The inspiration of this piece comes from the industrial tradition of the the automatons and music box production in the region of the Swiss town Sainte-Croix. In XIXth and XXth century almost all of the population of this entire region was implemented into the production of pieces for and the construction of automatons and music boxes. With generations of music box makers and traders the traditions were installed and found their triumph in the end of the XIX century. After the Second World War the production of small music boxes was saturated with large numbers of demands. Those were made mostly for American solders as it was a small and modern souvenir to transport back at the home continent.

With the modernisation, the strong concurence from Japan and others as well as the low and irregular salary for the workers slowly and continuously suppressed the manufacturers and the factories began to diminish. The old mechanical machines of all types, which were used to produce particules for the music boxes were sold or scraped.

At the end of the XXth century a Swiss Docteur named Jürg Wyss was passionate to collect and preserve those machines including thousands of music scores written on feather with the melodies from the cylinders of the music boxes that were build there. Some machines are now restored and the centuries old way of the production of the music box particles are currently alive in one atelier in Sainte-Croix. It is now part of the local art and science museum and is open for visits.

After I visited the atelier of Dr. Wyss I wrote this Fantasy No.1. I believe it preserves the main impression from this place and keeps many hints from there as the tempi from the working ancient machines, the general construction of the composition, the rotating fragments in crossed directions etc..

Today the tradition and it’s magic of the automatons and music box production is preserved with some of the world finest independent makers who are still living in Sainte-Croix as well as few local prestigious enterprises.

Dimitar Ivanov, Montreux / Sainte-Croix, Switzerland 2023


Purchase the scores here
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