pronounced or-KES-tree-ahn
(Common mis pronunciation or-kes-TRAY-shun. Orchestration is the act of transcribing a piece of music so that it can be played by all the instruments in a full orchestra.)
An orchestrion is a musical instrument that plays several instruments to imitate the sound of a full orchestra or dance band.
The first known orchestrion was the Panharmonicon which was built by Johann Nepomuk Maelzel a clock maker who invented a metronome in Beethoven's day. Beethoven made Maelzel a part of history by notating on his compositions “MM = 100” This stood for Maelzel's metronome set to 100 beats per minute, thereby informing the student what speed Beethoven thought appropriate for the piece.
Beethoven composed Wellington's Victory for the Panharmonicon and it was so popular that Beethoven decided to expand it into a full fledged orchestral overture.
By the late 1800's there were several companies including M. Welte & Sons who made barrel operated orchestrions. Most played organ pipes with percussion instruments and played popular classical or salon music for patrons of large beer gardens, restaurants, or dance halls.
There were several tunes on each barrel. Changing the barrel to hear different music often called for 2 or 3 men to do it. The barrels were often 4 feet long or more and weighed too much to be easily handled by one person. It was expensive to purchase new barrels as well, so, often the barrels would be repinned with different music for less money.
Before 1900 Welte invented a pneumatic system that could play the orchestrion from a paper roll. At this time Welte offered his present orchestrion owners a special bargain. He would remove the barrel operation system from their orchestrion and replace it with a pneumatic roll operating system for free. Many owners took him up on this so they had easily changed music and they purchased lots of rolls with a large variety of music now available. This is why barrel operated Welte orchestions are seldom seen today. Most were converted. Welte reaped the benefit because he could sell hundreds of inexpensive rolls with lots more variety of music and the music was not limited to the length of time it took a barrel to go around once.
In the 1900's roll operated orchestrions grew in popularity and could be found in a variety of sizes. In America they most often were built with a piano as the basis of the instrument with the organ pipes featured as solo instruments. Being piano based, they were smaller and more readily avialable for the smaller venues like intimate restaurants and saloons.
See also Coin piano, Nickelodeon