Maelzel's Mechanical Wonders

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1838, the crew of the American brig Otis, docked in the harbor of La Guiara, Venezuela, was about to set sail for Philadelphia, when they discovered that one of their passengers had died in his cabin. He was the German inventor and one-time business associate of Beethoven, Johann Nepomuk Maelzel.

Maelzel was born in Regensburg in 1772, the son of an organ builder. Perhaps a childhood spent among the inner workings of pipe organs predisposed young Johann to become an inventor of mechanical instruments, similar to this old Viennese flute clock. At the age of 20, Maelzel came to Vienna, and if you had 3000 florins of disposable income, you could buy one of Maelzel’s mechanical wonders and hear it play short tunes by Haydn and Mozart on demand.

But Maezel didn’t stop there: he invented entire mechanical orchestras, and other wonders, all to be displayed in a museum he opened in Vienna in 1812. Beethoven composed a piece for Maelzel’s mechanical orchestra entitled “Wellington’s Victory.” The two collaborators fell out over who owned what, and in any case, Beethoven re-orchestrated his piece for conventional, human performers. Maelzel took his contraptions on tour, and spent a good deal of his later life exhibiting them in the United States and even the West Indies.

Today, Maelzel’s musical inventions are regarded as obsolete curios—with one exception: he’s credited with finessing and popularizing the use of the metronome.

Music Played in Today's Program

Franz Haydn (1732 – 1809) Flute Clock Pieces mechanical "Flute Clock" c. 1800 Candide 31093 (out-of-print LP recording)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) Wellington's Victory Berlin Philharmonic; Herbert von Karajan, cond. DG 453 713

On This Day

Births

• 1896 - French composer Jean Rivier, in Villemomble

Deaths

• 1838 - German inventor of the metronome, Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, age 65, on board the brig Otis in the harbour of La Guiara, Venezuela, en route to Philadelphia; Beethoven's orchestral battle-symphony, "Wellington's Victory," was originally written for one of Maelzel's mechanical music-machines

Premieres

• 1733 - Handel: oratorio "Athalia," in Oxford (Julian date: July 10)

• 1938 - Hindemith: ballet, "St. Francis," at Covent Garden in London, with composer conducting (the suite titled "Nobilissima Visone" is drawn from this score)

• 1971 - William Bolcom: “Frescoes” in Montreal, with Bruce Mather (piano and harmonium) and Pierrette LePage (piano and harpsichord);

• 1983 - Thomas Oboe Lee: "Morango …almost a tango" for string quartet, at the Sanders Theater in Cambridge, Mass., by the Composers in Red Sneakers ensemble