More Foot Playing
By Dan Wilson
Darrell Clarke said:
> I have a few beautifully made Aeolian "Pianolists' Library" Themodist
> Metrostyle rolls which I treasure, particularly Dvorak's New World
> Symphony. They are very high quality both musically and in
> presentation and seem to have been made just before "hand played" rolls
> became available.
These won't be anything like as old as the first Metro-Art rolls which came out with the first Themodist issues in 1907 (1908 in UK - dated from US catalogs and ads in the contemporary UK press). Metro-Art were all themed, all hand-played, had soft pedal on them in the Duo-Art/Ampico position and were, I'd guess, Aeolian's riposte to Welte-Mignon while they tried to think of something better. Someone on the west side of the pond can say about dating American Aeolian rolls, but the Hayes (UK) ones are all dated on the back with a five-digit number, eg 11230 would be 30th December 1921. In 1930 a 3 was added on the front to prevent confusion.
> Thanks also to Dan for his enlightening description of some of the
> other systems and their rivalry with the bigger players (no pun
> intended!). When is your book on the history of the industry to be
> published Dan? Put me down for a copy!
A shiver runs down my back ! I don't think of myself as an expert at all ! Rex Lawson is your man - he had a lot to do with the Dutch book on players which was superb even if you don't know any Dutch. I am very deficient on knowledge of Phillips and Hupfeld, without which no history could be complete. The trouble is, if you ask a German about player-pianos, their eyes go distant and they're obviously thinking about their girlfriend next weekend. Only if you mention an instrument with drums and glockenspiels, or better still a saxophone coming out through the case with pneumatic hands playing it do their eyes focus once again and show any animation. Plain old pianos are dullsville. It's most frustrating.
While we're on rolls John Phillips did or didn't mention, I'd like to put in a question about Empeco rolls. I've only ever seen these in Australia and they have light purple leaders and some very unfamiliar and sparse dynamic coding on them suggesting they do a Recordo type job. Plainly a distant cousin of EMP (Editions Musique Perforee) in France, of which SM in Germany, making Hupfeld-style hand-played arrangements, was an off-shoot. Was the Empeco a piano as well ?
Dan Wilson
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