>think of the viola organista as a synthesizer or a sampler Definitely. Or even as a kind of crude sequencer, as demonstrated (I believe unintentionally) by th

>think of the viola organista as a synthesizer or a sampler Definitely. Or even as a kind of crude sequencer, as demonstrated (I believe unintentionally) by this test clip of a similar instrument: [1] The instrument is called a geigenwerk, which I gather is approximately just a smaller viola organista. The builder's page [2] has excellent documentation of the inner mechanism, which sadly was absent from the video of the OP. [1]http://obuchi.music.coocan.jp/Geigenwerk/Geigenwerk3/Image/Modulation%20with%20rotation%20speed.mov http://obuchi.music.coocan.jp/Geigenwerk/Geigenwerk3/Image/M... [2]http://obuchi.music.coocan.jp/Geigenwerk/index-e.htm http://obuchi.music.coocan.jp/Geigenwerk/index-e.htm