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The Black Forest area of Gennany has many musical memories. This
was the birthplace of the larger types of band organs and orchestrions.
In Freiburg the finn of M. Welte & Sons held forth from the 1870's
until the factory was demolished in an Allied air raid during the Second
World War. In the hills above Freihurg is the hamlet of Vohrenbach,
home of Imhof & Mukle, the orchestrion builders. The Imhof building
still stands. From the collector's point of view it serves a somewhat
more ignominious purpose today: that of an auto repair garage.
About twelve kilometers from Freiburg via a winding road lies
Waldkirch. This town, complete with the ruins of a castle overlooking it
from a nearby hillside, looks little different today that it must have
looked several decades ago when it was the locale of several of the
world's most prominent automatic musical instrument makers.
Alas, the firms of Gebr. Bruder and Ruth, two of the most famous
band organ builders,have perished. The Weber Brothers' orchestrion
factory no longer emits finely built Grandezza, Styria, So/ea, Brabo,
Maesto and other instruments.
It was fun to spend time in Waldkirch with Mr. DeRoy. He was
partial to Weber instruments of all types and was pleased to see that the
factory of the Weber Brothers still stood. "WEBER ORCHESTRION"
is still boldly lellered on the side of the ex-factory (now converted to
apartments) today.
One by one Mr. DeRoy checked out the names on his mailing list·
about 6,000 names in all! Most names were sent postcards. Most were
quickly returned by the post office with the French, Dutch, Belgian or
whatever equivalents of "Addressee unknown," or, "No longer in
business." But a few did respond, and these were followed up by Mr.
DeRoy with an in·person visit. On one trip to the Black Forest we
stopped to check on two instruments. Although they were not large nor
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extremely valuable it was very interesting to see them in their original
locations. In the town of Bleibach a small hotel named "Gasthaus
Sonne" was still using a Weber orchestrion. It was a very early one that
used folding cardboard music. The establishment was so proud of this
musical relic that it sold a picture postcard featuring the instrument.
In another nearby town, ZeU, I saw an even earlier barrel operated
Weber orchestrion with dancing figures at the top. As I recall, one of
the instruments we saw that day was available for something like $7000
and the other wasn't for sale. Perhaps one or both have new homes with
collectors by now.
Mr. DeRoy was very kind to me, and I learned a lot from him.
Because of him much information that might never have otherwise seen
print made its way into "A Guidebook of Automatic Musical
Instruments." Many more notes, musical scales, and bits of historical
information from him will be published over the next year or two so
that all enthusiasts everywhere can share the information he gave so
generously.
Mr. DeRoy remembered and loved the instruments from years gone
by. As he had access to no restoredinstruments it was many years ago
that he last heard the different types of large orchestrions play. He
would have enjoyed visiting America - as he intended to do. He would
have enjoyed our people and the private and public collections of our
country.
Mr. DeRoy will never visit America. Early last summer we received
word from his daughter, Els (Mrs. Jeff) Baets, that Mr. DeRoy passed
away.
He will be fondly remembered by many. The musical scene today is
somewhat more pleasant for his having passed our way.
---Q. David Bowers