Orchestrion

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mechanical device that produces music by utilizing a range of instruments to imitate an orchestral sound performance
2. An automated music player that generates melodies through various instrumentations, resembling an orchestra's harmonies
3. A type of automated musical apparatus that simulates the performance of an orchestra by using a combination of instruments to create harmonious sound

Etymology: The orchestrion was a mechanical instrument designed to imitate a whole orchestra, and its name was built the same way as the instruments it imitated. German "Orchester" (orchestra) was combined with the suffix "-ion", the same ending found in "Akkordion" (accordion), giving a name that announced it was a machine that could play like an entire ensemble. The instrument is credited to Georg Joseph Vogler (1749–1814), a German composer, organist, teacher and music theorist. Vogler developed the orchestrion as a grand keyboard-driven device that used pipes and other mechanisms to reproduce the sounds of many instruments at once, and he gave it the name that later became standard in English.