Thursday 7 January 2010



THE MUSICAL BOX
It's a long way from Antoine Favre and his Carillon without bells or hammers to the cheap 18-note musical movements made in China, but the musical box somehow survived all technology thunderstorms. In 1975, late Karlheinz Stockhausen composed a great set of 12 contemporary pieces for 12 musical boxes, Tierkreis, roughly based around the twelve zodiac signs. Since too many people find Stockhausen's work disturbing and barely listenable, my recommendation for today is "The Musical Box" by Genesis, preferably the one from the Genesis Live album (1973).

11 comments:

Rick Mosher said...

Beautiful lighting and reflection. I love music boxes, so much enjoyment from such a simple thing.

Jujubie said...

What an evocative piece of technology! And what a lovely reflection. Thank you for making me discover Stockhausen. The zodiac series is so varied not only in composition but also in interpretation. I wish I could hear it as it was truly meant to be heard. Do you have another eleven boxes hidden away? :)

eury said...

ha... well, you never said your theme was HIGH TECH so this definitely fits. I went to check out Karlheinz Stockhause on youtube, although it is not my personal cup of tea, it was interesting.

Feather Meredith said...

Very simple and elegant. I like this one a lot.

Anonymous said...

I really like the bit of reflection under the box...and your informative dialog!

Isabella2006 said...

Wow you've brought back childhood memories with this one, I had an Auntie with music boxes all over her house, even one in the toilet which played when you pulled the paper down...lol
Another intriguing look at technology that makes one stop and think...ohhh yes so it is.

Andromeda5000 said...

Lovely minimilistic/negative space shot with a nice reflection to go with it.

secretatlantis said...

Beautiful portrait of a machine. Whenever we see one of those in a store we are always tempted to play it.

Alt Keynes said...

This is a very neat and clean crop.

essjaynz said...

Another interesting shot to go with your technology history...

kimbomac said...

Oh, I love these little musical boxes. I saw some in a shop the other day with Christmas tunes on it. A lovely crisp clean image. Well done.

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