoo bird that moves with each note. Some move their wings, open/close the beak while leaning forward, whereas others only the bird's body is leaned forward. The mechanism to produce the cuckoo call has been in use since the middle of the 18th century and has remained almost without variation until the present.

It is unknown who invented it and where the first one was made. It is thought that much of its development and evolution was made in the Black Forest area in southwestern Germany (State of Baden-Württemberg), the region where the cuckoo clock was popularized. The cuckoo clocks were exported to the rest of the world from the mid 1850s on. Today, the cuckoo clock is one of the favourite souvenirs of travelers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It has become a cultural icon of Germany.

Characteristics

The design of a cuckoo clock is now conventional. Most are made in the "traditional style" (also known as "carved") or "chalet" to hang on a wall. In the "traditional style" the wooden case is decorated with carved leaves and animals. They have an automaton of the bird that appears through a small trap door while the clock is striking. The bird is often made to move as the clock strikes, typically by means of an arm that lifts the back of the carving.

Musical

Musical may refer to:

See also