Events

Date: September 10, 2007

Christiana Drapkin Sings German Moritaten

With Cynthia and Gary Craig, Organ Grinders from St. Louis,

September 28, 29 & 30

At the Old Town St. Charles Oktoberfest Street Organ Festival.

Contact: Gary & Cynthia Craig, St. Louis, MO: 314 771-1244

Christiana Drapkin, NY: 917 693-4428

Retired teachers-turned-organ grinders Cynthia and Gary Craig will play on their handmade organs built by Axel Stüber in Berlin, Germany. New York City jazz vocalist, Christiana Drapkin, who usually performs jazz standards, will present a very different side of her craft. She will sing -- in her native German -- Moritaten, bawdy 19^th century ballads of madness, murder and mayhem. Americans may be familiar with “Mack the Knife” which was written in the Moritaten style by Bert Brecht and Kurt Weill for their “Threepenny Opera”. However, German-speaking listeners will be in for a treat with songs like “Mariechen sass weinend im Garten”, “Sabinchen war ein Frauenzimmer”, and others. Singing along is very much encouraged. The performers will give out sheets with song texts and translations, and illustrate their dramatic stories of jilted love and its sometimes tragic consequences with poster boards, designed by Christiana Drapkin’s mother, Evelis Reichardt, who lives in Germany, and who has been singing these songs since her Berlin childhood.

You can catch Christiana, Cynthia and Gary (no monkey, sorry) two days in a row at the Old Town St. Charles Oktoberfest Street Organ Festival, which is sponsored by the Heart of America Chapter AMICA. Setpember 28 through 30, 2007. For more information, please check the website at www.saintcharlesoktoberfest.com

Cynthia and Gary Craig hail from St. Louis and have performed at festivals throughout the country as well as at the Texas, Kansas and Illinois State fairs. They play a variety of music from classical, folk, show tunes, ragtime, to big band tunes on the streets of small towns and big cities. The Craigs have also entertained at private parties; with Jessica Hentoff's EveryDay Circus, headquartered in St. Louis; the Missouri Botanical Gardens and other gardens in the USA.

The Stüber Organs

These organs were handcrafted in the 1990’s by Master Organ Builder Axel Stüber in Berlin, Germany, in his two-man workshop. They are built in the same tradition of the Bacigalupo hand cranked street organs made in Berlin from 1870 to the 1970’s with some updates. Rather than using pinned barrels, these organs play with a paper roll over a metal or wooden tracker bar. Europeans commonly call this type of organs “Berlin” organs because of the characteristic row of exposed metal pipes in the front of the organ and their distinctive sound.

The larger street organ’s scale of 31 notes is played on 69 pipes ranks of flute pipes violin, accompaniment, and brass piccolo pipes. The smaller organ plays 20 notes with one rand of 20 piccolo and flute pipes. These organs use pressurized air blowing from the pipes rather than a vacuum chamber which sucks air into the pipes. A punched roll makes the music. As the roll passes over either 20 or 31 holed tracker bar, air escapes from valve chest. It operates bellows which push air into the pressure chamber connected to the pipes, advances the roll, and controls the tempo or speed in which the music is played. The organs are mounted on either, a wooden wheeled cart, 1899 wicker baby carriage, or portable folding organ stand.

In America, organ grinders, many of Italian descent, started as street performers who cranked hand organs or "hurdy gurdies", sometimes with monkeys who did tricks and collected coins from passers-by. This organ grinding tradition dwindled in the 20th Century as radio, phonograph and electronic music erased the novelty of street music, and as more restrictive laws curtailed public entertainment. The sounds of organ grinding was lost to several generation of Americans. In much of Europe the tradition, however, has made somewhat of a comeback and is celebrated on European streets, and in cabarets and cafes as part of a distinct city ambience.