How cool to search for “Kikkerland” on YOUTUBE.com to find…among other cool homemade Kikkerland videos, a growing collection of folks who made and recorded their own tunes on the ‘Mechanical Music Box Kits’ offered by Kikkerland Design. We found this product with the urging of experimental musician Bob Marsh, who runs the shop at Zeum in San Francisco, a non-profit multimedia arts and technology museum with a mission to foster creativity and innovation in young people. Bob stills comes by our booth when Kikkerland is in SF to see what other products we might make that he can make music with…for example the battery operated milk-frother makes cool sounds on a drum symbol.
The ‘kit’ includes a special size hole puncher, instruction booklet, crank box, 3 blank music paper strips plus one pre-punched example with the tune, “Happy Birthday”. Paper refills are available, well, they will be come January.
“The tone of a musical box is unlike that of any musical instrument.” - Alec Templeton, an avid collector of music boxes and a professional concert musician.
The earliest known mechanical musical devices were invented in Bagdad by The Banu Musa brothers in the 9th century who also invented the valve, mechanical trick devices and the gas mask. Their revolving cylinder with raised pins is the same mechanism watchmakers in the 18th century used to make musical snuff boxes which has since evolved into the mechanical music box we have today.
Other famous moments in music box lore:
- Bjork in the album “Vespertine” and the song “Frosti”
- Colleen made an album using only music boxes “Colleen et les Boites a Musique.”
- In 1974-75, German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen composed Tierkreis, a set of twelve pieces on the signs of the zodiac, for twelve musical boxes.
- In Japanese anime and manga films, music boxes are used to convey romantic feelings.
- A music box that induces eternal sleep when played in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
- Panic! At the Disco’s cover “This is Halloween” in the Nightmare before Christmas uses a music box for the open and close of the song.
See you soon Bob!
Hey, it’s Zeum’s 10th year anniversary, check out www.zeum.org or better yet, pack up the kids and head for San Francisco. The shop is located on the corner of Fourth Street and Howard near the Moscone Center.