In 2018 I started playing around with DIY music box mechanisms, but once COVID hit my explorations started to deepen. I find their quiet, clear simplicity delight-full. I love that they are analog, manual, mechanical, un-automated.
I also enjoy the challenge of seeing what's possible within their very limited parameters, and maximizing minimal materials. The 30-note one I often use has just two octaves with extensions on either end, and only one of those octaves has all the notes of the chromatic scale. It can't sustain, it can't do repeated notes, there are no dynamics or articulations, notes don't always sound, the low notes don't resonate, and so on. Not to mention the scroll-marking and -punching process, which is time-consuming and totally not user-friendly.
Nevertheless, I enjoy the tactility of each note as it's physically punched out of the paper, and I think there is a nostalgia
The project was the feature of a cover story in the Datebook section of the San Francisco Chronicle. Videos on YouTube and Vimeo, and on Instagram with the hashtag #tsrmusicbox .