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The Piano Roll Collection at the Archives of Traditional Music

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The Piano Roll Collection at the Archives of Traditional Music boxes developed in Switzerland in conjunction with the clock industry, most of these devices were primarily singular contraptions developed as playthings for royalty Rags and Rolls: (Queen Elizabeth I had a barrel organ as early as 1593) The Piano Roll Collection at the (Loesser 1954:577). In the nineteenth century, automated music became accessible to the general public. From Archives of Traditional Music spring driven music boxes with changeable cylinders or John McCall disks to large fairground organs, automatic musical Indiana University instruments were the first devices to usher in. the age of prerecorded music. It is fruitless to attempt to date the invention of the automated piano. It is an instrument that evolved in increments throughout the last half of the nineteenth Marvel not, therefore, when in disgust, Leschetizky century. Noteworthy among the earlier manifestations is should arise from the conventional piano and exclaim, Henri Maillardet's "Musical Lady," which was "In two hundred years from now there will be no such demonstrated in London in the 1820s. Maillardet's thing as playing the piano by hand." Leschetizky was invention was a humanoid automation which actually not only a great musician, but a great prophet, and his depressed the keys of a pianoforte with its mechanized prediction has already in large part become true ... fingers (Ord-Hume 1973:42). In 1863 a French patent by a (McTammany 1915:vi) man named Forneaux seems to be the first design for a pneumatically operated piano playing device. Forneaux So wrote William Geppert in his introduction to John called his hand cranked invention a "Pianista" and it McTammany's The Technical History of the Player. became the prototype for virtually all subsequent It is hard for us, living in a time when recorded music developments. (Roehl 1976:2). saturates our environment, to appreciate the import ascribed to the player piano at the turn of the century. In the monograph quoted at the beginning of this The phonograph was then at an early stage of article, John McTammany attempts to establish himself as development and could produce only a feeble suggestion the player piano's official "inventor" but in doing so he of the music it recorded. The player piano, with its ability reveals a staggering list of over five hundred patents by to fill a room with a lifelike musical presence, appeared, various inventors leading up to his particular application, for a time, to be the way of the future; the invention that which amounted to some significant improvements on would bring music into the homes of everyone regardless Forneaux's design. In retrospect we can see that of musical ability. McTammany's contribution was quickly surpassed by The piano rolls produced from the 1890s to the 1930s others. If McTammany's claim to the title of original represent an important record of the music of that era. In inventor is dubious, he certainly deserves to be fact, many of the recordings of original ragtime now recognized as the man who was most obsessed with the available are taken from piano roll "performances." honor of this title, an obsession he took to the grave. His Accordingly, the Archives of Traditional Music maintains tombstone in Canton, Ohio, bears the proud inscription, a collection of piano rolls. The greater part of this "John McTammany, inventor of the player piano" (Roehl collection was acquired thanks to donations from Frank J. 1976:3). Gillis, a former director of the Archives, and his wife, In the late 1890s the Aeolian Company introduced the Ruth, The Indiana Historical Society, and purchases by "Pianola," a piano player developed by Edwin S. Votey. the Indiana Ragtime Project through a grant from the The pianola was a foot-pumped pneumatic device. It was Lilly Endowment, Inc. housed in a cabinet which, when pushed up to a The ATM piano roll collection currently includes some conventional piano, played upon it with sixty-five wooden two hundred selections covering a broad range of popular "fingers". The term "pianola" subsequently became music. The entire inventory has been catalogued on a widely used to refer not only to this early prototype, but data base to facilitate access to basic information. My own to players in general. In 1901 the first eighty-eight key work with the collection has been concerned with player was produced by the Melville Clark Company ragtime. Among the better-known ragtime composers which was later to become QRS, Inc .. Clark's eighty-eight represented are: Scott Joplin, James P. Johnson, Jelly Roll key format quickly became the industry standard and Morton, Eubie Blake, J. Russel Robinson, Charley after that time most piano rolls could be played on pianos Straight, and Fats Waller. The collection includes best of any make. Player piano sales peaked between 1919 and selling hits like Charles L. Johnson's Dill Pickles Rag and 1923 and fell off dramatically in the thirties. The Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag as well as a number of lesser refinement of the phonograph and radio ushered in a known titles. These musical documents provide a unique decline in player piano sales. By the middle of the record of the music of many performers who were never depression it is reported that dealers were selling six­ recorded by any other means. hundred dollar instruments for twenty-five dollars (Montgomery, et. al. 1985:91-93). Of the fifty-some piano The Player Piano roll producing companies that sprang up during the The player piano was one of the most popular of the player piano's heyday, only QRS survived. This was due countless varieties of automated instruments available in to the preeminence of the company in the field and to the the nineteenth century. Musical automata crop up at foresight of company management that led them to much earlier periods, but aside from the cylinder music diversify their product line to include phonographs and vacuum tubes. QRS acquired the copyright for many of perfs. Shortly thereafter, direct punch pianos were the piano rolls owned by the failing companies and developed, thus eliminating the need for hand continues to operate today, maintaining an extensive perforation. Nevertheless, even the so-called "hand catalogue of early rolls, as well as contemporary music. played" rolls that were produced in this manner were not immune to embellishment. By the time it was possible to produce genuine reproductions of performance, the The Piano Roll in Musicological Research medium had developed an aesthetic standard. Original The primary medium for the dissemination of popular cuttings were enhanced and "mistakes" corrected in music at the end of the 19th century was sheet music. order to conform to the expectations of the market. For While some sheet music publishers, such as John Stark, this reason piano rolls used in analysis must be carefully played a major role in the popularization of ragtime, the selected. The exact date of the introduction of hand technical demands of rags made some music publishers played roll technology would seem to be an essential reluctant to commit themselves to the marketing of music detail in the evaluation of piano rolls. Unfortunately, that they felt was beyond the abilities of the average there is a certain degree of ambiguity regarding this amateur. The player piano made it possible for ragtime to point. The QRS literature on the subject states: be heard by a different audience than was otherwise possible and therefore played a role in broadening the A new era began in 1917 with the use of Clark's popular awareness of Afro-American music. "Marking Piano," an invention which made possible Player piano rolls hold particular interest for students the manufacture of QRS "Hand Played" Rolls. The of ragtime because of the unique contingencies that tie first popular hand played roll to be released was the history of this important Afro-American musical Pretty Baby, played by the great ragtime pianist genre to that of the player piano. Ragtime was florescent Charlie Straight. (QRS 1981:inside cover) as a popular form from the mid-1890s to the mid-1920s, a period coinciding almost exactly with the short but Michael Montgomery et al., remark on the same spectacular heyday of the player piano. In addition, subject: ragtime is piano oriented music. Although Scott Joplin In 1912, Melville Clark issued the first QRS hand­ and some of his contemporaries made arrangements of played roll made from a "live" performance, Lee some of their pieces for ensembles, ragtime originated as Robert's rendition of his own composition, Valse a specifically piano based style and remained primarily Parisienne. Later in 1912, QRS issued hand played so. With this in mind it may seem remarkable that rolls by the black pianist from Missouri, John W. scholars of the history of ragtime have often reduced "Blind" Boone. Aeolian introduced its first hand­ consideration of piano rolls to a few..lQ.otnotes and a ~ _ played rolls to the public early in 1913. (Montgomery rollography. et. al. 1985:94) The piano roll itself is not only a medium by which a performance can be reproduced, but can also be seen as a Despite the five year discrepancy in these two accounts, graphic representation of performance which records we can conclude that any roll produced before 1912 subtleties of rhythmic style that are inaccessible to the predates hand played technology. In addition, rolls not historical researcher who limits methodology to the specifically marked "hand played" must be assumed to be analysis of standard transcription alone. Accordingly, the product of an arranger. some scholars have stressed the importance of piano roll Hand played rolls can be compared with written scores analysis to a complete understanding of ragtime to reveal the standard types of editorial elaboration.
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