When I first started my journey in mechanical music, I wanted to find an instrument to bring around to share and show people an example of mechanical music as how it was presented over a century ago.
There were many different instruments to choose from such as organettes, tabletop reed organs and of course the barrel or roll operated monkey organs.
After listening to videos and seeing some of these instruments in person I knew once I saw and heard some of the monkey organs in person that this was the instrument of my dreams to play for people.
Naturally I started to look for one in my local aera but unfortunately, I was unsuccessful. I tried networking with several collectors and without any luck failed at locating an organ available to purchase.
I did not give up though and I continued to search the internet and reached out to a few websites overseas in regard to purchasing an organ but to my disappointment nothing was available.
After a little while I decided to put the idea on the back burner in my mind and continue with what I was currently working on.
However, a little while ago I was sent a link by a friend on a social media platform for a gentleman that was looking to sell his father’s 20/31 Raffin organ.
Naturally I inquired about it immediately as I read the message and was fortunate enough to have reached him before it sold.
After a lot of going back and forth and thinking things over we came to an agreement, and I was now the proud owner of an original Raffin 20/31 note organ!
I could hardly wait for my new Raffin organ to arrive! I anxiously counted down the days till I received it in the mail. Around a week and a half later I received the Raffin.
Once I got to test it out and try a few songs on it, I knew that I had to take it somewhere as soon as I could.
Ater thinking it over and looking at what events were upcoming I decided to take my new organ to the cruise night at Historic Attractions, a history museum in Roscoe Illinois. This was a nice medium sized event with a wide variety of cars and people. As soon as I started to set up and play the organ people gathered around me and asked questions on how I found it and how it worked and so forth. Needless to say, it was definitely entertaining to talk to people and see what they thought about it.
Overall, the organ was a great success as it generated a lot of foot traffic my way and even some business too. I had groups of people guessing which songs I was playing and even children sitting and dancing to it as well. Overall, the night was very nice and most of all fun.
On Mechanical Music Parade’s Facebook page, you can see a video of me playing daisy bell on my organ at the car show.
I hope to have many adventures with this little organ and keep playing it for many people and at many places to come.
Please stay tuned and check back on the blog post tab to see more updates and adventures of my Raffin organ.
Dylan N. Hallman
