26-01-2023, 12:28 AM
Whenever a remarkable coincidence occurs, I always remind myself of all the possible coincidences that didn't. I have never written about the Davenport and its 3/6+M organ until a few hours ago, when I mentioned on a FB post that it was the venue for a demonstration of the 'New Compton-Makin Theatrone' in June 1975, at which Joyce Alldred played the theatre's own organ and Doreen Chadwick played the New Theatrone. The programme of that event specifically states that the (series 2) Melotone was already inoperative / decommissioned, and indeed I don't hear it on the video. It was rescued with the organ and is at the Heritage Centre, awaiting restoration. Doreen Chadwick started out on the Theatrone of the Rex Aberdare, picture below.
Seeing as we have become deeply involved in the electrostatic instruments of the Compton firm, I should provide a glossary of their slightly convoluted usage of trade names ending in '-one':
Electrone (1): The name of the electrostatic tone generation system that it seems Compton originally intended to apply to any instrument using the system.
Electrone (2): The name given to all self-contained electrostatic church and classical-style organs, and some post-war entertainment organs, from 1938 to 1971.
Theatrone: The first self-contained entertainment organs, intended for use instead of a cinema pipe organ, of which approximately 12 were made before WW2 and six after.
Melotone (1): Pre-WW2, the add-in electronic division for the cinema pipe organ, not a complete instrument in itself, of which 74 were made between 1935 and 1939.
Melotone (2): The stop-name of the 'virtual rank' of electronically-produced 'prime' tones at 8', 4', 2 2/3' and 2', on a cinema organ or Theatrone.
Melotone (3): Post-WW2, another name for the model 352 entertainment organ, and its vanishingly rare spinoffs the 'Super Melotone' and 'Melotone De Luxe.'
Electone (without an r): Not used by Compton; Yamaha's name for their popular range of electronic organs.
It is my understanding that the original intention was for the tone generator equipment, and the complete organ based on it, to be called the Electrone. Amongst the various stops of different tone colours that it produced, such as the Krummhorn and the Cor Anglais, the 'virtual rank' of stops of pure tones direct from the Electrone generators were named Melotone (with the tab short-form of MELO). Thus, the Theatrone organ could have Melotone stops, as could a cinema organ fitted with an Electrone unit. However, because the stop name 'Melotone' was the one used and referred to by cinema organists, the name 'Melotone' soon came to mean the machine itself, and that is how it is universally known today.
Aside from the rather complicated double-meanings that arose, I think the three names are excellent for their purposes. 'Electrone' combines the completely relevant and then modern-sounding 'electron' with the 'one' of 'tone'; 'Theatrone' changes only four letters and is clearly of the same family, yet makes an immediate connection with entertainment and the cinema; and 'Melotone' is similar enough in form to be immediately associated while also being a perfect homophone of 'mellow tone' which exactly describes the sound. I wish I knew who coined them.
Pic: Doreen Chadwick at the Rex Aberdare Theatrone (One of the few that survives today)
Seeing as we have become deeply involved in the electrostatic instruments of the Compton firm, I should provide a glossary of their slightly convoluted usage of trade names ending in '-one':
Electrone (1): The name of the electrostatic tone generation system that it seems Compton originally intended to apply to any instrument using the system.
Electrone (2): The name given to all self-contained electrostatic church and classical-style organs, and some post-war entertainment organs, from 1938 to 1971.
Theatrone: The first self-contained entertainment organs, intended for use instead of a cinema pipe organ, of which approximately 12 were made before WW2 and six after.
Melotone (1): Pre-WW2, the add-in electronic division for the cinema pipe organ, not a complete instrument in itself, of which 74 were made between 1935 and 1939.
Melotone (2): The stop-name of the 'virtual rank' of electronically-produced 'prime' tones at 8', 4', 2 2/3' and 2', on a cinema organ or Theatrone.
Melotone (3): Post-WW2, another name for the model 352 entertainment organ, and its vanishingly rare spinoffs the 'Super Melotone' and 'Melotone De Luxe.'
Electone (without an r): Not used by Compton; Yamaha's name for their popular range of electronic organs.
It is my understanding that the original intention was for the tone generator equipment, and the complete organ based on it, to be called the Electrone. Amongst the various stops of different tone colours that it produced, such as the Krummhorn and the Cor Anglais, the 'virtual rank' of stops of pure tones direct from the Electrone generators were named Melotone (with the tab short-form of MELO). Thus, the Theatrone organ could have Melotone stops, as could a cinema organ fitted with an Electrone unit. However, because the stop name 'Melotone' was the one used and referred to by cinema organists, the name 'Melotone' soon came to mean the machine itself, and that is how it is universally known today.
Aside from the rather complicated double-meanings that arose, I think the three names are excellent for their purposes. 'Electrone' combines the completely relevant and then modern-sounding 'electron' with the 'one' of 'tone'; 'Theatrone' changes only four letters and is clearly of the same family, yet makes an immediate connection with entertainment and the cinema; and 'Melotone' is similar enough in form to be immediately associated while also being a perfect homophone of 'mellow tone' which exactly describes the sound. I wish I knew who coined them.
Pic: Doreen Chadwick at the Rex Aberdare Theatrone (One of the few that survives today)
