Swiss museum traces music machines from boxes to jukeboxes

The Museum of Musical Automata in Seewen, canton Solothurn, traces the development of music machines from 19th-century music boxes and orchestrions to 1950s jukeboxes, SRF reports.

In the late 19th century, automatic orchestras were popular with bar owners. A coin activated the machine, while a perforated paper strip controlled the instruments using compressed air. Each instrument was triggered separately through a system of tubes.

The machines allowed bar owners to provide live music without paying for a full orchestra. “It was essentially a whole orchestra in a piano cabinet,” said Michelle Ziegler, the museum’s director.

Music boxes were also popular in wealthy households. Despite their name, many were not small toys but large and valuable pieces of furniture. The museum’s “Mira” disc music box is made of mahogany and can play several pieces because its discs can be exchanged.

Many music boxes were made in Switzerland, particularly in the French-speaking Jura around Sainte-Croix and L’Auberson. As in watchmaking, production involved a division of labour. Women often inserted individual pins into the cylinders by hand as additional work on farms, Ziegler said.

The museum is one of only four institutions under the authority of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture. Collector Heinrich Weiss donated his extensive collection of Swiss music boxes, musical automata, phonographs and gramophones to the Swiss government in 1990.

Jukeboxes are among the museum’s best-known objects. Switzerland also produced jukeboxes in the 1950s, including the “Chantal”, which has a distinctive futuristic hood. Ziegler said Swiss production began when inventors met in back rooms and basements and started developing their own machines.

The museum plans to dedicate a new exhibition to jukeboxes, where visitors will be able to hear the machines operating. From September 19, another exhibition called “Dance Motors” will focus on music machines designed to encourage dancing, including phonographs, jukeboxes and orchestrions.

Ziegler also considers iPods and smartphones to be music machines because they store music. She said it remains unclear whether the museum will eventually display devices such as an iPod or a Discman, as the institution focuses on specific aspects of Swiss production.