Product Code Database
M. Welte & Sons, Freiburg and New York was a manufacturer of , organs and reproducing pianos, established in Vöhrenbach by Michael Welte (1807–1880) in 1832.
In 1872, the firm moved from the remote Black Forest town of Vöhrenbach into a newly developed business complex beneath the main railway station in Freiburg, Germany. They created an epoch-making development when they substituted the playing gear of their instruments from fragile wood pinned cylinders to perforated paper rolls. In 1883, Emil Welte (1841–1923), the eldest son of Michael, who had emigrated to the United States in 1865, patented the music roll method (), the model of the later piano roll. In 1889, the technique was further perfected, and again protected through patents. Later, Welte built only instruments using the new technique, which was also licensed to other companies. With branches in New York and Moscow, and representatives throughout the world, Welte became very well known.
The firm was already famous for its inventions in the field of the reproduction of music when Welte introduced the Welte-Mignon reproducing piano in 1904. "It automatically replayed the tempo, Musical phrasing, dynamics and pedalling of a particular performance, and not just the notes of the music, as was the case with other player pianos of the time." In September, 1904, the Mignon was demonstrated in the Leipzig Trade Fair. In March, 1905 it became better known when showcased "at the of Hugo Popper, a manufacturer of roll-operated ". By 1906, the Mignon was also exported to the United States, installed to pianos by the firms Feurich and Steinway & Sons. The Pianola Institute: "The Reproducing Piano Welte-Mignon" As a result of this invention by Edwin Welte (1876–1958) and his brother-in-law Karl Bockisch (1874–1952), one could now record and reproduce the music played by a pianist as true to life as was technologically possible at the time. Pianists who recorded for Welte-Mignon included Anna Schytte.
A Steinway Welte-Mignon reproducing piano and several other player pianos and reproducing pianos can be seen and heard at the Musical Museum, Brentford, England.
As a result of the Alien Property Custodian enactment during the First World War, the company lost their American branch and all of their U.S. patents. This caused the company great economic hardship. Later the Great Depression and the mass production of new technologies like the radio and the electric record player in the 1920s virtually brought about the demise of the firm and its expensive instruments. Other companies with similar products like American Piano Company (Ampico) and Duo-Art also began to fade from the scene at this time.
From 1919 on, Welte also built , in particular for installation in cinemas. With the introduction of sound film around 1927, the demand for these also began to diminish, and by 1931 production of such instruments had been severely curtailed. The last big theatre organ was a custom-built instrument for the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NORAG) broadcasting company in Hamburg, still in place and still playing today. A number of other Welte theatre organs survive in museums.
In 1932 the firm, now with Karl Bockisch as sole owner, barely escaped bankruptcy, and began to concentrate on the production of church and other speciality organs.
The last project of Edwin Welte was an electronic organ equipped with photo-cells, the or Phototone-Organ. This instrument was the first ever to use analog signal sampled sound. In 1936, a prototype of this type of organ was demonstrated at a concert in the Berliner Philharmonie. The production of these organs - in cooperation with the Telefunken Company – was halted by the Nazism because the inventor, Edwin Welte, was married to Betty Dreyfuss, who was Jewish.
The business complex in Freiburg was bombed and completely destroyed in November 1944. This event seemed to obliterate the closely kept secrets of the firm and their recording apparatus and recording process appeared lost forever. But in recent years parts of the recording apparatus for the Welte Philharmonic-Organs and documents were found in the United States. It was then possible to theoretically reconstruct the recording process. The Augustiner Museum of Freiburg keeps the legacy of the company – all that survived the Second World War.
Welte Mignon made several organs for important churches as did Welte-Tripp. One of the last surviving instruments is in the Church of the Covenant, Boston Mass. This was restored by Austin several years ago - supposedly to the original state. It was altered by an organist in 1959 or 1960. Until that time it has been careful restored and releathered by the Reed-Treanor organ company. This included the entire combination action in the console and the manual relays in the church basement and the repair of the massive 25 HP DC motor that powered the Spencer Turbine blower. During the two years they cared for the organ no tonal or structural changes were made.
|
|
