Orders & Institutions Archive · The Canticle Prelude · Spoilers
The Buchmüller Line
Keepers of the Great Instrument.
The Buchmüllers are a hereditary line entrusted with mysteries most of the kingdom cannot explain: the operation, maintenance, and succession rites of the Great Instrument.
A Family of Operators
The Great Instrument is not a machine that any musician can simply approach and play. Its workings are understood most fully by the Buchmüller family, whose members maintain the device and translate complex musical manuscripts into the metal pattern required by its enormous cylinder.
The Passage Rite
The oldest living patriarch holds the traditional right to perform the Passage Rite. During Queen Ellis’s final hours, that role belongs to Barthelmaeus Buchmüller, who operates the Instrument as the old queen is returned to her world and her successor is brought into the kingdom.
Horst and the Instrument
Another elder, Horst Buchmüller, supervises the difficult work of setting a new composition into the Instrument. His scenes make clear that the family’s knowledge is technical as well as ceremonial: they understand how the physical machinery and musical magic fit together.
Name Note
The manuscript also contains the Earth family name Müller, belonging to Jorgen and Karsten. The encyclopedia does not assume that the Buchmüllers are related to the Müller brothers unless another canonical source explicitly makes that connection.
Michael D. Young 