By Madison Lucchesi
A Boston-based orchestra makes music on an uncommon instrument: typewriters.
Formed by a group of Clark University students in 2004, the members of the Boston Typewriter Orchestra, dressed in white button downs and ties, have been banging on typewriters and call bells ever since.
The BTO rehearses once per week in a band member’s basement and performs all over the country a few times per year. For the band members, the orchestra is solely a hobby as the group makes no profit off of their performances.
While many of the group’s songs are entirely instrumental, others feature a band member singing or screaming as well, like in their song “At the Staff Meeting.”
“There’s all these different possibilities with sound,” said James Brockman, who joined the BTO after the pandemic. “When we write, we try to have certain people do clacky clacky things [nat] and some people do thumpy thump things.”
“I try to approach it as an instrument rather than necessarily a typewriter,” said founding member Derrik Albertelli.
Most of the group’s instruments are traditional typewriters, but a few have been retrofitted to function as traditional instruments.
“We have librarians in the band. We have engineers in the band. And everyone brings these esoteric talents to the group that we try to have fun with,” said Brockman.
One member added an optical sensor to a typewriter to create a theremin, a musical instrument that produces sounds without physical contact. Another created a version of the African instrument the kalimba, which they call a ‘keylimba,’ using type slicks, or the metal rods that connect the keys and the letters on a typewriter.
The orchestra also includes a multimedia component in their performances. Original videos, including one of Albertelli pulling a typewriter through the sand on Revere Beach, play in the background.
“A lot of people see Boston Typewriter Orchestra and those words mean different things to different people,” Brockman added.
For older audience members, an orchestra performance can bring back memories of using a typewriter. “Imagine looking at the thing you worked on for 40, 50 years” being used as an instrument, said Brockman.
For audience members of all ages, the orchestra is an example of giving new life to old things.
