English label Saydisc is one of a only a few recording concerns worldwide that specializes, in addition to other things, in a line of issues devoted entirely to recordings of antique mechanical musical instruments. Initially released as an LP in 1972, Parry's Barrel Organ consists of the lengthiest program on record devoted to a single, pre-1850 mechanical instrument, a John Longman New Invented Patent Barrel Organ built around 1810. It belonged to pioneer arctic explorer William Edward Parry, who used it as workout music and a means to entertain friendly natives in three long and arduous tours of the Northwest Passage in 1816-1821. Parry's Barrel Organ includes 33 selections, mostly very short, subdivided into nine programs. Few are familiar to modern ears, consisting mostly of forgotten fiddle tunes of long ago and a handful of hymns; some remain unidentified. The instrument employs a striking variety of sounds; at times, the lead organ voice appears muted as though damped, there is a little drum employed intermittently and a bell that rings here and there.
Saydisc's Parry's Barrel Organ is as close as one is going to get in hearing a "recording" of music made in 1800. For the musicologist, it provides an invaluable time capsule in terms of preferences toward execution of ornaments in this period, one that is not well documented for some reason. Also, it states volumes about the sound of old fiddle music and where accents fall in certain types of dances; listening to it is a most eerie form of time travel. The recording quality of the disc, though made in 1972, remains loud, clear, and of excellent fidelity. While some may balk at what seems, by CD standards, short measure for the disc at its running time of 38 minutes, all such complaints in the world will not put another pin on yet one more barrel for this more than two-centuries-old instrument to play. One of the reasons the program is so generous is that Parry's Barrel Organ survives with five barrels; most playable instruments, though typically sold with at least three or four barrels, generally only make it down to us with one. Saydisc's Parry's Barrel Organ is endlessly fascinating and will certainly please anyone who loves old musical instruments, or truly wants to port back in musical time by centuries rather than just decades.