Serinet

Serinet, made by Bennard from Mirecour, France, in 1757.

Serinet is a mechanical musical instrument , a sort of barrel organ , a small organ of high order, with a handle. It is used to teach birds to sing melodies, especially for chizhik and canaries . Appeared in the first half of the XVIII century in Eastern France , the name comes from the French serin - canary.

It has a wooden case, usually of walnut , usually with dimensions of 265 × 200 × 150 mm. To extract the sound, you must rotate the knob mounted on the front wall. The handle inflates the fur , which feeds air into the pipes like in an organ ; also the handle with the help of gears turns the wooden roller . Brass pins and brackets encoding the melody reproduced by the instrument are located on the roller. Above the roller plate is placed with wooden keys that are attached to the valves by means of vertical wooden rods. When the roller rotates, the pins and brackets raise the keys, they open the valves and supply air to the pipes located at the rear wall. To change the played melody, you need to remove the bar with the keys and move the roller right or left along its axis. After that, under the keys will be another set of pins and brackets.

Most of the serine has one row of ten metal pipes with a height of 2 'and plays eight different tunes. Each tune lasts about 20 seconds, usually has a fast tempo and contains significant ornamentation . The tunes are listed on a paper sticker on the inside of the cover; one of the most common was “la petite chasse”.

The device of all serinets was surprisingly similar; devices built over a hundred years apart by different craftsmen may have a strong resemblance. Many craftsmen worked in and around Mirekur in Lorraine , France.

The sound of the serinets is similar to the piccolo flute .