Piano Music Rolls
'From the classics to ragtime, player piano music rolls to this day, continue to be readily available new or second hand, from many sources, in every country of the world. Such was, and is, the popularity of the medium'
A piano roll is the data used to control the player piano. A piano roll is a roll of paper with perforations (holes) punched in it. The position and length of the perforation determines which note is played and how long the note is sustained, on the piano. The roll moves over the 'tracker bar', which first had 58 holes, then 65 and later was standardised to 88 holes, one for each key. When a perforation passes over the hole, the note sounds.
Piano rolls were in production commercially from 1896 to present and are still available, with QRS Music probably the largest still manufacturing, and many smaller concerns producing yearly limited output. The first paper rolls were used by Welte for use in their Orchestrions from 1883. Hundreds of companies produced piano rolls in differing size and perforation, in 1909 the American manufacturers of both rolls and player pianos agreed to a standard of 88 note rolls.
The player piano can be considered the first true computer, with data input via the roll, to perform a 'programed' function.
Arranged rolls are made using sheet music as a guide. The controls on the player for accenting, subduing and varying the roll speed must be used to avoid a lacklustre performance.
Hand played is a loose term for rolls supposedly made using a recording device that marks the paper as an artist plays, creating a 'master roll'. The master is then used as a guide for perforation of further rolls. As with other rolls, notes may be added and errors removed, by the arranger. This method was used as early as 1904 by the Welte company for their reproducing piano.
The Duo-Art, Ampico and Welte brands play 'reproducing' piano rolls, as they are intended to reproduce the touch and dynamics as well as the notes , when played back on same brand reproducing pianos.
There are literally thousands of titles, from Classical Beethoven to ABBA. Whatever your taste, there will be piano rolls to suit you. (maybe not heavy metal or punk....)
There have been hundreds of makers of piano rolls, mostly during the early years of last century. In Australia, the Mastertouch Roll Co, survived in Crystal Street Leichardt Sydney, until 2005. 80 to 90% of rolls in Australian collections are Mastertouch.
There are many sources of rolls; newly perforated, deceased estate auctions, eBay and other online auction sites, flea markets, secondhand stores and antique dealers. Some older rolls are damaged at either margin, due to poorly aligned tracking devices over many years. These rolls will become more fragile as each year passes, and care must be taken with their handling and storage to lengthen their life.
ARTISTYLE Rolls for the Angelus players
The overlooked and highly creative roll annotation system by Wilcox & White of Meriden, CT- and in the U.K., usually connected with Marshall & Rose pianos
Wilcox & White Co. - a family business, operating differently from Aeolian and other corporations in the field.
While Aeolian –– across the street in Meriden –– was supposedly a competitor, this was not entirely true. Aeolian's Universal Music Rolls Co. supplied the W&W rolls and duplicated their 'hand played' and 'reproducing roll' Masters, from 1916-1921 and then with Theo. Brown (Simplex) taking over the piano manufacturing, Aeolian continued to make rolls until 1926. At that point, QRS took over the program. I was a friend of Russell White and several members of the family; he said that he and Percival van Yorx, the arrangers for the company, continued to make Master rolls until the switch from Aeolian to QRS. The companies were not the rivals as others often proclaim them to be, and they both shared the "solo" patents in the States, called the Themodist by Aeolian and the Melodant by Angelus.
The ad above gives an indication of the earlier market for the Angelus piano-players. They began with the Pneumatic Symphony 44-Note reed organ which in the opinion of this writer had a superior tone to the Aeolian 1500 organ, of slightly later vintage, using 46-Note rolls. (So popular were the latter instruments that the company's name was changed from the Mechanical Orguinette Co. to Aeolian.) Rolls for both player reed organ lines were made by the Aeolian-connected interests, including the time before its name change in the mid 1890s.
The Orchestral Angelus 58-Note piano-player, shown above, was an outgrowth of the Wilcox & White organ business. It was constructed like an organ and featured 2 ranks of reeds (violin and flute) plus swells and a stop marked Piano. I have played a number of them as an organ only since the reeds were tuned to A-435 (or thereabouts) and not A-440, the piano tuning standard of our time. It would have meant "detuning" a piano in our museum during its run of 23 years, so the Piano + Organ feature was never used. I did have on rare occasional several opportunities to play the Angelus Orchestral Piano which had one bank of reeds in the piano, so can imagine the effects that this early piano-player produced. [The quantity of reeds was not standardized in this family business, so on special order many more reeds were incorporated into their player organs and Angelus piano-players.]
Wilcox & White organ rolls along with their Angelus player piano rolls in the 58 and 65-Note formats were all designed to run in the opposite direction from Aeolian and the other makes. The dynamic imprinting is UNDER the curvature of the paper for what was calledPOSITIVE TRACKING in the old days, an idea which went back to hand crank orguinettes –– usually with a scale of 20 notes or less. While there is less paper to view in the spoolbox, above and below the tracker bar, the paper is always "TIGHT," as it opens the holes for the playing notes ... so there was a valid reason for this approach. I have never found it difficult, but then if one knows the arrangement, through a little advance practice, it's not necessary to view a larger display. POSITIVE TRACKING also produced few discords when playing.
If you examine where the major dealers for the Angelus players were, you will find –– taking California as an example –– that Sherman & Clay with Aeolian were in the larger cities and coastal areas, while the inland communities, such as Stockton, had the Wiley B. Allen Co., a major retailer of Angelus instruments. The advertising reflects this emphasis also. While Aeolian had the urban, "arty" and rich person aura in their ads, plus endorsements from musicians who annotated their rolls, Angelus emphasized the "home parlour atmosphere" and had supportive visuals in their ads accordingly. The focus on the Angelus was on YOU, the owner. Aeolian pushed 'experts', especially composers, who were going to guide the customer through the interpretations, all laid out from sheet music in those days. Angelus empowered the customer. Aeolian dominated from a lofty sphere and specialized in name dropping at every opportunity. Thus, competitors that the two companies might have been, they didn't rub elbows that much in the music roll field in spite of what some revisionists often say.
Now, although I have said that Wilcox & White avoided name dropping, it was used occasionally in their advertising. Here are two examples of endorsements from the years of 58 and 65-Note rolls; many instruments were playing both formats with different paper widths at that time:
–– and this early Angelus display advertisement . . . (plus note the reference to other artists being PAID TO ENDORSE players, a definite slam against Aeolian as well as the Simplex, which had Adelina Patti posing with their spring-operated 65-Note piano-players.)
The Artistyle Rolls: 65-Note then 88-Note releases
–– but the company never fully recovered from the switch away from 65-Note rolls
One of two limiting factors of Wilcox & White was that it was a) a family business more than a 'holding company' corporation and b) they began with player reed organs and never stopped using "organ technology" in their player piano action designs. Beyond that they owned no piano company so had to purchase instruments and fit them with the Angelus players. The Knabe Angelus was one of the first players using a deluxe instrument (going back to the 65-Note days). However, as the piano companies began to combine into corporate entities, they found themselves without a steady supply of known pianos with which to associate the Angelus actions. The American Piano Co. took away Wm. Knabe and Chickering. Aeolian monopolized Steinway, plus owned Weber and Geo. Steck. Kohler and Campbell – the Autopiano and later Welte-Mignon Licensee/Deluxe people – absorbed one company after another and "raided" many of the finer Boston area brands, using them for Standard Pneumatic Actions, later installed in over 110 makes of pianos. Finally, Wilcox & White bought their rolls from Aeolian right there in Meriden, CT, so availability often led to requesting a "2nd or 3rd choice" when ordering titles. Shortly before their bankruptcy in 1921, Wilcox & White bought a couple of lesser known piano companies, but they never had the stature and aura of say, "a Knabe Angelus player".
While the pseudo-scientific Metrostyle line by Aeolian had been launched earlier, the Artistyle 'competition' began in the 65-Note era as well, featuring Aeolian rolls respooled and with the printing on the reverse side for 65s and conventional tracker bar layout for the 88-Note releases.
What makes the Artistyle so appealing is that it EMPOWERS THE ROLL INTERPRETER rather than assaulting the senses with a wavy red line that is partly for accenting and partly for phrasing purposes. Instead of some grandiose name of a musician to justify the line, the Artistyle merely combined dynamics with tempo phrasing, using their combination levers: one for the basic tempo and the other a 'tablet' called THE PHRASING LEVER for Accelerate/Ritard/Pause. This device connected to the wind (air) motor governor directly, giving one the "feel" of the instrument, hence their expression, which was "The Phrasing Lever is The Heart of the Angelus." Note, other players often featured an Accel./Rit. lever or buttons which did roughly the same thing, but the Artistyle was primarily aimed at use with the tablet control of the Angelus instrument.
Let's begin by analyzing a typical Artistyle annotated music roll:
We wish to thank advanced collector Michael Potash for supplying these Artistyle pictures, shown in his Franklin Marque Ampico (pedal Ampico) spoolbox.
Here on the leader of an Artistyle roll is the stamp for tempo instructions – where R, A and T (standard tempo) were the key indicators for the use of the Phrasing Lever (tablet). One merely followed the usual dynamic line but influenced the roll speed with these markings.
Here we see the dynamic spectrum for pedaling, a layout which follows most 65-Note and 88-Note music rolls. The difference here is that A, T, R and a few other details replace the series of "spots" or lines on conventional rolls for the volume to be achieved. NOTE: The roll begins with "T," the regular speed set by the tempo indicator at this point.
Standard tempo continues here but LOUD at first and SOFTER as indicated.
The roll is running at the middle volume (MF) and you can see where the standard tempo ("T") changes to Accelerate ("A"). At this point the musician presses down on the Phrasing Lever to speed up the roll at his/her own discretion.