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Its creator
Johann Georg Strasser, the famous mechanic and clockmaker, made his name
with the construction of musical machines. He was born in Baden, a small
town near Vienna, well known as a centre of clock and musical automata.
Strasser moved to St Petersburg in the late 1770s and worked in the Russian
capital until his death in 1815. Johann Georg Strasser also constructed
large timepieces incorporating mechanical organs that were mainly commissioned
from him for the imperial court. Strasser's clocks are works that combine
the skills of musicians, mechanics, cabinet-makers and bronze founders.
Some of the finest craftsmen in the capital were involved in their manufacture
- the furniture-maker Heinrich Gambs, the bronze founder Friedrich Bergenfeldt
and the organ-builder Johann Gabran. Strasser was also the inspector of
the clock and chimes in the bell-tower of the SS Peters and Paul Cathedral,
playing each day "different musical pieces on the clavichords adjoining
the clock mechanism". During his time in Russia, Strasser produced
several free-standing clocks with musical mechanisms. The musical performances
given by his timepieces - chiefly of works by two composers: Mozart and
Haydn - were faultless.
Working to a commission from Catherine II a team of craftsmen working
under Strasser's direction produced by the year 1792 a secretaire-clock
that incorporated a mechanical organ playing twelve pieces. The mahogany
body of the organ, believed to have been made in the furniture factory
of Johann Ott and Heinrich Gambs, has an unusual type of decoration in
the form of horizontal strips of white smalto glass, while it is crowned
by the figure of a soaring eagle. Another clock with a less elaborate
mechanism, but also contained in a fine case decorated with 'eglomise'
glass insets, was produced for Paul I by 1798 and installed in the Mikhailovsky
Castle (Pavlovsk Museum Preserve).
Strasser himself considered his finest achievement to have been the "Great
Clock" or "Mechanical Orchestra" that he spent eight years
building and finally completed early in 1801. "At the beginning of
the new century I at last completed, after various mechanical experiments,
a work that had occupied my imagination for many years. Its exterior takes
the form of an ancient temple, the body of which is made of the finest
mahogany inlaid with bronze in many places, even inside, and decorated
in accordance with the rules of architecture with medallions, dentils,
triglyphs, capitals, fluting, guttae, belts with flowers, pedestals, smooth
and carved cornices, all of which are sumptously fire-gilded." That
is how Strasser presented his Mechanical Orchestra to the public. This
huge structure, almost four metres high, including one of the most accurate
astronomical clocks of the day, served as the magnificent case for the
precious musical instrument contained within. The Mechanical Orchestra
reproduced parts of works by Mozart and Haydn. Johann Georg Strasser founded
a dynasty of clockmakers and masters of mechanical music: he was followed
in the business by his son Foma (Thomas) and then his grandsons Ivan (Johann)
and Alexander.
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The building in St Petersburg that housed Strasser's workshop
Larger view
Portrait of Empress Catherine II
Johann-Baptist Lampi the Elder
Larger view
Secretaire-clock
Johann Georg Strasser
Larger view
The musical mechanism and organ
(model)
Larger view
The upper grille open
(model)
Larger view
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