(b Lippstadt, 24 Aug 1777; d Amsterdam, 28 Sept 1826). German builder of mechanical organs, clock-maker and inventor. He was the son of a master watch- and clock-maker but was orphaned before he was three years old. He became a clock-maker, gaining the freedom of Lippstadt in 1816. In November 1814 he completed a musical time-indicator or metronome (see Metronome (i)) using a balanced, double-ended pendulum. The following year he showed this to J.N. Maelzel, who modified and patented it under his own name. Over the ensuing years the ownership of the concept was hotly disputed by the two men. Winkel’s original metronome survives in the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague. Having moved to Amsterdam in 1816, Winkel set about creating an Orchestrion organ to rival Maelzel’s Panharmonicon. Besides playing music in the ordinary manner, however, his would compose its own music. The outcome was the Componium which, it was claimed, could create an almost endless series of variations once presented with a theme. Winkel completed it on 14 December 1821 and exhibited it all over Europe for some years. In addition to its variations, it played music by Spohr, Mozart and Moscheles. Winkel also built a number of other mechanical organs of extremely high quality. At least four survive and each has a unique mechanism. One organ, for example, is weight-driven by a clockwork mechanism which has only one wheel; another has a system of ‘expression’ using direct wind pressure without reservoir (as used with the expression stop in a reed organ) in order to over- or under-blow the pipes. He also used a one-key stop changing system which latched and unlatched from a special pin in the surface of the organ barrel.
FétisB
A.W.J.G. Ord-Hume: Barrel Organ: the Story of the Mechanical Organ and its Repair (London, 1978)
P.J. van Tiggelen: Componium: the Mechanical Musical Improvisor (Leuven, 1987)
ARTHUR W.J.G. ORD-HUME