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This 16c organ had not been played since the 18c. It has been restored in recent decades. The organ is entirely played by flowing water. There is no one inside on a keyboard. One can only imagine the effect on a 16c visitor walking in the garden, when his host, His Eminence, gives a nod and this instrument starts playing. It’s not known what tunes were played then, but organ music, appropriate for the time, has been coded into the mechanism. The curator played it for Kathleen's group and she made this recording.
Play it by clicking on the picture.
The 16c Water Organ
at
Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este’s Villa d’Este