Talk:Calliope (music)

Is it an organ?
Is a Calliope a type of organ, or not? If not, why not?
 * A calliope differs in no substantial way from an organ with one rank comprising only closed metal flue pipes. The fact that steam rather than cold air is the fluid is not a substantial difference. Organ pipes have varying air pressures - this is just higher than any of those. The acoustics of the pipes and the fact that each note has one pipe (rather than changing the pitch by uncovering holes in the sides) are the same. Conventional organs may have wooden pipes, open pipes, several stops, pedals and a swell chamber, but need not have any of these. (Theatre organs may - but need not - also have percussion instruments including drums, cymbals, piano, xylophone, glockenspiel, woodblocks, castanets etc, driven pneumatically from the keyboard.) Yes, it is a (pretty minimal) type of organ. --Hugh7 08:03, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Request for Pictures
Added picture of the Kitch Greenhouse Steam Calliope in action at The Ohio Historical Society. There is an interesting story on this instrument, which travels around Ohio for special events. This is my first photo, so I hope that I got it right. Lowellt 23:18, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

i added a picture the other day and now it is gone. can anyone tell me why, or what i did wrong? thanks Alandindas 14:42, 14 October 2006 (UTC)alan dindas
 * Perhaps it was copyright? --Hugh7 08:02, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Banner removed
There are three pictures now, and the 'image request banner' has been in place for two years. I think it can go now...

...gone!

EdJogg 14:57, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Range?
How many whistles did/do they have, and what was/is their range? Were/are they diatonic (~white keys, "natural notes") or chromatic (~white and black keys, sharps and flats)? I see the steamboat one seems to have 16, but can we see them all? The Kitch Greenhouses instrument seems to have about 30. --Hugh7 07:53, 13 December 2006 (UTC) It seems that calliopes don't have a fixed range, since they're quite little-frequently used.--221.1.27.213 (talk) 04:01, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Excellent question, just the sort of information we should be collating.

http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/music/musichistory/natchezcalliope.html starts out The Steam Calliope is a uniquely American instrument, a 32-note steam pipe organ, but it doesn't say what the 32 notes are.

http://www.northweststeamsociety.org/Pages/ProjectsStationary/Calliope1/NWSSScalliope1.htm reads in part ''PIPES: Number: 26. Range: F sharp below middle C to G above middle C.'' F# to G inclusive chromatically as described would only be 14 notes! But if one of the octaves is wrong and the range is actually two octaves and a semitone, it would make 26, and be a far more useful range, similar for example to many glockenspiels.

My guess is the 32 note one is also chromatic, which would give a similar range to a standard set of pipe organ pedals, but presumably pitched higher.

http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/popular-mechanics/The-Boy-Mechanic-700-Things-for-Boys-to-Do/How-To-Make-A-Steam-Calliope.html describes a ten-note calliope, likely to be diatonic I guess... it tells you how to tune the pipes, but seems to leave the choice of notes to the constructor.

Watch this space... Andrewa (talk) 19:20, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Miner calliophones
http://www.minercompany.com/The%20Excursion%20Boat%20Special.html has a photo of a 43-whistle air-blown calliope, and the model number is CEA- 43 which I'm guessing is short for Calliope Electronic Airblown 43-note. They quote the names of a number of "steam" boats on which they've installed these instruments.

http://www.minercompany.com/CA%2043%20Specifications.html gives the specifications of a 43-note airblown calliope, 43 notes F to B, while http://www.minercompany.com/CA%2053%20Specifications.html is a 53-note version, 53 notes  C to E. http://haskey.com/johnh/calliope/index.html describes one of these and gives the bottom note as ''the 'C' below 'Middle-C' on a piano keyboard. ( 4' C if you are an organist)''.

From the number of pipes and the photos of the keyboards, all the Miner instruments currently on offer seem to be chromatic.

Whether an air-blown calliope is really a calliope or whether it's a calliophone seems an interesting question. Andrewa (talk) 20:00, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

http://www.bendermelodies.com/calliope_home.htm describes a 58-note airblown calliope, custom built by Miner. http://www.minercompany.com/Calliope%20Page.html claims that they have built the world's largest Calliope with 67 notes. Andrewa (talk) 20:25, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Steam calliopes
http://www.steamcalliope.com/calliope.htm

Some interesting snippets:

...the traditional Nichol style calliope with 32 notes...

...This is the largest Morecraft Calliope built, a 37 note instrument, and the second largest in the world next to the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN...

Progress... of course, just obtaining the information isn't enough, it needs to be presented in verifiable, encyclopedic fashion. Andrewa (talk) 20:52, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Repertoire?
What sort of music could they play? Anything ambitious? (eg prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin? waltz from Gounod's Faust?) What sort of music was on the rolls and drums? --Hugh7 07:53, 13 December 2006 (UTC) The only example I know is Seventh Alloy by Wayne Lytle, which is quite hard to be said what style it is.--221.1.27.213 (talk) 04:04, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Air Calliopes
I can't confirm this anywhere else, but I believe there are many high pressure air calliopes in use. A friend of mine often plays one at a private railway museum. He certainly considers it to be a true calliope--just without the heat and moisture! Donincalif (talk) 00:20, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Refactor
I've rewritten the lead to answer some of the above questions, and present an overview. The rest of the article still needs a lot of work. The history section is probably the most important, since this is largely an historic instrument.

But there's lots of good stuff there. Andrewa (talk) 20:10, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

in fiction
Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_(novel) has a calliope in it as a significant plot devcice —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.231.178.239 (talk) 08:27, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

COI edit request
The information about the Mission Impossible music being played in three episodes of "Hawaii Five-0" is incorrect. Morton Stevens wrote the theme that is heard in those episodes. Walter Schaff wrote the music for the "Mission Impossible" episode. You can confirm this on IMDb listings for the programs / episodes in question. Thank you.

I should add that I corrected "Hawaii Five-0" episodes, dates, and actors' names before I watched part one of the "Mission Impossible" episode, did not hear the music, and checked the composer's name in the end credits. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.186.166.48 (talk • contribs) 03:36, 23 September 2014‎ (UTC)
 * I have notified the editor who added the content to the article. If that editor has not shared his or her views here by, say, the end of this month (October), we will simply remove the unsourced material. --82.136.210.153 (talk) 17:41, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
 * If the info I added was inaccurate, I have no objection to its removal. – Athaenara  ✉  17:02, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

Calliope featured in a movie
Back when I was a kid in the 1980's I remember watching a 16mm film that heavily featured a travelling calliope. The calliope was central to the film, and if I recall correctly, the main character was a little girl. I would guess the film was about an hour in length, and probably made in the 1960's or thereabouts. The sound was in English. Despite my best efforts, I can find no trace of such a film now. I thought the word 'calliope' featured in the title of the film, but I could be mistaken - it was so long ago. Does anyone else remember this or have some way to track it down? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.64.20.67 (talk) 03:14, 16 June 2015 (UTC) I just remembered also that at much the same time I saw "The pigeon that worked a miracle" on 16mm. That dates from 1958 and the runtime is about an hour, so it makes sense that the film that features the calliope would be from a similar time and of a similar length. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.64.20.67 (talk) 03:33, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Calliope (music). Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20150707052453/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjT7Bz0icSM to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjT7Bz0icSM

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 03:30, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Calliope (music). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070515073540/http://www.jmww.150m.com/Lindsay.html to http://www.jmww.150m.com/Lindsay.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 18:27, 11 January 2018 (UTC)