Welte-Mignon

M. Welte & Sons, Freiburg and New York was a manufacturer of orchestrions, organs and reproducing pianos.

From 1832 until 1932, the firm produced mechanical musical Instruments of the highest quality. The firm's founder, Michael Welte, and his company were prominent in the technical development and construction of orchestrions from 1850, until the early 20th century.

In 1872, the firm moved from the remote black forest town of Vöhrenbach, into a newly developed business complex beneath the main railway-station in Freiburg, Germany. They created an epoch-making development when they substituted the playing gear of their instruments from fragile wood pinned cylinders to perforated paper rolls. In 1883, Emil Welte, the eldest son of Michael, who had emigrated to the United States in 1865, patented the paper roll method (US-Patent 287.599). In 1889, the technique was further perfected, and again protected through patents. Later, Welte built only instruments using the new technique, which was also licensed to other companies. With branches in New York and Moscow, and representatives throughout the world, Welte became very well known.

The firm was already famous for its inventions in the field of the reproduction of music when Welte introduced the Welte-Mignon reproducing piano in 1904, which came onto the market in 1905. As a result of this invention by Edwin Welte and his brother-in-law Karl Bockisch, one could now record and reproduce the music played by a pianist as true to life as was technologically possible at the time.

Welte Philharmonic Organ

From 1912 on, a similar system for organs branded "Welte Philharmonic-Organ" was produced. Thirteen well-known European organist-composers of the era, among them Alfred Hollins, Eugene Gigout and Max Reger were photographed recording for the organ , distinguished organists like Edwin Lemare, Clarence Eddy and Joseph Bonnet were recorded too.

Welte Inc.

In 1912 a new company was founded, the "M. Welte & Sons. Inc." in New York, and a new factory was built in Poughkeepsie, New York. Shareholders were predominantly family members in the U.S. and Germany, among them Barney Dreyfuss, Edwins brother-in-law.

As a result of the Alien Property Custodian enactment, during the First World War, the company lost their American branch and all of their U.S. patents. This caused the company great economic hardship. Later the depression and the mass production of new technologies like the radio and the electric record player in the 1920s virtually brought about the demise of the firm and its expensive instruments. Other companies with similar products like Ampico and Duo-Art also began to fade from the scene at this time.

From 1919 on, Welte built also theatre organs. With the introduction of "talkies" around 1927, this need began to also diminish and by 1931 production of these instruments was severely curtailed. The last big theatre organ was a custom built instrument for the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR, North German Broadcasting) studio in Hamburg, still in place and still playing. Some other theatre organs of Welte are today in museums. One of these organs can be seen in the Scotty's Castle museum in Death Valley where is it played regularly during museum tours.

In 1932 the firm, now with Karl Bockisch as sole owner, barely escaped bankruptcy, and began to concentrate on the production of church organs and other specialty organs.

The last project of Edwin Welte was an electronic organ equipped with photo-cells, the Lichttonorgel or Phototone-Organ”. This instrument was the first ever which used analog sampled sound. In 1936, a prototype of this type of organ was demonstrated at a concert in Berlin. The production of these organs - in cooperation with the Telefunken Company - was halted because the inventor, Edwin Welte, was married to Betty Dreyfuss, who was Jewish.

The business complex in Freiburg was bombed and completely destroyed in November 1944. This event seemed to obliterate the closely kept secrets of the firm and their recording apparatus and recording process appeared lost forever. But in recent years parts of the recording apparatus for the Welte Philharmonic-Organs and documents were found in the United States. It was then possible to theoretically reconstruct the recording process. The Augustinermuseum of Freiburg keeps the legacy of the company - all that survived the Second World War.

Media

Ossip Gabrilowitsch plays for Welte-Mignon on July 4, 1905 Johannes Brahms Intermezzo in C major, Op. 119, No. 3 *
Arthur Nikisch plays for Welte-Mignon on February 9, 1906 Johannes Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 6*

References

Gerhard Dangel: The history of the Welte family and the house of M. Welte & Sons. In: The Pianola Journal, No. 18, London 2007, p. 3-49. ISSN 0952-6323

Gerhard Dangel und Hans-W. Schmitz: Welte-Mignon piano rolls: complete library of the European recordings 1904 - 1932 for the Welte-Mignon reproducing piano. Welte-Mignon Klavierrollen: Gesamtkatalog der europäischen Aufnahmen 1904 - 1932 für das Welte-Mignon Reproduktionspiano. Stuttgart 2006. ISBN 3-00-017110-X

Automatische Musikinstrumente aus Freiburg in die Welt - 100 Jahre Welte-Mignon: Augustinermuseum, Ausstellung vom 17. September 2005 bis 8. Januar 2006 / [Hrsg.: Augustinermuseum]. Mit Beitr. von Durward Rowland Center, Gerhard Dangel, ... [Red.: Gerhard Dangel]. Freiburg : Augustinermuseum, 2005.

Hermann Gottschewski: Die Interpretation als Kunstwerk: musikalische Zeitgestaltung und ihre Analyse am Beispiel von Welte-Mignon-Klavieraufnahmen aus dem Jahre 1905. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag 1996. ISBN 3-89007-309-3

Charles David Smith and Richard James Howe: The Welte-Mignon: its music and musicians. Vestal, NY: Vestal Press, 1994. ISBN 1-879511-17-7

Quirin David Bowers: Encyclopedia of automatic musical instruments: Cylinder music boxes, disc music boxes, piano players and player pianos... Incl. a dictionary of automatic musical instrument terms. Vestal, N. Y.: The Vestal Press, 1988.

Gerhard Dangel: Geschichte der Firma M. Welte & Söhne Freiburg i. B. und New York. Freiburg: Augustinermuseum 1991.

Peter Hagmann: Das Welte-Mignon-Klavier, die Welte-Philharmonie-Orgel und die Anfänge der Reproduktion von Musik. Bern [u.a.]: Lang, 1984. Online-Version 2002