Book music

Book music (French: Livre de musique) is a medium for storing the music played on mechanical organs, mainly of European manufacture. Book music is made from thick cardboard, containing perforated holes specifying the musical notes to be played, with the book folded zig-zag style. Unlike the heavy pinned barrels, which could only contain a few tunes of fixed length, that had been used on earlier instruments, book music enabled large repertoires to be built up. The length of each tune was no longer determined by the physical dimensions of the instrument.

In 1892, organ maker Anselmo Gavioli patented the "book organ," with a series of folded sheets of cardboard. Holes punched on the pages of the folded book allowed keys to rise in the key frame playing the required note. The keys would cause considerable wear to the music books over time. A solution to this was the keyless frame where the holes allowed air to pass through. The development marked a turning point in the history of the mechanical organ, and it made Gavioli, until his demise in 1910, the most famous and prolific of fair-organ builders.

Book music was the most commonly used medium for large instruments. Used extensively by fairground and street organ makers, book music was also used by Henri Fourneaux in 1863 in his Pianista.