German family of organ builders which specialized in mechanical instruments. Ignaz Blasius Bruder (1780–1845) was the founder of the organ-building industry in Waldkirch. He had five sons, those of greatest significance being Wilhelm (1819–82) and Ignaz (1825–91). Each of these in turn produced three sons who ultimately formed three partnerships – Wilhelm Bruder Söhne, Gebrüder Bruder and Ignaz Bruder Söhne. The precise output of each partnership is hard to identify but they all produced work of outstanding quality starting with organ-playing clocks, progressing through portable street organs and ending with showground and dance organs. The Bruders kept to the forefront of technical and musical development and were among the first to apply music programmes in the form of perforated paper rolls to the fairground organ, using a keyless pneumatic system. They also fitted Swell shutters to these instruments. Bruder enjoyed a worldwide reputation and until the outbreak of World War I they supplied organs to the Wurlitzer company in America.
E.V. Cockayne: The Fairground Organ: its Music, Mechanism and History (Newton Abbot, 1970)
A.W.J.G. Ord-Hume: Barrel Organ: the Story of the Mechanical Organ and its Repair (London, 1978)
H. Rambach and O. Wernet: Waldkircher Orgelbauer (Waldkirch, 1984)
ARTHUR W.J.G. ORD-HUME