History Meets Sound: An Afternoon at the Musical Box Museum
Walking along the colourful Telok Ayer street, it is easy to breeze by the old primary school that is now Singapore’s Musical Box Museum. There is complete silence upon entering the space — only footsteps creaking against the wooden floor. A large room is populated by curious machines — some small, some almost twice an adult’s size. Wood is the dominant material, and thick curtains block all sunlight as not to damage the precious works of art. In this museum, the only way to view the exhibition is while accompanied by one of their wonderfully skilled guides. She puts on her white gloves and asks me if I know anything about musical boxes. “Not much”, I reply, slightly embarrassed. Indeed in the age of Spotify and Apple Music, I have not had much interaction with musical boxes. She picks up a small musical box and playfully says: “I like to call this the first-generation Walkman.”
All of the musical boxes in the room are over a century old. Each of these intricate pieces of engineering took multiple people working together throughout several months to make. Most of the musical boxes on display were from Europe (Germany or Switzerland), and some from the United States. The guide gently opens the hood of a cylinder musical box — I hold my breath in anticipation. A few seconds later, a cheerful tune starts to emanate from the musical box, filling up the room with the gentle melody. A smile begins to curve on my face. Typically, I listen to music through speakers or earphones. This is very different — it is crisp, with a slight crackle, which gives the sound an authenticity, a rusticness, almost a texture.
As the guide played music through several music boxes, I was transported momentarily. I imagined people inserting a coin inside the larger than life musical box standing tall in front of me — the Atlantic Barral Piano Orchestrion (1902) — prompting festive music to play along the roadside. It reminded me that back then, there were no iPods, no Alexa’s, no nightclubs — and as they were pricey, not everyone could have a music box at home. In a sense, modern technology has democratized music, making it accessible to more people than ever before.
Nevertheless, we must keep the art of musical boxes alive and support this noble craft, and tip our hats to the engineers and creatives that collaborated to produce these detailed hand-made masterpieces. These wooden boxes hold much more than pieces of music — they hold a piece of history, and somehow, they landed all the way here in Singapore. To this day, 100 years later, they continue playing their tunes, flooding us with childhood memories, tenderly pinching our hearts.
