Please note:
- All these street organ arrangements for my modifed Topsy 3 are home-made. Contact me if you want a custom arrangement - whether a modification of a number below or something new - for your own street organ, musical box, barrel piano, or whatever.
- The MP3s below use Virtual Studio Technology: this is NOT the real sound, and someone needs to sing!
- Lyrics or translations can be displayed live on a screen, karaoke-style.
| Title | Artist | La | Year | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hungarian Goulash No. 5 | Allan Sherman / Johannes Brahms | en | 1963 | Do you like Hungarian food / They have a goulash which is very good. (Pumpernickel is also associated with Westphalia.) |
| Concerto for Barrel Organ and Orchestra / Brass Band / Wind Band / Piano etc | Bernie Green | 1957 | The organ-grinder has at last got a serious classical gig but can't throw off the habits of a lifetime. With bleeding chunks of Tchaikovsky (1st Piano Concerto), Rachmaninov (2nd Piano Concerto), Greig (Piano Concerto), Fučik (Entry of the Gladiators) and Waldteufel (Les Patineurs). Virtual excerpt: | |
| Second Sonata, The Airplane, fragmento | George Antheil | 1916 | Everything's back to front: The Singing Organ-Grinder is the plane. | |
| Toccata No. 2 | George Antheil | 1916 | ||
| Mashup: Petrushka + My old man's a dustman | Igor Stravinsky / Lonnie Donegan | en | 1915 | Portrays on the organ the orchestral imitation by Stravinsky of a barrel organ and a musical box. The video shows the Bolshoi dancing my arrangement. Ends with one of my favourite children's songs. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| My old tunes | Edward Elgar | en | 1915 | From Elgar's incidental music for The Starlight Express, a children's play by Violet Pearn based on the imaginative novel A Prisoner in Fairyland by Algernon Blackwood: My old tunes are rather broken / And they come from far away, / Bring just a little token / Of a long-forgotten day. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Sports et divertissements | Erik Satie | en | 1914 | A selection, in English. |
| Zwei blaue Augen / Twee blauwe ogen / The two blue eyes of my sweetheart (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) | Gustav Mahler / Dutch translation: Jan Rot / English: T.E. Clark | de nl en | 1885 | Auf der Strasse stand ein Lindenbaum, Da hab' ich zum ersten Mal im Schlaf geruht! |
| Softly awakes my heart | Saint-Saens | fr | 1880 | With Swanee whistle. |
| The best of Tristan und Isolde | Wagner / The Singing Organ-Grinder | 1880 | Wagner was a big country and western fan. | |
| Ride of the Valkyries | Wagner | 1880 | Kazoo special. | |
| Ballet of the unhatched chicks | Modest Mussorgsky | 1874 | Edited from an early piano roll. Virtual excerpt: | |
| Cantata nacional | Josep Anselm Clavé | es | 1864 | In his collection, Flores de Estío, the Catalan master utters Hispanophile sentiments which many prefer to forget: ¡Gloria á ESPAÑA! dó en paz hoy florecen / Con las ciencias, la industria y las artes; / Dó el progreso derrumba baluartes / Que en talleres se ven transformar. |
| Ave Maria | Bach-Gounod | 1830 | With Swanee whistle | |
| Der Leiermann (Winterreise) | Wilhelm Müller / Franz Schubert | de | 1827 | The owner of a hurdy-gurdy, which is not the same as a barrel organ. |
| Ode to Joy / An die Freude | Schiller / Beethoven | de en | 1824 | The recording is of a version for Alan Pell Mini 20. Rowan Atkinson did it all rather differently. Virtual excerpt: Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Das Grab ist tief und stille (The grave is deep and silent) | Salis / Nägeli | de | 1822 | Accompanies the story 'Diogenes with his barrel-organ.' |
| Marmotte (Das Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilern / Op. 53 no. 7) | Goethe / Beethoven | de en | 1805 | Parody of a Savoyard organ grinder and his marmot at a fair: It's many a land I've travelled through, / Avecque la marmotte, / And I always found some thing to chew, / Avecque la marmotte. |
| Guter Mond du gehst so stille, durch die Abendwolken hin (Oh, dear Moon, you go so quietly, / Through the evening clouds away) | Anon | de | 1800 | Accompanies the story 'Diogenes with his barrel-organ.' Based on the version from Ludwig Erk's 1838 folksong collection. |
| Voici trois Bohémiens | Provençal | fr | 1800 | Three gypsies read the palm of the baby Jesus: Tu es, c’est mon avis, Car je le lis, de Dieu le fils tout adorable. |
| O du lieber Augustin | de | 1799 | ||
| Gott erhalte unsern Kaiser! (God save our Kaiser!) | Joseph Haydn / Freiherr v. Zedlitz | de | 1797 | Austrian imperial anthem with lyrics in use around 1813 during the reign of Franz I. Accompanies the story 'Diogenes with his barrel-organ.' |
| Die Gedachte sind frei / De gedachten zijn vrij | de nl | 1780s | Freiheitslied from SW Germany (?) | |
| La rejouissance (Music for the royal fireworks) | Handel | 1749 | With kazoo. How can you rejoice wihout kazoos? | |
| La poule (Suite in G major/G minor) | Rameau | fr | 1726? | With added chicken noises |
| O Jesulein süss! O Jesulein mild! | Georg Christian Schemelli | de en | 1620 | O little one sweet, O little one mild, thy Father's purpose thou hast fulfilled. |
| Een kindelien zo lovelik / Ein Kindelein so löbelich | Trad. | nl de | 1618 | My favourite Low German carol. |
| When that I was and a little tiny boy (Hey, ho, the wind and the rain) | William Shakespeare / John Harle | 1601 | Feste the Fool's closing song from Twelth Night. Version of Elvis Costello's version of the traditional version sung by Alfred Deller. | |
| Sweetest love, I do not goe | John Donne / Ralph Steadman / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1600? | It cannot be / That thou lov'st me, as thou say'st, / If in thine my life thou waste, / That art the best of me. |
| Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen / Lo, how a rose e'er blooming | Michael Praetorius | de en | 1599 | My favourite Marian hymn. |
| Het Wilhelmus | Trad. | nl | 1570? | Naar de versie voor Dubbele Biphone die door de Leidse politie in 1940 in beslag werd genomen en in 2012 voor het eerst opnieuw werd uitgevoerd. |
| Coventry Carol | Robert Croo | en | 1534 (lyrics) 1591 (tune) | Herod is slaughtering the Innocents: Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee, / And ever mourn and say; / For Thy parting, nor say nor sing, / By, by, lully, lullay. |
| Villançico contrahaziendo a los mocaros que sienpre van ynportunando a los peregrinos con demandas | Juan del Encina | lf | 1520ish | A beggars' song: the poet was in the Holy Land in ±1520 and tried to reproduce the lingua franca of the hordes of fake amputees and saints who plagued poor pilgrims there and at home: 'Benda ti istran plegrin: / benda, marqueta, maidin. / Benda, benda stringa da da / agugeta colorada. / Dali moro namorada / y ala ti da bon matin.' |
| In dulci jubilo | Heinrich Seuse / Robert Pearsall | en de la | 1328 | I do both the German-Latin original and the popular Pearsall Anglicisation |
| Sumer is icumen in | Anon. / Ezra Pound / Peter Firmin / Oliver Postgate | en | 1250 | Round progressing from Wessex Middle English (The bullock stirs, the stag farts, / Merrily sing, Cuckoo!) via miseryguts' Ancient Music (Winter is icumen in, / Lhude sing Goddamm) to the Bagpuss mice (We will fix it). Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Sederunt | Pérotin | la | 1200s | Great example of organum (ca. 1200) from the master of Notre-Dame. Tenor here. Bi ther grete criyng of song, as deschaunt, countre note and orgene, thei ben lettid fro studyinge and prechynge of the gospel. |
| Das Lied vom braven Manne (The song of the goodly man) | de | Accompanies the story 'Diogenes with his barrel-organ.' | ||
| Sabre dance | Aram Khachaturian / Andrews Sisters | en | Pure Orientalism: Drums are booming, cellos zooming, / Cymbals crashing, sabres flashing in a willy nilly sort of way,. |
Update: 2023/03/06