Last week I was talking to a puppeteer about doing music theatre, and I thought I’d make a short example of using the street organ to accompany stage action.
As you probably know, Stravinsky’s marvellous ballet Petrushka brings not only a puppet to life: the Shrovetide fair scene at the beginning uses real musicians to recreate accordions, a barrel organ and a music box.
I thought I’d sweep away the nostalgia and mechanise everything (apart from the video, of course, which is Bolshoi), using the long-lost score which was localised by Stravinsky for the first London performance using English folksongs ;):
More photos of street organists (and of hurdy-gurdy men: they’re distinct) over at Poemas del río Wang.
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