Luigi Bacigalupo to Louis Bacigalupi
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Carousel Organ , Issue No. 40—July, 2009 Luigi Bacigalupo to Louis Bacigalupi: Inventor of the Paper Roll Organ to Hand Organ Revivalist Part I: The Paris, London and Berlin Saga Fred Dahlinger, Jr. Copyright 2009 he career of Luigi Bacigalupo, organ builder, arranger and been told several times, in different places by a variety of people, inventor, spanned seven decades and two continents. He with the result that there are both agreements and conflicts Tstarted in his father’s mechanical musical instrument busi- between accounts. The paucity of readily available primary doc- ness in Berlin, Germany, but his work took him across the Atlantic umentation caused us to evaluate each and every previously given Ocean to New York City. “fact” with a judicious eye From there he jumped to for comparison and corrobo- America’s heartland, back to ration. The author very Brooklyn and then to the selectively melded parts of Golden State, where he took these versions, augmented the name Louis Bacigalupi. with newly discovered mate- His career is memorable for rials, to compile the most many reasons, almost all for- rational chronology and gotten and unknown today. interpretation from the mate- During his life, Luigi rials at hand. Bacigalupo: managed The Bacigalupo history Germany’s largest show currently in print draws organ shop; devised an largely from interviews con- improvement to the ducted with Giovanni arranger’s drum; invented a “Hannes” Bacigalupo pneumatic control system (1889-1978), the third-old- and made the first roll-oper- est son of patriarch Giovanni ated fair organ; arranged Battista Bacigalupo. As the music for his own and other last member of the family scales; introduced the active in the organ trade, he duplex roll system in band was but fifteen when organs; managed organ Cocchi, Bacigalupo & shops for two American Graffigna broke up at its carousel builders; trained zenith. While there is no two sons and others in the doubt that he gave honest trade; and became one of the answers to the best of his first makers to revive inter- knowledge, much of what est in small hand organs. It constitutes the most impor- was a long and eventful life tant Bacigalupo history tran- with many interesting turns. spired before he reached Figure 1. Luigi Bacigalupo was one of the most intriguing and important organ The great mystery is why he adulthood. What he spoke men in both Europe and America, yet he is unknown today. Author’s collection. is all but unknown today. was also filtered through the Figure 1. minds of those that entered his recollections on the record. Unfortunately, there are no repre- Introduction sentatives of the Frati, Cocchi and Graffigna families that have provided their perspectives on this same history. Whether their Telling the Bacigalupo Story accounting of important events would concur or differ from that To provide a foundation and context for Luigi Bacigalupo’s of the Bacigalupos is unknown. story, it is necessary to reach back into the time of his father’s This summary will surely not be the last. Hopefully, some- entry into the organ business. Establishing an accurate history of one closer to the surviving Bacigalupo documentation and other the family heritage in the organ trade is a challenging task. It has primary archival records in Berlin and elsewhere will take up the 8 Carousel Organ , Issue No. 40—July, 2009 challenge to write a more complete chronology and interpretation. providing new arrangements. To that end, the first foreign The importance of the Berlin organ story, a hybrid of influences foothold was made in a city considered second only to Paris- with its own unique aspects, deserves no less than a full and accu- London, England. Figure 2. From that site another step was rate telling. made to New York; other initiatives spread the influence to Berlin To minimize the number of footnotes while properly provid- and elsewhere. From the 1860s to the 20th century, Gavioli was ing an indication of the source material utilized, the papers refer- the driving engine that powered the world of mechanical organs. enced in the first footnote shall be noted in the text by means of The Italians in Paris took on numerous employees that were 1 an abbreviated reference in brackets, i. e., [Smith]. The author trained in various aspects of organ building. By the 1910s, a list- has been fortunate to have received the support and assistance of ing of the craftsmen who had a Gavioli or Gavioli-related heritage two members of the present day Bacigalupo family. Giovanni is a veritable “Who’s Who” of the organ trade. Battista Bacigalupo’s great-granddaughter, Rosemarie Brieger, ably supplied multiple communications concerning the vital sta- tistics and other aspects of the family, based upon her own exten- sive researches. These were supplemented by the family geneal- 2 ogy assembled by another descendant, Piotr Walczak. Our work has been further facilitated by friends and contacts on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. A number of these are credited in the text or notes, but special recognition is due the following contributors: Herb Brabandt; Susanne and Alex Fredebeul; Judith L. Griffin; Tom Griffith; Robbie Rhodes; and Heinz Rybczynski. The reader is advised that the conclusions and hypotheses presented herein are ours alone, as are any errors, omissions and oversights, for which we tender our humble apologies in advance. Figure 2. This 1875 depiction of the vicinity of Hatton Garden is replete with multiple cylinder organs, a street piano on wheels and a hackbrett, represent- The Beginning ing musicians heading out for the day’s work. Author’s collection. The Italians In Paris and England The career of Luigi Bacigalupo was the continuation of sev- Giuseppe Chiappa eral decades of human application to the development, construc- No direct role in the Bacigalupo story can be ascertained and tion and perfection of mechanical musical instruments. Though assigned to Giuseppe Chiappa (kee-op-pah) per se, but his activi- the cylinder organ was an ancient device several centuries old, the ty is part of the overall continuum of street organ proliferation that events that served as his foundation in the trade took place in Paris spread from Paris to London and then on to Berlin. The harbin- in the mid-19th century. The story board lines crossed the English ger of the expanding British street organ trade, Chiappa (b. 1829?) Channel, from France to Great Britain, and then back to Berlin, was an immigrant from Scopolo, as the census noted, or possibly Germany. The lineage flows through an arranger named Chiaro Chiavari, as Victor Chiappa stated to the author. Neither commu- Frati, a company named for him, and a successor organization nity was far from Genoa, at the northern reach of the involving Luigi’s father: Cocchi, Bacigalupo and Graffigna. Mediterranean Sea on the west side of the Italian peninsula. It should be no surprise that the Italian family that pervasive- Many residents from the region between Genoa and Modena ly dominated the street and show organ trade, Gavioli (guh-vee-o- migrated north to join the organ trade. -lee), also played an important role in the foundational aspects of Chiappa was trained at Gavioli in Paris, surely in 1860 and the Berlin organ builders. Their influence reflects the growth and 1861 and probably several years longer. His Saffron Hill, London proliferation of the business following the purchase by Ludovico shop was initiated in 1864 and he was first listed as an organ Gavioli (1807-1875) of the musical instrument shop operated in builder in the 1867 directory at 5 Little Saffron Hill. That address Paris by Antoine Corvi. The transfer of ownership, effective on housed the Gavioli branch from 1869 to 1874, a likely indication November 1, 1858, was followed by the expansion of the work- of Chiappa’s role as the Parisian firm’s local representative. The shop space in 1860. The course of human existence in Europe Gavioli shop was relocated to 1 Farringdon Road (at the corner of was changing, underwriting an expansion of the trade in mechan- Exmouth Street) by the time of the 1875 directory, remaining ical musical instruments that were essential to support the new rit- there through 1882. Chiappa relocated to New York in or by uals of life. Gavioli was at the right place at the right time to take 1875, when a son christened Harry was born there. He remained full advantage of the opportunities that resulted from the prolifer- in the United States maybe part of the next year, but by 1877 ation of popular mass entertainments. Chiappa & Co. was listed anew and separately in London, a few Gavioli & Cie., formed with the support of an investor, real- doors away at 5 Farringdon Road. In 1878 the occupancy of the ized the importance of establishing footholds in the long-term location was commenced at 6 Little Bath Street. There “leading capitals of Europe.” This network would not necessari- it has remained ever since, through a 1937 number and name ly be factory branches, but craftsmen who would rely upon change to 31 Eyre Street Hill. Gavioli for support and inspiration. The affiliates sold cylinder In 1871 two additional Italian-born organ builders boarded organs to street musicians after buying them wholesale from the with the Chiappa family, Giuseppe’s younger bachelor brother, Paris factory, in addition to sourcing parts from the home base and Giovanni (1840?- ), and Giulio Sidoli (1818?- ). Their residence 9 Carousel Organ , Issue No. 40—July, 2009 at 10 Little Saffron Hill was surrounded by dozens of “musi- born in Birmingham. At the time of the 1881 census they resided cians,” denoting the dense presence of organ grinders.