Music box mechanisms, otherwise known as movements, produce the beautiful sounds that make music boxes a beloved gift and a household treasure. A metal cylinder or barrel with precisely placed pins rotates away from and then under a steel comb, plucking correctly tuned and placed prongs or tines creating a melody. The comb and barrel are in effect, created for each other and are tune specific. The shorter tines produce high tones while the longer ones produce the low tones. The number of tines on a comb indicates the musical ability of the mechanism. 18 note, 30, 36, 50, 72, 100 or 144 note combs play longer with more embellishment and more melodies. Some of the larger, more complex music boxes play 2 or 3 songs or have 4 or more interchangeable cylinders playing 4 or 5 tunes.
Some contain drum-like sounds and/or bells.

TheMusicHouse.com has one of the largest collections of cylinder mechanisms for your musical enjoyment. These are available to install in any client’s project or one of our new or used music boxes or fine cabinets. We take immense pride in the quality and sheer workmanship of our Italian made music boxes and in the condition of our used products. We carry only quality music box mechanisms, new and lovingly previously owned and their parts to purchase.

Vanessa, Cassidy and Sabrina Hedwig’s Hair Salon is a local hair salon in Riverwest that provides a place for people to come in order to look and feel better through high quality styling and personal customer care. With “Wig In A Box” breaking down the fourth wall—literally—Hedwig the character and Hedwig the film are free to play by their own rules. Both character and film have a past, both have changed form and mutated along the way, and both are too unique to slot easily into any sort of box, whether of gender or medium.

Our Music Box Tunes, Movements and Mechanisms

Music box mechanisms have a long and thrilling history. Snuff boxes were fitted with tiny mechanisms to transform them into music boxes as early as the 18th century. Musical boxes differed dramatically since some music boxes were the size of a loaf of bread while others were the size of a dresser. People of Pre-Radio days enjoyed them as their parlor music. Music boxes today are usually smaller and meant for more personal enjoyment.

TheMusicHouse.com has a large selection of music box tunes, movements and mechanisms for any music box.
We have some very fine older Cuendet, Thorens, Lador and Reuge or Romance mechanisms
plus the newer Sankyo Orpheus Collection.

Quality and Custom Music Box Mechanisms for All Music Boxes

We carry custom music box mechanisms that can be personalized with an original melody or a licensed tune to play on a disc player. Kids will enjoy a musical box with a custom tune from their favorite Disney movies such as 'Aladdin' 'Dumbo' or 'Beauty and the Beast.' We can customize a musical box with a tune that appeals to any musical taste, whether someone is purchasing a custom music box mechanism as a gift, for a home or
as a reminder of a great love of music.

Choosing a favorite tune is easy with our wide selection. We have beautiful and popular classical tunes such as 'Canon in D,' 'Mozart's Lullaby' and 'Swan Lake,' plus modern tunes from movies, popular culture and more. Recently or about to be married couples will enjoy a music box that plays their wedding tune or Lohengrin's 'Wedding March.' And to celebrate Christmas, our Christmas tunes such as 'Frosty the Snowman' 'Silent Night' or 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' and the other Christmas Favorites, make great holiday gifts.

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Types of Tunes, Movements, Mechanisms and Discs

Our inventory includes Thorens, Reuge, Jobim, Sankyo and other movements, including self-installation kits and stop-start assemblies for any musical box mechanism. Our quality, movements, mechanisms and discs will add something new to an old box and create a cherished musical possession for a lifetime.

Music Box Mechanism Supplier

Trust TheMusicHouse.com to provide cylinder or disc music box kits, music box mechanism parts and more, that will enhance your own creation of a new box or modify and existing box. Buy music box movements online today.

The creators of the show Hedwig and the Angry Inch have weighed in to a casting row that led to the producers of an upcoming Australian production pulling the show from January’s Sydney festival.

In a statement on Wednesday, John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Task said they did not believe the title role was a trans character, and the role should be “open to anyone who can tackle it and, more importantly, anyone who needs it.”

The January festival announced the postponement of rock musical and seminal queer show on Tuesday, following a flood of complaints over the casting of a cis male as Hedwig.

The Packed to the Rafters actor Hugh Sheridan was announced to be playing the complex genderqueer character in early November.

Sheridan, who revealed in October that he has been with men and women but eschews labels when it comes to sexual orientation, was to become the latest in a long line of queer cis men to play the role, including its creator Mitchell.

The actor who launched a petition that led to Sydney festival’s cancellation of Hedwig and the Angry Inch spoke out on Wednesday about why they believe “it’s time to make change happen” when it comes to casting transgender roles.

Since launching a social media campaign on Monday, Daya Czepanski has collected more than 1,700 signatories expressing the transgender community’s “profound sadness and disappointment” over the casting of “a cisgender male as a transgender character”.

“[This] is offensive and damaging to the trans community, and continues to cause genuine distress and frustration amongst trans and gender non conforming performers all across Australia,” the open letter posted on Instagram said. It called on the show’s producer and the Sydney festival to “rectify this casting choice” by casting a transgender actor in the title role, employing “trans advocates on the [Sydney festival] creative team”, and including “trans advisors and talent” in the Hedwig production.

Czepanski, a 2018 NIDA graduate who identifies as trans non-binary and recently established the Queer Artist Alliance, told Guardian Australia on Wednesday that the intention behind the campaign was not to scuttle the show.

“It’s not about cancel culture,” Czepanski said, from their Covid-19 quarantine hotel in Christchurch, New Zealand. “It’s just about bringing an awareness that systemic change needs to happen from the ground up, and if we can fix the root cause of the problem we can work towards a healthy environment for non-cis trans artists.

Related: 'A lot of crossed fingers': how Australia's arts festivals are planning for a socially distanced summer

“People in positions of power in Australia need to take a leap of faith and allow trans, non binary and gender queer to tell their stories on the Australian stage.

“I don’t have all the clear answers; it’s a developing conversation, but it’s a conversation that needs to happen,” they continued. “It’s time to make change happen, and we can’t use the past as an excuse to not make that change.”

On Tuesday, the Sydney festival director, Wesley Enoch, was notified by the show’s producer David M Hawkins of his decision to postpone the production.

Hawkins then released a statement saying “in light of recent community conversations and concerns, we have made the difficult decision to postpone” the Sydney festival season of the show.

He went on to say the production had “auditioned a wide, diverse range of performers”, and no one from any background had been excluded from the auditioning process.

“We wish to assure the trans and LGBTQIA+ community that the issues raised are respected and taken very seriously,” the statement said, adding that the producers needed more time to “properly consider these concerns and respond accordingly”.

The Sydney festival confirmed the show’s postponement on Twitter, saying it supported the producer’s decision.

“Sydney festival is an important platform, and we have a responsibility to use this platform in a way that is beneficial to all members of the community,” the post said.

“We also recognise our responsibility to actively address concerns that are not in alignment with out values.” Both Hawkins and the festival declined to elaborate further on Wednesday. Sheridan has been approached for comment via his agent.

‘We are in a different time now’

The show’s creators have always maintained that because Hedwig does not freely choose a trans life – she is coerced into a sex change operation as part of a plan to escape East Berlin – the role does not have to be played by a trans actor.

“Though we’ve always been so pleased to hear trans folks find resonance in the character’s journey to find his/herself, it’s really through drag and performance that Hedwig does so, creating a persona that is ‘more than a woman or a man’ and making ‘something beautiful and new’ out of trauma,” they said in the statement on Wednesday.

“Drag is a mask available to all and that’s why anyone should be able to play Hedwig.”

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Related: I finally landed the role I’ve dreamed of: a trans woman at peace with – and loved by – the world Suzy Wrong

“Hedwig was forced into kind of an accidental trans state by political and by patriarchal pressures,” Mitchell told Buzzfeed in 2018. “I’ve seen trans people [play] it, I’ve seen female people do it … the feelings and the ideas are more important than the attributes of the person playing it physically or age-wise.”

On Tuesday the Hungry Ghosts actor Suzy Wrong – a signatory to the petition – told Melbourne’s LGBTQI+ community radio station JOY 94.9 that while the postponement of the production may have represented an “overcorrection”, the petition was an overdue challenge to the accepted norm – of more than two decades – that a cis gay man was the most logical choice when casting the character.

“We are in a different time now, and we are trying to find a way to have these discussions,” she said.

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“At the moment, everything is a lightning rod ... every time there’s a mis-step it becomes a lightning rod and trans people, trans performers, trans artists like myself, we will take the opportunity to attack it and say ‘let’s have this conversation now’ and ‘I’ll tell you why it is wrong’.”