This massive Mortier Dance Organ is known as the Amaryllis.
George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" isn't always rendered the way the great man intended. Just ask his "ghost."
In 1925, some 12 years before his death, Gershwin sat down at the keyboard of an Aeolean Duo-Art Weber reproducing piano and created an exact record -- note for note, pause for pause, inflection for inflection –- of his famous "Rhapsody," and it is msiing the dramatic but non-authentic finish that has been imposed of it by generations of conductors. Today that piano is in an air-controlled barn at the Music House Museum near Traverse City, Mich., and Gershwin plays for visitors several times a day. This is not one of those scratchy vintage recordings; the piano is playing just as though the composer's ghostly hands were still tickling those ivories.
“Our instruments all play by themselves,” says director Sally Lewis.
These machines are often beautiful, carved and gilded, made with rare woods and metals, and decorated with bronze, stained glass and crystal. Among them:
* An 1899 Regina Corona music box, with interchangeable metal discs that had the correct notes punched into them.
* An immense 1922 Belgian Mortier dance-hall organ, 20 feet high and 30 feet wide, with hundreds of pipes, bells, drums and whistles that would play dance tunes using “programming” punched into folded sheets of cardboard.
* The Mills Violano-Virtuoso, an automatic violin player that made music in theaters while silent movies played. This year it will join the select group of instruments that are played for tour groups.
The Music House Museum is on U.S. 31, eight miles north of Traverse City. From May through October, it is open from 10 am to 4 pm Monday through Saturday, and noon to 4 pm on Sunday and on weekends in November and December. Tickets are $10 for adults, $3 for children 6-15 and free for youngsters 5 and under. There is also a family rate of $25.
For more on the music museum, which also has other attractions such as a minaturized version of Traverse City's Main Street, click here. For information on Traverse City, click here or call 800-TRAVERSE.
Trivial question
What is the name of the island the Statue of Liberty is located on? (easy.) What is its former name? (Not so easy.) Answer Tuesday.
Amtrak has a 25-percent-off deal in Northeast
Amtrak has lowered fares on its Northeast Regional runs by as much as 25 percent. Sample fares to or from New York: Philadelphia, $34; Washington, D.C., $49; Boston, $49; Baltimore, $48; Providence, $41. Tickets must be bought at least 14 days before traveling, and there are other conditions.
For all details, click here. The home page is at www.amtrak.com.
Worth quoting
"A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.”
-- John Steinbeck
Watch Finland's bears cavort -- live
Nowadays it's easy to see the wild bears of the Taiga forest in Eastern Finland, near the Russian border. Just tune in to the Bear Cam. The camera is installed in the animal observation site of the Wild Brown Bear Co., which arranges animal watching tours. The BearCam feeds live videos between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily.
Click here. And if the camera isn't currently trained on the bears, there are recent videos.
Sage hotels reward military by halving price
Active and retired members of the U.S. military and first responders can qualify for 50 percent off of at the 50 Sage hotels across the country, under a program called Half Price for Heroes. Reservations can be made by contacting the individual hotels and mentioning the special rate. You can also book through each hotel Web site, using the code LPR.
For a list of Sage hotels, click here.
What's in a name?
The Pennsylvania Dutch are hardly all descended from Dutch people. The confusion stems from the German word "Deutsch," which of course means "German."
All about the fine wines of Portugal
Among the many pleasures of Portugal are its wines. For many things about them, including a list of 50 great ones, click here.
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