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The organ grinder was a musical novelty street performer of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. Period literature often represents the grinder as a gentleman of ill repute or as an unfortunate representative of the lower classes. Newspaper reporters would sometimes describe him cynically or jocularly as a minor extortionist, being paid to keep silent, given the repetitious nature of his music. Later depictions would stress the romantic or picturesque aspects of this activity. Nearly all grinders were itinerants or vagabonds. Exceptionally, the grinder could be a woman, or some small children, cranking away on a smaller organ or on a large organ mounted on a Donkey . More often than not the grinder was a man, bearing a medium sized Barrel Organ held in front of him and supported by a strap around his neck, leaving one hand free to crank and the other to solicit payements for his performance. The organ would sometimes have a single hinged or removable leg. There was also a minority of endless variations, from the tiny monkey-cranked box, to the huge barrel organ placed on a cart, with mechanical Automaton s mounted on top of it. The grinder would crank the barrel organ in a public place, walking around more or less briskly in order not to be arrested for loitering or be chased by persons who would not appreciate hearing his single tune over and over again. The grinder would often have as a companion a White-headed Capuchin monkey who would collect the money from the audience and sometimes do tricks. Many cities in the United Kingdom had ordinances prohibiting organ grinders. The authorities often encouraged policemen to treat the grinders as beggars or public nuisances. In Paris there was a limited number of permits for organ grinders, and entry in that reserved circle was based on a waiting list or seniority system. Music lovers usually hated the organ grinders, since most grinders seemed to be tone deaf and lacking any sense of wrote to a friend that he could not write for more than half an hour without being disturbed by the most excruciating sounds imaginable, coming in from barrel organs on the street. Charles Babbage was a particularly virulent enemy of the organ grinders. He would chase them around town, complain to authorities about their noisy presence, and forever ask the police to arrest them. Yehudi Menuhin on the other hand is quoted to have said: "we musicians must stick together" while handing an organ-grinder some change. According to Ord-Hume the disappearance of organ grinders from European streets was in large part due to the early application of national and international Copyright laws. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century European publishers of sheet music and the holders of copyrights to the most popular operatic tunes of the day often banded together in order to enforce collection of performance duties from any musician playing their property in any venue. When faced with notaries and the hounding of other legal representatives of the "music industry" of the time, in addition to the other sources of hostility mentioned above organ grinders soon disappeared. In Germany organ grinders were banned thru Adolf Hitler . Street organs were banned in New York City in 1936 by Fiorello LaGuardia , a law that was repealed in 1976. However, organ grinders did not return until the 9th of April 2006, when the first organ rally was held on Coney Island. There are still persons, at the beginning of the 3rd millennium, who own and sometimes operate a barrel organ on a street. They have very little in common with the calling of the organ grinder of yore. For instance, it is considered lucky for a couple in Denmark to have a barrel organ playing outside on the morning of their 25th wedding anniversary, thus creating a small niche for professional musicians or musicologists capable of tuning one of the few surviving barrel organs, and interested in maintaining an old tradition, on their spare time. Aside of antique barrel organs, there are plenty-fold more modern organs for the street. These do not operate on pinned barrels anymore, but use perforated paper-rolls (equally to Player-pianos ) or perforated cardboard (this method is mostly to be found in french [ Orgue De Barbarie ], dutch or belgium organs) and sometimes even electronic Microchip- and/or MIDI -systems. The picture on this page is a good example for a modern organ grinder, as he is very well dressed. Some organ grinders like to dress in period-costumes, albeit not the period-clothes of an organ-grinder. He would be found at an "organ rally" (in case of the picture the "MEMUSI"-event in Vienna ), where lots of enthusiasts would come together and entertain the streets, but equally so at a Wedding (usually performing the "Lohengrin"-tune) or at any other event where he might be chosen over hiring an entire band or a DJ. Organs that are bigger are usually not 'grinded' manually, but with a motor. Such larger instruments are called: fairground-organs, band organs or orchestrions. REFERENCES
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