Eighteen Probians and friends travelled to the Darnum Musical Village nestled in the beautiful foothills of the Strezlecki Ranges.
Darnum Musical Village is a typical 19th century Australian village built by Albert Fox in 1981. There is a large collection of over 300 renovated and preserved instruments and a restoration workshop and a French polishing shop on site. We had a welcome morning tea on arrival and then commenced the tour.
We saw many fine instruments which included a chorded Zither , chords are played with the left hand and the melody on the right hand. It included a small hammer with which you could play the right hand. There were many accordians, very popular in the 19th and 20th century, one dating back to 1805
A Hopfield Claviola (push up) built in 1895 in Germany designed to play piano notes from a paper roll with small hammers striking the notes. There were various record players, a small practice keyboard for musicians to practise on whilst travelling also a silent keyboard, gramaphones and many pianolas.
We were then taken out to the house and then the church located in the grounds of the village .Inside there were many reed organs of various designs. The church contained a beautiful church organ from the 1870s built by William Anderson in Flinders Lane.
The organ was purchased and installed at the Baptist Church in Geelong for 170 pounds. The organ was moved to the Methodist church in Brunswick in 1922 and then to the Methodist church in Naringaningalook in northen Victoria in 1960. In1991 the organ was moved to its present location where it was installed by Albert Fox.
Following the tour we enjoyed a basket of freshly made sandwiches, delicious apple pie and cream and a cup of tea/coffee whilst listening to Albert Fox play songs from popular musicals on his beautiful grand piano.
After lunch we enjoyed a concert highlighting the musical talents of Peter Drysdale and Sue Parish. Colin Parish was unable to be there but had pre recorded his guitar playing.
The musicians showed their versatility playing many different instruments during the concert. Everyone spent a very enjoyable day at the village.