Word: orchestrion
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When Tommy Beecham was born, in 1879, the elaborate Beecham home, in St. Helens near Liverpool, already contained an assortment of pianos and pipe organs. Beecham père soon added the latest gadget in mechanical music, a reed orchestrion, which made Wagner sound like a merry-go-round. Tommy listened to it by the hour, vowed he would devote his life to music. Beecham's Pills made possible a musical education at home and abroad. Tommy learned much as accompanist to the late great French baritone Victor Maurel. But the pills were not always an unmixed blessing. When...
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