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These pages are
dedicated to Giovanni Racca, to his wonderful Piano Melodico as
well as to his numerous fantastic adaptations for Cardboard
Books. The Piano Melodico enjoyed extraordinary success from the
first years of its manufacturing, towards the end of the
nineteenth century, up until 1920-1925. Many wealthy and
powerful people were impressed by the beautiful shape of this
instrument, its fascinating sound and by the wide-ranging
repertoire available, to the extent that as many as ten thousand
Piano Melodico were produced and sold throughout the world. Even
Margherita di Savoia, the Queen Mother, had a Piano Melodico;
indeed I have a Music Book which was given to her as a gift by
the composer Fioravanti and bears a dedication dated February
1908. Later on I shall explain how and why I got into its
possession. |
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But progress and
technical development put an end to this dream and it all came to a
halt now let me tell you how I got involved in this fascinating
adventure.
Like all of you who
are reading these pages, I believe, one day I too entered the world
of Mechanical Music. I became really enthusiastic about it and
started by buying an Ariston, then a Piano Player and other
instruments, until I found my first Piano Melodico. I was fascinated
by its appearance, its sound, its wide-ranging repertoire (as many
as 2500 titles for each type) and by the fact that it is so unique.
There is only one Piano Melodico; it is not a Barrel Piano, a
Monkey Organ, a Cylinder Musical Box or a Disc Musical Box. It is
the Piano Melodico. I started to gather information about Giovanni
Racca, his history, his production, starting from the Bowers; I
visited many museums, wrote letters, made phone calls, disturbed
everyone I could think of, but ... almost to no avail. It was as if
a cloud of mystery had enwrapped Giovanni Racca and his history.
Then some strange events began to happen, some incredible and
mysterious coincidences which led me to believe that, since in all
these years devoted to this research I have recovered and discovered
so much about Racca, the person behind all this might be my friend
... Giovanni himself. Otherwise how could I have found hundreds of
Master Music Books (the originals from which copies for
customers were produced) as well as dozens of First Draft Music
Books, i.e. the first music drawn by hand with comments and
corrections. And also photos of Giovanni, his family and workshop,
the family tree with the descendants still alive and unaware of
their past. I also found Piano Melodico with very rare or even
unique shapes, original catalogues as well as Racca Barrel Pianos or
even Racca Harmoniums. How could I have found the writing paper with
the stamp of the workshop, the book about the first International
Exhibition in Bologna in 1888 where Giovanni presented his first two
“Pianini Melodici” and the official document dated 1927 testifying
to the closing of the Racca workshop, or ... the Music Book given as
a gift to Queen Margherita?
Of course my
research continues and every day I ask myself what new surprise
Giovanni might have in store for me this time. |
