Side One

0 Holy Night

Christians Awake

Cloister Bells

Come Hither Ye Children

Under The Mistletoe Bow

(Mother Goose Song)

On The Christmas Tree

The Lights Are Burning

Side Two

Holy City

Song Of The Virgin Mary

Still Night Holy Night

Monastery Bells

Good King Wenceslas

Skaters Waltz

More and more today we are hearing an old musical voice

anew. The clear-throated music boxes are singing again, with

voices spanning time and technology, and touching us with their

nostalgic mechanical siren song. When many of us think of music

boxes we think of small jewelry cases or mementos that tinkle a

simple tune when opened. Few people are familiar with the entire

family of mechanical music makers—movements that fit inside a

ring, or those that would automatically select and play metal discs

up to three feet in diameter.

Music boxes came in all shapes and sizes, played all manner of

music using all sorts of movements and were, for about a

century, a ubiquitous musical presence. Today these mechanical

wonders have been relegated to museums and collectors’ troves,

leaving the tinkling jewelry cases as today’s deficient definition of

“Music Box.”

Music boxes originated in Switzerland, where the state of the

art was elevated to a point near perfection. Nearly all of these

boxes used revolving cylinders with pins striking a tuned comb of

metal teeth, but in America the disc machines were preferred.

Disc mechanisms used a revolving disc, perforated to make a

series of pins that also strike a tuned comb of teeth. The discs

were easier to change and store than cylinders, and less costly to

make, so more selections were made available more affordably.

But despite the superb sound of music boxes, the improvements

in their mechanisms, and the happy economics of mass

production and mass consumption, the industry waned in the

early 1900’s.

The era of the music box ended with the appearance of the

“talking machine," or phonograph. Thomas Edison's 1878

invention sounded atrocious. Even after years of development the

phonograph could not approach the crystalline voice of music

boxes. But the phonograph was novel, and sprouted at a time

when the country embraced novelty for its own sake. The idea of

authentically reproducing music and other sounds, not just

mechanically producing music, is what really fed the phonograph

market, not any qualitative preference.

Ironically, the industry which supplanted music boxes is now

the vehicle for their resurgence. Recording techniques have been

refined to where the pristine sound of the music box can be fully

enjoyed by anyone with a phonograph.

This recording presents a dozen popular Christmas songs

rendered by an exquisite Regina Style 50 Music Box. The Regina,

a disc-playing machine manufactured in New Jersey, was

originally made in Germany and called the Polyphon. Regina was

the largest American manufacturer of music boxes, but even they

could not long withstand the phonograph threat. For a while they

tried bridging both markets with the Reginaphone—a combination

music box and phonograph—but this soon failed. The

Reginaphone and other music boxes were discontinued, Regina

began making vacuum cleaners, and an era ended. Until recently,

that is, for recordings such as this are now sounding the revival

of a past art’s interest, in the echoes of that marvelous

mechanical music.

—Howard Brinkman

Photography: Christine Benkert

Cover Design: Greg Schultz

Art Direction: Meredythe Jones Rossi

© 1980, Pickwick International, Inc.

A product of Pickwick International, Inc.

Pickwick Records Division

7500 Excelsior Boulevard, Minneapolis, MN 55426

Distribue au Canada par/Distributed In Canada by

Pickwick Records of Canada, Ltd.

106-108 McMaster Ave., Ajax, Ontario, Canada L1S-2E7

Released by arrangement with Odyssey Productions, Inc.

Warning: Unauthorized reproduction of this recording

is prohibited by applicable laws and subject to criminal prosecution.

Printed in U.S.A.