A
calliope is a
musical instrumentA musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making the sounds of music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the beginnings of human culture...
that produces sound by sending a gas, originally
steamSteam is vaporized water. It is a transparent gas . At standard temperature and pressure, pure steam occupies about 1,600 times the volume of an equal mass of liquid water...
or more recently
compressed airCompressed air is air which is kept under a certain pressure, usually greater than that of the atmosphere. In Europe 10 % of all electricity used by industry is used to produce compressed air...
, through large
whistleA whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
s, originally locomotive whistles.
A calliope is typically very loud. Even some small calliopes are audible for miles around. There is no provision for varying the tone or loudness, the only expression possible is the timing and duration of the notes.
The name originates from the name of
CalliopeIn Greek mythology, Calliope was the muse of heroic poetry, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and is now best known as Homer's muse, the inspiration for the Iliad and the Odyssey.One account says Calliope was the lover of the war god Ares, and bore him several sons: Mygdon, Edonus,...
, , from the Greek for
beautiful voiced. In
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, Calliope was a daughter of
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
, chief of the
MuseThe Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature are the goddesses or spirits who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
s and mother of
OrpheusOrpheus is an important figure from Greek mythology, the inspiration for subsequent Orphic cults, much of the literature, poetry and drama of ancient Greece and Rome and, due to his association with singing and the lyre, much dramatic Western classical music.Orpheus was called by Pindar "the...
. The pronunciation of the instrument name varies, often with the stress on the first and last
syllableA syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s.
The steam calliope is also known as a
steam organThe pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and loudness throughout the keyboard compass...
or
steam piano. The air-driven calliope is sometimes called a
calliaphone, the name given it by its
inventorNorman Baker is known for several things. He was the inventor of the Tangley Calliaphone ; he operated KTNT , a high-wattage radio station that moved to Mexico when radio regulators shut him down; and for his relentless...
, however the
Calliaphone name is registered by a particular manufacturer.
In the age of steam, the steam calliope was particularly employed on riverboats and in circuses. In both cases, a steam supply was already available for other purposes. Riverboats supplied steam from their propulsion boilers. Circus calliopes were sometimes installed in steam-drive
carouselA carousel , or merry-go-round, is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders...
s, or supplied with steam from a
traction engineA Showman's road locomotive or showman's engine is a steam-powered road-going 'locomotive' designed to provide power and transport for a travelling fair or circus...
which might also supply electric power for lighting and tow the calliope in the circus parade, in which it traditionally came last. Other circus calliopes were self-contained, mounted on a carved, painted and gilded wagon pulled by horses, but the presence of other steam boilers in the circus meant that fuel and expertise to run the boiler were readily available.
Calliopes can be played by a player at a keyboard or mechanically. Mechanical operation may be by a drum similar to a music box drum, or by a
rollA piano roll is the music storage medium used to operate the player piano, pianola or a reproducing piano. The piano roll was the first medium which could be produced and copied industrially and made it possible to provide the customer with actual music fast and easily. A piano roll is a roll of...
similar to that of a
player pianoA player piano is a self-playing piano, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed music perforated paper, or in rare instances, metallic rolls...
. Some instruments have both a keyboard and a mechanism for automated operation, others only one or the other. Some calliopes can also be played via a MIDI interface.
The whistles of a calliope are tuned to a
chromatic scaleThe chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone or half step apart. "A chromatic scale is a nondiatonic scale consisting entirely of half-step intervals," having, "no tonic," due to the symmetry or equal spacing of its tones....
, although this process is difficult and must be repeated often to maintain quality sound. Since the pitch of each note is largely affected by the temperature of the steam, accurate tuning is nearly impossible; however, the off-pitch notes (particularly in the upper register) have become somewhat of a trademark of the steam calliope. A calliope may have anywhere from 25 to 67 whistles, but 32 is traditional for a steam calliope. The largest steam calliope yet built is on the
Mississippi QueenThe Mississippi Queen is the second largest paddle wheel driven river steamboat ever built. The ship was the largest such steamboat when it was built in 1976 by the Delta Queen Steamboat...
with 44 whistles.
History
Joshua C. StoddardJoshua C Stoddard was an American inventor. He was educated at the public schools, and became noted as an apiarist. He also turned his attention to inventing, and on October 9, 1855 patented the steam-calliope", which is used on Mississippi steamers...
of
Worcester, MassachusettsWorcester is a city in the state of Massachusetts in the United States of America. Having a population of 172,648 in the 2000 census, Worcester is ranked the second or third largest city in New England. It is the county seat of Worcester County....
patented the calliope on October 9, 1855, although it is based on previously known concepts, as in 1832, a musical instrument designer made a "steam trumpet" later to be known as a
train whistleA train whistle or air whistle, , is an audible signaling device on a steam locomotive used to warn that the train is approaching, and to communicate with rail workers....
. In 1851, William Hoyt of Dupont, Indiana claimed to have conceived of a device that accurately describes Stoddard's calliope, but it was never patented. Later, an employee of Stoddard's American Music, Arthur S. Denny, would attempt to market an "improved" calliope in Europe, but his attempts never caught on there.
While Stoddard had originally intended the calliope to replace bells at churches, it found its way onto riverboats during the paddlewheel era. While only a small number of working steamboats still exist, each one has a steam calliope. Many of the surviving calliopes were built by
Thomas J. Nichol,
Cincinnati, OhioCincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. The municipality is located north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border. The population within city limits was estimated to be 333,336 in 2008, making it the state's third largest city...
, who built calliopes from 1890 until 1932. These boats include the
Delta QueenThe Delta Queen is an American sternwheel steamboat that is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Historically, it has been used for cruising the major rivers that constitute the drainage of the Mississippi River, particularly in the American South...
and
President. Their calliopes are played regularly on river excursions. The Thomas J. Nichol calliopes featured rolled sheet copper (as used in roofing) for the resonant tube (the bell) of the whistle, lending a sweeter tone than cast bronze or brass which was the common material for steam whistles of the day. David Morecraft pioneered a resurgence in the building of authentic steam calliopes of the Thomas J. Nichol style beginning in 1985 in
Peru, IndianaPeru is a city in Miami County, Indiana, United States. The population was 12,994 at the 2000 census and is the biggest city in Miami County. The city is the county seat of Miami County....
and is still in business today, the last commercial authentic steam calliope builder in the world. These calliopes are featured in Peru's annual Circus City Parade.
Stoddard's original calliope was attached to a metal roller set with pins in the manner familiar to Stoddard from the contemporary clockwork music box. The pins on the roller opened valves which admitted steam into the whistles. Later, Stoddard replaced the cylinder with a keyboard, so that the calliope could be played like an organ.
Starting in the 1900s, calliopes began using
music rollA music roll is a storage medium used to operate a mechanical organ, electronic carillon or orchestrion. Originally made of paper, modern rolls are sometimes made of thin plastic or PET film.The music is stored by means of perforations...
s instead of a live musician. The music roll operated in a similar manner to a
piano rollA piano roll is the music storage medium used to operate the player piano, pianola or a reproducing piano. The piano roll was the first medium which could be produced and copied industrially and made it possible to provide the customer with actual music fast and easily. A piano roll is a roll of...
in a
player pianoA player piano is a self-playing piano, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed music perforated paper, or in rare instances, metallic rolls...
, mechanically operating the keys. Many of these mechanical calliopes retained keyboards, allowing a live musician to play them if needed. During this period, compressed air began to replace steam as the vehicle of producing sound.
Most calliopes disappeared in the mid-20th century, as steam power was replaced with other power sources. Without the demand for technicians that mines and railroads supplied, no support was available to keep boilers running. Only a few calliopes have survived, and these are rarely played.
Tom WaitsThomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
' 2002 release
Blood Money features a track written for trumpet and calliope.
Pronunciation
The pronunciation of the word 'calliope' has long been disputed. The Greek muse by the same name is , but the instrument was generally pronounced . A nineteenth century magazine, Reedy’s Mirror, attempted to settle the dispute by publishing this rhyme:
- Proud folk stare after me,
- Call me Calliope;
- Tooting joy, tooting hope,
- I am the calliope.
This, in turn, was taken from a poem by
Vachel LindsayNicholas Vachel Lindsay was an American poet. He is considered the father of modern singing poetry, as he referred to it, in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted. His numerous correspondences with the poet Yeats detail his intentions to revive the musical qualities in poetry as had been...
, called "The Kallyope Yell" [sic].
In this poem, Lindsay uses both pronunciations. An analysis of the poem may be found here .
Pyrophone
The calliope is similar to the
pyrophoneA pyrophone, also known as a "fire/explosion organ" or "fire/explosion calliope" is a musical instrument in which notes are sounded by explosions, or similar forms of rapid combustion, rapid heating, or the like.-Related musical instruments:...
; the difference between the two is that the calliope is an external combustion instrument and the pyrophone is an internal combustion instrument.
One episode of the first season of Mission Impossible 1966 named "OLD MAN OUT" (parts 1 and 2) makes use of a calliope as a musical instrument and also as a timing cue to the development of the story.
At 1998's
Burning ManBurning Man is an annual event held in the Black Rock Desert, in Northern Nevada. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...
, a pyrophone referred to as "Satan's Calliope" was powered by ignition of propane inside resonant cavities. Thus this device was incorrectly referred to as a "calliope", since a calliope is an external combustion instrument. See
Metro Santa Cruz article Image
Callioflute-hydraulophone
Another related instrument is the callioflute, a type of
hydraulophoneA hydraulophone is a tonal acoustic musical instrument that is played by direct physical contact with hydraulic fluid in which sound is generated or affected hydraulically. Typically the sound is produced by the same hydraulic fluid that is in direct contact with the player's fingers...
played by blocking one or more water jets with the fingers. Blocking a water jet forces water into a heater that converts it to steam. While not a hydraulophone in the strictest sense (sound is produced by steam rather than by water) it facilitates the same expressive capabilities (i.e. polyphonic
embouchureThe embouchure is the use of facial muscles and the shaping of the lips to the mouthpiece of a wind or brass instrument.The word is of French origin and is related to the root bouche , 'mouth'....
) that a hydraulophone facilitates. In this sense the callioflute provides some improvements over the calliope in the sense that the callioflute enables a musician to attain subtle changes in pitch, timbre, volume, and tone, by the way in which the water jets are obstructed with the fingers.
Reference: Proceedings of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) International Conference on Multimedia, pp181-190, Singapore, 2005
Calliaphone
The Calliaphone is an invention of
Norman BakerNorman Baker is known for several things. He was the inventor of the Tangley Calliaphone ; he operated KTNT , a high-wattage radio station that moved to Mexico when radio regulators shut him down; and for his relentless...
. He developed
an air-blown (versus steam) instrument that could be easily transported.
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