Choralcelo #2 Console and Supplementary Units
Maker
Choralcelo Company
Date1917
Place MadeBoston, Massachusetts, United States, North America
Serial No.206 (or 207?)
DescriptionChoralcelo, dated 9 February 1917 in the opus list. Made for William V. King, Covent Station, New Jersey. Acquired in the late 1930s by Wilber and Regene Farrington and installed in a studio in New York; put into storage in 1942.Major components:
A: Console, serial number 207 (?), with the usual piano action acting on strings, which could also be sounded by electromagnets. Two manuals (lower, compass AAA-c5; upper, compass AA to c4); no pedalboard. Carved decoration.
B: Remote unit with aluminum bars (notes 33-84, i.e., g# to b4) and tubular fiberboard resonators.
C: Remote unit with steel bars (notes 25-84, i.e., c to b4) and tubular fiberboard resonators (some of which are replacements by Wade Jenkins).
D: Remote unit with wooden bars (notes 33-84, i.e., g# to b4) and tubular fiberboard resonators.
E: Remote bass unit, with two sets of steel bars (notes 13-24, i.e., C to B); resonators on one set are replacements by Wade Jenkins; resonators missing from the second set.
F: Supplementary tenor unit, with steel bars (notes 25-32, i.e., c to g); resonators missing. Mounted at the top of the framework for the wood unit.
G: Chimes (notes 34-53, i.e., a to e2).
H: Disc-style interrupter, with recent replacement motor.
I: DC generator, powered by an electric motor.
J: Cabinet with relays for the action.
K: Cabinet with relays for the action.
The wooden frames supporting units B to F are not original.ProvenanceMade for William V. King, Covent Station, New Jersey, completed on 9 February 1917. Acquired in the late 1930s by Wilber and Regene Farrington and installed in a studio in New York; put into storage in 1942.Published ReferencesJohn Koster, “Choralcelo, The- An Electrifying Acquisition- A Personal Odyssey,” _National Music Museum Newsletter_34, No. 1 (February 2007), pp. 4-5.
Credit LineGift of C. Wade Jenkins, 2006
Object number11315
On View
Not on view1850-1890 ca.
1890-1910 ca.