- Technology is constantly evolving, but as an exhibition at Tampa's, Henry B Plant Museum demonstrates, the effects of this progress can be unpredictable.

(soft music) - The Plant Museum is this incredible space.

We're housed in what was the Tampa Bay Hotel that operated from 1891 till 1932.

Henry Plant built up this transportation empire that spanned the entire eastern seaboard.

It was railroads and steamships and hotels.

The building that we're in today, the Tampa Bay Hotel, was the crown jewel of his empire.

All of the wealthy and famous people of the time period would've been coming here.

So without Henry Plant, Tampa doesn't exist the way we think of it today, - He very much saw that the hotel would serve the community, and so not only was there a hotel, but in the middle of the 1890s, he also established what he called a casino, which at the time was an entertainment venue, not a site for gambling, but it would have, you know, live performances, concerts, things like that.

(soft playful music) And then there was an orchestra that performed daily, both in the hotel and around the community.

- If you think about it, music really was a communal activity because there wasn't much recorded music to listen to.

So you were listening to people performing it live.

So some of the well-known performers of the casino would've been people like John Phillips Sousa, who brought his military band here, Booker T Washington spoke here in 1912, Dame Nellie Melba, who was a world famous Australian opera singer.

These are like the Beyonces of the 1890s.

We are so excited for our new exhibit.

It's titled "Imperfect Harmony: Man, Machine and Music at the Tampa Bay Hotel.

This exhibit really looks at the intersection of music, technology and how that creates community, or in some cases, disrupts community in Tampa.

It's a really fascinating exhibit because at this time period, we have these mechanical instruments that were brand new that would've been very much novelties to the people who were staying at the hotel and the people in Tampa.

And it led to all of these sorts of questions, things like, do we still need musicians, now that we have mechanical instruments that can take the place of them?

- The genesis of the exhibit was we had the opportunity to borrow an Orchestrion, which is an elaborate self playing musical instrument that replicates or was supposed to replicate an entire band of orchestra.

(soft playful music) Henry B.

Plant purchased an Orchestrion for his home at a cost of $5,000, which in today's dollars would be more than my home cost, right?

So this was the kind of thing that was really reserved for industrial elites, royalty.

Henry B.

Plant decided to actually put an Orchestrion in the hotel, which meant that if you were a resident of Tampa, unlike 99.9% of the population, you could actually see one in person.

But I think one of the things that is also really so significant is to recognize its limitations.

So if you were thinking about artificial intelligence now, you know, we all know those things that are tells that, oh, this photograph is fake because it's so hard to, you know, replicate hands.

An Orchestrion couldn't play that long, so it would actually be, because it plays basically for the length of the role.

So it's not as if it's suddenly going to be giving entire concerts.

But I think when we look at all of the really significant ways that the Tampa Bay Hotel Orchestra served the community, which, again, required mobility, they would give concerts in Plant Park, a 2000 pound machine is not going to do that.

(soft music) We have a variety of things that people can take a look at, and they really should, because it is almost impossible to see one of these instruments, much less the range that we have available.

- The mechanical violin, I believe it's called a violin virtuoso.

It's just amazing that they've taken an instrument and built a machine around it to play the instrument.

I would never think about that today.

(soft dramatic music) - These instruments, although technologically fascinating, did nothing to really take away from the experience of live music because they did not sound like an orchestra.

(soft dramatic music) - I love that we are able to tell the stories of individuals in this exhibit.

My favorite is a man named Giovanni Tallarico.

He was the orchestra leader at the Tampa Bay Hotel in 1909, and some of his family still lives in the area, but one of his grandchildren, you have probably heard of, a gentleman named Steven Tyler, the front man for Aerosmith.

- The music box was definitely something that was designed for the home, certainly the well do home, and then eventually it was replaced by the phonograph.

(soft music) That was revolutionary in a very different way, because by the time that you get to the 1920s, anybody can purchase a phonograph on credit.

And so it really changes or kind of democratizes music in a way that hadn't occurred before.

- So when I think about this exhibit, my big takeaway is that a lot of the questions that we are wrestling with today, are similar to things that our ancestors asked about.

We're thinking about how does AI fit into music?

Well, how did technology fit into music 130 years ago?

That was a very common question, and it led to this cultural moment of really thinking about and examining what is the role of a musician?

What is the role of art in our society?

And we're still asking those questions today.

(soft music) (soft music) - Imperfect Harmony: Man, Machine and Music at the Tampa Bay Hotel is on exhibit at the Henry B.

Plant Museum through December 23rd, 2024.

Get more information at plantmuseum.com.