- GSM - Mechanical Music General Links

Of course there are other pages on the net where additional information about the subject of mechanical music can be found.

If you are interested, you can follow some of the links that are compiled here.

The following list is in no way complete. It may also contain invalid links. At least all links were accessible when this survey was created.

Für Inhalt und Copyright der Seiten, auf die diese Links führen, wird keine Haftung übernommen.

No responsibility is assumed for any content or copyright of those pages that are linked or referred to.

Mechanical Music Radio, the world's FIRST and ONLY Mechanical Music Radio Station. Listen any time of the day or night for the best variety of music.

Jody Kravitz, from California, USA, is maintaining the "Mechanical Music Digest" mailing list. On his Web Server you can find more details, including instructions on how to subscribe to his list and how to access the archive of digests.

In many countries societies similar to the GSM exist. Most of these are associated with the GSM:

Since many years, the "Club Deutscher Drehorgelfreunde e.V." (CDD) with its various activities is dedicated to cranking organs as a special type of mechanical musical instruments.

The society "Internationale Drehorgelfreunde Berlin e.V." offers on this Website many important informations. Basic types of hurdy-gurdy instruments are presented and explained. A special animation shows the functional principle of a barrel organ.

On the "Home Page of MBSI" the visitor learns that MBSI is the Musical Box Society (International), which is devoted to all mechanical musical instruments.

"Player pianos are fun!" is the motto on the "AMICA" home page. Extensive information about the "Automatic Musical Instruments Collectors Association" is provided, including past and announced annual conventions.

The "Fair Organ Preservation Society", with members all over the world, is based in the United Kingdom and encourages interest in all forms of mechanical musical instruments, with particular emphasis on fairground organs. The site contains selected articles from its quarterly magazine, links to other mechanical music sites, associations, builders and restorers, lists of museums and collections and a diary of events.

MBSGB is another British society, devoted to mechanical musical instruments and their music. The aim of the "Musical Box Society of Great Britain" is to further an interest in and an appreciation of all forms of mechanical music.

A few years ago, AMBC, the "Associaton of Musical Box Collectors" in England was founded, which is devoted to promoting an interest in Mechanical Musical Instruments of all types. As the name suggests, the main focus is musical boxes.

Specialized on the aspect of self-playing pianos is the PPG, the British "Player Piano Group". The musical and mechanical aspects of these instruments are reflected by the range of the group's interests.

The "British North West Player Piano Association" (NWPPA) regards itself a small friendly group with varied interests, not only in automatic pianos but in a wide variety of both mechanical and electronic instruments from self-playing accordians to the latest computer-controlled electronic instruments, and of course the music to play on them.

There is still another British association called "The Friends of the Pianola Institute", which provides an ideal means for individuals and institutions with an interest in pianolas and their music to join in the activities of the Pianola Institute, founded to bring about a better understanding and appreciation of player pianos as musical instruments of considerable subtlety and versatility.

English is also the language of the "Australian Mechanical Organ Society". Most of the musically minded members of AMOS come from all over Australia, and also from New Zealand.

On the other side of our globe, there are the "Australian Collectors of Mechanical Musical Instruments" (ACMMI). This small group is mainly active in the field of player pianos.

The Netherlands are famous for their variety of street organs. The Dutch association "KDV (Kring van Draaiorgelvrienden)" provides a lot of information (in Dutch and English versions) about the preservation of fair organs, street-organs, dance hall organs, orchestrions and other automatic musical instruments; their history and development, and their present situation.

The "Nederlandse Pianola Vereniging" (NPV) was founded in 1976 by a group of player-piano enthusiasts, which had re-discovered the possibilities of the instrument and thought setting up an association was a good way to develop and stimulate the general interest in player-pianos.

Musicboxes were invented in Switzerland. The Swiss organisation "Schweizer Freunde Mechanischer Musik" (SFMM) is engaged with the history, collecting and performing of these and all other types of mechanical musical instruments.

Recently (2015), the "Schweizer Drehorgel-Club" was established. The SDC supports the tradition of playing barrel organs and retaining these instruments as a cultural heritage.

Since 1975, the french society "Association des Amis des Instruments et de la Musique Mécanique (AAIMM)" aims for mission to gather the friends of musical mechanical instruments, to help them to share their passion and to support their meetings and their exchanges.

It is not very long ago (1998) that the "Associazione Musica Meccanica Italiana" (AMMI) was founded in Italy. For the time being the "Sito ufficiale AMMI" is setup completely in italian language.

In September 2007, "MechaMusica" (MEMU) was born: a Flemish society aiming to preserve (the culture of) mechanical music instruments.

The following links exist only in a version with German text.

But, as they contain mostly addresses and names, this should not post any difficulties to the reader.

On a special page I tried to compile all WWW pages that were created by members of the German Society for Self-Playing Musical Instruments (GSM).

Here you find the addresses (and links) to many German museums and other European museums that exhibit mechanical musical instruments.

Last update: September 1, 2021 (wt)