What are Mechanical Musical Instruments?

Producers of sound with pre-programmed notes.

Mechanical Musical Instruments produce sound in which the sequence of notes is already programmed, drawn from a control section and finally passed to a sounding body — the instrument itself. Their makers never confused performed music with the music played by their instruments: they believed the task of mechanical music was not to imitate performers, but to create something more imaginative and rich, with the character of fun and of a smile.

To fully grasp the idea of a Mechanical Musical Instrument one must consider both the technical side and its historical and social meaning, since these aspects are not separate but constantly interwoven. Beyond the curiosity they arouse, these instruments help us discover, through a very particular world, the most distant roots of some aspects of the way we live.