The
collection of music automata was initiated in 1958 by the purchase
of a Polyphon (Germany, end of the 19th century). Since then, the
collection has continuously increased by the purchase of new items.
In 1962 it was decided to arrange an exhibition presenting the means
of sound recording and playback in its historical evolution. In this
regard, there was deployed a programme of identification and purchase
of the mechanic music devices in the country, using all possible investigation
means, activity which resulted in a consistent collection. Most of
the heritage items were purchased and only few of them donated. The
donations mainly consisted in recording supports: cardboard, metal
or ebonite disks, wax reels for the phonographs, perforated tapes
and cards for the mechanical pianos and pianolas. Thus, the permanent
exhibition "Sound Recording and Playback" was inaugurated
in 1966, in its first form, while in 1972 it was rearranged in a presentation
still in use nowadays.
The
permanent exhibition "Sound Recording and Playback" describes
the history of mechanical music, with all its panorama of devices
of automatic music, rustic or cult, simple or complex. Music automata
displayed in the exhibition are grouped according to the recording
support, which contains the programmed melody: pin reel, disk, perforated
card or tape. The recording support determines the functioning of
acoustic elements, such as bells, vibrating blades and strings, acoustic
pipes, etc.
The
prehistory of mechanical music starts in Antiquity, with the water
organ named
hydraulis, invented around 200 B.C. by Ctesibios of Alexandria, device
which used the water weight to regulate the air pressure penetrating
through the organ tubes.
The eolian harp, also known by the old Greeks, can be considered as
the first automatic instrument. Intitled Aeolus, from the name of
the Greek god of the wind, it was musch disseminated throughout 10th
century England. It was a wooden case equipped with a series of strings
vibrating as the air stream was flowing.
Another
instrument related to the prehistory of mechanical music was the viella,
a semiautomatic violin appeared in the 10th century France and which
enjoyed a large representation throughout Europe. It was also acknowledged
in Transylvania under the local name of lauta, and also in Moldavia,
yet here as lerla. The museum collection includes one lerla discovered
in Moldova - Sulita, the county of Suceava.