Yesterday I visited the Speelklok museum in Utrecht, an exhibition of an incredible number of self-playing instruments. Among them, I was particularly amazed by the "Horse Race" music boxes... (1/2)
These music boxes were probably built at the end of the 19th century. An extra feature is the panorama of the horse race in the cabinet. By inserting a coin, the music is played and one can gamble on the winning horse. The machines were designed in such a way that the winning horse could not be predicted with any certainty.
I don't know how it works, but this is maybe one of the earliest random number generator! (2/2)
I just found a video of the "horse race" music box in operation: https://youtu.be/3TywonXiQVg
Another very interesting piece in this museum is the Mini-componium, a replica of the original Componium built by Diederich Nikolaus Winkel in 1821. This remarkable mechanical music instrument can vary the music it plays using a randomizing mechanism! In fact, the Componium creates endless variations on a theme by selecting randomly one of the 8 possible melodies every two measures.
In a sense, this is a very early example of
#ComputerMusic #AlgorithmicComposition
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Componium)
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#musicbox #music