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Flute clock built by Pehr Strand in 1795
In the collection we have 13 barrels with music for this clock from the late 18-th century. Here you can hear Abbé Vogler’s Serafimer-March MP3
Pehr Strand (1756-1826) was wood carver, organ builder and maker of musical clocks. It is not yet clear where Strand learn his skills in organ building and musical clocks, but it is, however, obvious that his style resembles his contemporary colleagues like Olof Schwan (1744-1812), Jonas Ekengren (1736-1793) and Pehr Niclas Forsberg (1733-1798). In 1791 Strand was granted a royal privilege for the manufacturing of musical clocks and organs. The musical clocks by Strand are all of very fine craftsmanship with modern technique where the wooden barrel was programmed in spiral to cover a music piece of 3 minutes. The repertoire on these clocks consists to the greater part of the music arranged for keyboard published by Olof Åhlström in “Musikaliskt Tidsfördrif” (a periodical with the most recent composed music arranged for keyboard). These mechanical organs were most often built into clocks drawn by famous interior designers like Louis Masreliez. Sometimes they could also be built into tables, cupboards or other furniture. There appears to be around 50 of these Strand instruments preserved today, which indicates a vast production. Some of Strand’s organs are also preserved like the one in Forsmarks Church, Uppland. The workshop was taken over by his son Pehr Zacharias Strand (1797-1844) in 1824, who after studies in Germany became one of the most important organ builders of his time in Sweden. Pehr Zacharias is also said to have been a good organist, and it could be probable that he helped his father with the programming of the barrels for the musical clocks.
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