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Subject: Dead Media Working Note 06.4
Dead medium: the Player Piano; the Pianola; Reproducing Pianos; Reproducing Rolls
From: barbix_AT_tiac.net (Eleanor J. Barnes)
Dear Bruce,
I just looked through the listings so far for Dead Media
Working Notes and noticed there seemed to be nothing about
Player Pianos.
I was listening last night to a CD of George Gershwin
playing his compositions == derived not from tinny,
crackly, bass-deficient 78s, but from piano rolls he made
himself.* The album is called "Gershwin: The Piano
Rolls" and the liner notes are copious on the technology
and history of piano rolls as a means of transmitting
music otherwise available only as sheet music.
It struck me that though today we usually think of the
player piano (when we think of it at all) as a novelty
instrument, it is really not an instrument for playing by
a musician, but a playback device for *recorded music* ==
just as was the hand-cranked Victrola == hence it, and
piano rolls, are a (now-dead) medium.
Here is my writeup of Player Pianos as derived from the
liner notes of the CD I mentioned.
Best,
E.J.Barnes
barbix_AT_tiac.net
=======================================================
The Player Piano
Notes excerpted from the liner notes for the 1993 CD,
"Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls."
The outside blurb:
"George Gershwin's virtuosic piano technique and ebullient
style bring the Jazz Age to life in this digital recording
of 12 of the composer's piano rolls. Rare tunes never
before recorded in any form (((sic))) are joined with
Gershwin's singular performance of 'Rhapsody in Blue,' all
transferred from the original 1920s rolls to a
contemporary concert grand piano. Using the Yamaha
Disklavier, a computer-driven descendant of the player
piano, Artis Wodehouse has captured note-for-note
Gershwin's own arrangements of his music, in a landmark
recording as entertaining as it is historic."
The liner notes:
"George Gershwin recalled that one of his first musical
memories went back to the age of six:
'I stood outside a penny arcade listening to an
automatic piano leaping through Rubinstein's Melody in F.
The peculiar jumps in the music held me rooted. To this
very day I can't hear the tune without picturing myself
outside the arcade on 125th Street, standing there
barefoot and in overalls, drinking it all in avidly.'
"The player piano was a central force in American
musical life between 1900 and 1930. Referred to variously
as automatic pianos, pianolas and reproducing pianos,
players of all types were found not only in penny arcades,
but in homes, concert halls, restaurants, saloons, stores;
virtually anywhere music was heard. Player pianos are
normal acoustic pianos except that an internal piano-
playing mechanism works as a computer using air pressure
instead of electrical energy. The paper piano rolls are
the 'software' used to activate the notes to play. A
punched hole in a paper piano roll causes a corresponding
note to play as it goes across a 'reader'; a five-note
chord has five perforations, and so on. Air pressure in
player pianos is established by foot-pumping the bellows
te exhaust the air. In later models, the bellows were
motor-driven.
"Gershwin's second contact with a player piano was
more sustained than the chance encounter in the penny
arcade. At around the age of 10, he began teaching
himself to play at the home of a friend who had a player
piano. Slowly foot-pumping through the roll, the boy
placed his fingers over the keys as they were depressed by
the roll-playing mechanism. This method of learning was
so successful that when a piano intended for brother Ira
Gershwin was hoisted into the family's flat, Ira recalled
that 'No sooner had the upright been lifted through the
window of the front room than George sat down and played a
popular tune of the day. I remember being particularly
impressed by his left hand.'...
"Gershwin's keyboard skills led him to make piano
rolls, beginning when he was a song-plugger and continuing
through his early career as an accompanist to vaudevilians
and as a rehearsal pianist on Broadway. Before the late
twenties, only a player piano could compete with a live
performance for sonic presence. The phonograph was still
in its infancy, and the old 78 discs produced a thin,
bass-weak sound. While Gershwin was growing up (he was
born in 1898) player pianos and piano rolls became a huge,
lucrative and lavish industry. Happily, Gershwin's roll
making years trace the rise of the player piano; of the
approximately 130 rolls he made, the first was issued in
1916 and the last in 1927.
"Unfortunately, improvements in the sound of the much
less expensive phonograph and radio undermined the
popularity and perceived affordability of player pianos.
During the late 20's the once thriving roll industry
declined, crashing decisively at the onset of the
Depression in 1929. As with many other smart and
successful musicians of the era, Gershwin went on to make
disc recordings and to host his own radio program.
"Making piano rolls that were spin-offs of his other
keyboard work was a relatively easy way for Gershwin to
make some quick extra money. Pop piano rolls had to be
made and released quickly because they capitalized on the
popularity of tunes that had recently been released as
sheet music. Intended either for singing or dancing,
stereotyped formats and stock devices permeated the
medium. Still, roll arrangers were always looking for new
musical tricks to amaze and excite the prospective
purchaser. One such trick was to overdub; many more notes
could be encoded into a roll than a single pianist could
lay down by hand. The result was a full, busy and
exhilarating sound....
"Gershwin recorded two types of rolls. The first (his
Perfection, Mel-O-Dee and Universal rolls) was designed
for playback on player pianos equipped with levers, knobs
and/or buttons that the player pianolist foot-pumping the
roll could interactively manipulate to create an
expressive performance. The pianolist could often see a
dynamic line ranging from soft to loud printed on the roll
and follow it to guide the interpretation. The second and
more technologically sophisticated type of roll
(Gershwin's Duo-Art and Welte rolls) were called
reproducing rolls. These were intended for playback on
instruments called reproducing pianos that could
automatically execute dynamics....
"The last selection on this CD is Frank Milne's 2-
roll arrangement of An American in Paris....
"The piano used to play the rolls for this recording [the CD] is a 9-foot Yamaha
Disklavier grand piano. This instrument was chosen because its computer capability
offered unprecedented opportunities to refine the performances. In addition, this
particular Disklavier piano is a high-quality full-sized concert grand producing
a richness of sound and dynamic range which until now has been unusual for piano
rolls recorded for CD.
"...Disklaviers are fitted with a computer and optic
sensors that record a hand-played performance on floppy
disk. On playback from the disk, the Disklavier's keys
move up and down like the old player piano.
"A rare 1911 88-note Pianola was used for this project
for those of Gershwin's rolls requiring a pianolist's
interpretive intervention. During the heyday of the
player piano this comparable piano-playing device was also
available for roll playback. A heavy, bulky machine, the
Pianola is equipped with expression levers and felt-tipped
fingers and can be rolled up to any piano. Its fingers
are positioned over the keys, and a roll is inserted.
Foot-pumping activates the roll to move the fingers; the
pianolist can play with expression by skillful foot-
pumping and manipulating the expression levers.
"When the 1911 Pianola operated by Artis Wodehouse
played the rolls on the Disklavier, the Disklavier in turn
recorded the same way it does any live pianist. The best
takes of each roll captured on disk were then further
edited to improve the interpretation. Finally, the 9-foot
Disklavier was taken to the auditorium of the Academy of
Arts and Letters in New York City where it played
Gershwin's rolls from a floppy disk for the microphone, as
if Gershwin's ghost were present at the session.
"Gershwin's reproducing rolls were prepared quite
differently. Using a piano roll reader, Richard Tonnesen
of Custom Music Rolls converted the paper rolls into
computer files which specified the location and length of
each hole on the roll. Computer programmer Richard
Brandle wrote a computer simulation of the reproducing
pianos which translated the computer files into MIDI
representing the notes, their duration and position in
time and relative loudness as executed by the old
reproducing pianos. The resulting performances could be
played on any Disklavier from floppy disk. Placed in
front of the recording microphone, the Disklavier concert
grand then played Gershwin's reproducing rolls from floppy
disks for the CD recording...."
Liner Notes by Artis Wodehouse
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