Lesson plan
Componium
The componium is a mechanical musical instrument constructed in 1821 by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel (Lippstatt, Germany, 1777 Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1826) that composes novel music. It is an automatic organ consisting of two barrels that revolve simultaneously. The barrels take turns performing two measures of randomly chosen music while the other, silent, slides horizontally to select the next variation. A roulette-like flywheel chooses whether or not the next variation is selected. The instrument plays an 80 measure piece, with eight variations for every two measures. The componium's compositional power is thus limited to new combinations of the music provided in its barrels. This instrument is believed to have copied some features of Johann Nepomuk Mälzels panharmonicon, but added the aleatoric composition feature. The componium, in a rather bad shape now, is in the collection of the Brussels Museum of Instruments.
Article summary
The componium is a mechanical musical instrument constructed in 1821 by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel (Lippstatt, Germany, 1777 Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1826) that composes novel music. It is an automatic organ consisting of two barrels that revolve simultaneously. The barrels take turns performing two measures of randomly chosen music while the other, silent, slides horizontally to select the next variation. A roulette-like flywheel chooses whether or not the next variation is selected. The instrument plays an 80 measure piece, with eight variations for every two measures. The componium's compositional power is thus limited to new combinations of the music provided in its barrels. This instrument is believed to have copied some features of Johann Nepomuk Mälzels panharmonicon, but added the aleatoric composition feature. The componium, in a rather bad shape now, is in the collection of the Brussels Museum of Instruments.
Key claims
- publication date: 1972 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- The record states that the publication date is "1972". What evidence would count against this claim?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
- Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1325117090
Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.