Last updated Museum of Musical Instruments, Brussels. The Componium, invented in 1821 by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel is an orchestrion with a random mechanism, created to play endless variations on a theme.
The componium is a mechanical musical instrument constructed in 1821 by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel (Lippstatt, Germany, 1777 - Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1826) that composes novel music. It is an automatic organ consisting of two barrels that revolve simultaneously. The barrels take turns performing two measures of randomly chosen music while the other, silent, slides horizontally to select the next variation. A roulette-like flywheel chooses whether or not the next variation is selected. The instrument plays an 80 measure piece, with eight variations for every two measures.
The componium's compositional power is thus limited to new combinations of the music provided in its barrels.
This instrument is believed to have copied some features of Johann Nepomuk Mälzelspanharmonicon, but added the aleatoric composition feature.
Ord-Hume, W. J. G. (1978). Barrel Organ. George Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-04-789005-3. Has some pictures of the componium.
Chapuis, Alfred (1955). The History of the Musical Box and of Mechanical Music. Music Box Society, Intl. ISBN0915000016. Has a detailed chapter on the Componium by Rene Lyr.
Trippett, David (2013). Wagner's Melodies. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9781139013703. Discusses philosophical implications of modelling consciousness in musical machines.
Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called composers. Composers of primarily songs are usually called songwriters; with songs, the person who writes lyrics for a song is the lyricist. In many cultures, including Western classical music, the act of composing typically includes the creation of music notation, such as a sheet music "score", which is then performed by the composer or by other musicians. In popular music and traditional music, songwriting may involve the creation of a basic outline of the song, called the lead sheet, which sets out the melody, lyrics and chord progression. In classical music, orchestration is typically done by the composer, but in musical theatre and in pop music, songwriters may hire an arranger to do the orchestration. In some cases, a pop or traditional songwriter may not use written notation at all and instead compose the song in their mind and then play, sing or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable sound recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written or printed scores play in classical music.
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