A Photo a Week Challenge: Good Times
I added some calliope music for the calliope enthusiasts (I am one!) and those who have never had the pleasure of hearing a real, old-fashioned steam calliope. Enjoy!
There is no music that makes me as nostalgic as a steam calliope. There are so few working calliopes remaining anywhere … if you get a chance to spend some time with one, don’t miss it! And if you play a keyboard, playing a calliope is just something else!
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Categories: #Photography, Photo A Week Challenge
MY BROTHER MATTHEW 
I’VE LOOKED AT CLOUDS FROM BOTH SIDES NOW 
PLAYTIME 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
LOVE IT! Now I want a ride, but that will have to be put on hold until summer at the beach! 🙂 ❤
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There are so few carousels with calliopes left. Mostly, now, they just play some kind of prerecorded music and that has to do for ambience 🙂
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Great pictures! And what fun music. I would love to try playing a calliope sometime. I don’t know if we have any here in Utah. I will have to research. Thanks! And thanks for joining the challenge!
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especially that first photo! Beautiful, Marilyn.
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Symphony Hall is always a pleasure to photograph. It’s a beautiful concert hall by the same architects as those who designed Carnegie Hall in New York.
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Oh, I have been to Carnegie! I didn’t realize they had the same architects.
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If you took pictures, you’d see the similarities. Especially the ceiling and proscenium. We have a lot of stuff in common with NY. Same people who created Central Park, also created Boston Common and Gardens. We are almost twin cities.
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Wow!!! Both of these photos make me want to visit both of these places!! Where are they?
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The first is Symphony Hall in Boston set up for the Boston Pops Christmas Show … and the second was a special carousel brought in for a winter festival at Heritage Park in Bourne, on Cape Cod.
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Amazing!!
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With all those pipes – there has to be an organ somewhere.
Leslie
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Well, close. A calliope. I once got to play a calliope. What a hoot! It’s a keyboard like a piano, but it sounds like a merry-go-round 🙂
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A calliope – I never heard of that. Is it like an organ?
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See if this helps. There are a couple of others. I KNOW I answered this at some length, but for some reason, it’s missing. WordPress being weird.
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Hi Marilyn, I tried both links but didn’t get anything so I went to Google (of course) and found a guy playing this mini organ. Neato!
Leslie
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I never understand why the links will work for one person and not another. Well, I also added them to the post. There are probably better versions somewhere, but it’s surprisingly hard to find them. A calliope isn’t electric. If it’s an original, it’s steam operated and the hissing is part of the experience 🙂
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When I was little, my father had an old pump organ in the basement. He never played that one because we didn’t have enough room for it to work. In Google they did mention that steam of gas of some sort was used to make it play. Don’t you just love all those instruments?
Leslie
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This one was specific to amusement parks, medicine shows, carnivals and circuses. They have a very distinctive sound that resembles an organ, but isn’t. It’s got a lot more hiss and there are instruments built in. Typically, at least a few banging drums and a trumpet or two. And often, moving figures … steam driven puppets that appear to be playing the instruments. Calliopes used to be really quite grand and sometimes, huge and ornate. Not just instruments. A whole steam driven circus band.
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The one on Youtube seemed quite the instrument.
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The one on YouTube is little. Sometimes, usually in museums, you can see some of the huge ones. They are really amazing.
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I’ve only been to Symphony Hall to see the BSO. It looks so different set up with tables!
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I was really surprised to see how it had changed. Apparently they have been doing this for many years. I just had never been to any of the Pops concerts at Symphony.I had been to Pops concerts outside, at the hat shell by the Charles, but there’s no seating at all, there. Just you, a blanket, and the ground.
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