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{{Short description|Piano that plays prerecorded works}}
{{redirect|Pianola|the town in Italy|Pianola (L'Aquila)}}
{{Other uses}}
{{For|the novel by Kurt Vonnegut|Player Piano}}
{{Redirect|Pianola|the village in Italy|Pianola, L'Aquila}}
{{Multiple issues
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] ]
] reproducing piano from 1920. ] playing ]' ], excerpt of 3rd movement. ] recording 5973-4.]] ] reproducing piano from 1920. ] playing ]' ], excerpt of 3rd movement. ] recording 5973-4]]


A '''player piano''' (also known as '''pianola''' or '''autopiano''') is a self-playing ], containing a ] or ] mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed ] perforated ]. The rise of the player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano for the home in the late 19th and early 20th century.<ref>{{cite book|last=Roehl|first=Harvey|title=Player Piano Treasury|year=1973|publisher=Vestal Press|isbn=0911572007|pages=316}}</ref> Sales peaked in 1924, as the improvement in ] recordings due to electrical recording methods developed in the mid-1920s. The advent of electrical ] in home music reproduction via the ] in the same period helped cause their eventual decline in popularity, and the ] virtually wiped out production. A '''player piano''' is a self-playing piano with a ] or ] mechanism that operates the piano action using perforated ]. Modern versions use ]. The player piano gained popularity as mass-produced home pianos increased in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<ref>{{cite book |last=Roehl |first=Harvey |title=Player Piano Treasury |publisher=Vestal Press |year=1973 |isbn=0-911572-00-7 |pages=316}}</ref> Sales peaked in 1924 and subsequently declined with improvements in electrical ] recordings in the mid-1920s. The advent of electrical amplification in home music reproduction, brought by radios, contributed to a decline in popularity, and the ] virtually wiped out production.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wills |first=Matthew |date=2017-12-26 |title=Player Pianos and the Commodification of Music |url=https://daily.jstor.org/what-player-pianos-meant-to-american-families/ |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=JSTOR Daily |language=en-US}}</ref>


== Antecedents == == History==
The first practical pneumatic piano player, manufactured by the Aeolian Company and called the "Pianola",<ref name="SmithsonianPianola">{{cite web |url= https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_605772|title= Aeolian Co. Pianola Model Piano Player |publisher= National Museum of American History|quote=Edwin Votey is attributed as the inventor for this instrument. |access-date=July 28, 2022}}</ref> was invented in 1896 by ], and came into widespread use in the 20th century. The name "pianola", sometimes used as a generic name for any player piano, came from this invention. The mechanism of this player piano was all-pneumatic: foot-operated bellows provided a vacuum to operate a pneumatic motor and drive the take-up spool, while each small inrush of air through a hole in the paper roll was amplified in two stages to sufficient strength to strike a ].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=CT1BAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA17|title=Regulation and Repair of Piano and Player Mechanism: Together with Tuning as Science and Art ...|first=William Braid|last=White|date=March 12, 1909|publisher=E.L. Bill|via=Google Books |access-date=July 28, 2022}}</ref>

The idea of automatic musical devices can be traced back many centuries. The idea of using pinned barrels to operate percussion mechanisms (such as striking bells in a clock) was perfected long before the invention of the piano. These devices were later extended to operate ]es, which contain a set of tuned metal teeth plucked by the player mechanism.

An early musical instrument to be automated was the ], which is comparatively easy to operate automatically. The power for the notes is provided by air from a bellows system, and the organist or player device only has to operate a valve to control the available air. The playing task is ideally performed by a pinned barrel, and the art of ]s was well advanced by the mid-18th century.

The ] is a complex instrument, requiring each note to be struck with a different force to control the dynamics of the performance. The entire force required to sound the note must be given by the performer hitting the keys. It proved to be difficult for a player device to combine a variable percussive force and a controlled note duration. Barrels do not provide a percussive force, but a relatively gentle switching motion.

Early barrel pianos move the hammer back and forwards continuously as the operator turns the handle, but the hammers do not strike the strings until moved slightly forwards by a pin in the barrel. The hammers hit repeatedly until the pin is removed. This plays the note, but at a fixed dynamic and with a tremolo action quite unlike a pianist.

The development of the player piano was the gradual overcoming of the various difficulties of controlled percussive striking and note duration. The earliest practical piano playing device was probably the Forneaux Pianista, which used compressed air to inflate a bellows when the barrel pin opened a valve. This bellows struck the piano key and so played the note.

The acceleration of developments leading to the pneumatic 'player' device started in the 1840s and began to reach some recognizable device in the 1870s. The start of the player period can probably be seen as the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, USA. At this exhibition were a number of automatic player devices, including the Pianista, that contained the elements which would lead to the player.

The earliest description of a piano playing device using perforated paper rolls was Claude Seytre's French patent of 1842. The concept was sound, but the device described was impractical in the way it read the roll and operated the piano.

In 1847 ] described a device that used a paper roll as a 'travelling valve' that allowed air to flow through the reeds of a reed organ. Simple reed and pipe organs using this sort of system are still being produced. However, the air flow is not sufficient to drive a piano mechanism. In 1848 Charles Dawson of England described a more complex travelling valve device which added little to Bain.

Hunt & Bradish of the USA, 1849, used a roll read by sprung fingers, the springs being strong enough to operate the piano mechanism directly. This device applied the entire playing strength to the paper, so would have shredded it rapidly, and the device would have had to be as wide as the piano keyboard!

In 1851 Pape, England, submitted a patent that recognized the need to remove the playing force from the paper, using light springs to read the roll and activate a more robust device which plays the note&nbsp;— a mechanical amplifier.

The first device to address the practical requirement of operating a piano mechanism was Forneaux's, of 1863. This recognized that a hard strike was needed to throw the hammer towards the keys. It used a traditional barrel, but tripped a pneumatic device that inflated bellows rapidly to operate the note. In 1871 a perforated cardboard book was substituted for the barrel, but it was still read using sprung fingers. This device entered manufacture, and is generally regarded as the first practical player device. It was exhibited in Philadelphia in 1876.

Van Dusen's American patent of 1867 was the first to describe a pneumatic striker operated by a roll. It was probably based on the work of John McTammany.

A leap in thought occurred in the 1873 patent of the Schmoele brothers. They described a 'double valve' system which acted as a pneumatic amplifier, reading the roll electrically and operating the pneumatic with an electromagnet. They also exhibited at Philadelphia. With some modification, and pneumatic reading of the roll, this would become the final player piano some 20 years later, although the Schmoele brothers never benefitted from it.

In 1876, John McTammany exhibited a working player in Philadelphia that used a paper roll read using sprung fingers whose slight movement triggered a mechanical player device. This operated a reed organ. McTammany had been experimenting since the mid-1860s, and went on to be one of the key names in the early player industry. He claimed to be the inventor of the 'player', but not the 'player piano' - an important distinction.

As of 1876, in Philadelphia, three working devices were exhibited that between them contained almost all the components that the final player piano would require. However, it was to be 20 years before all these aspects were combined. Surprisingly, the missing component was the pneumatic reading of the roll. This was in all probability due to the lack of suitably flexible airtight material to translate the air flow into the mechanical movement needed to trigger the player device.

== Development ==
=== 1876–1890 ===
Following the Philadelphia exhibition, the mechanical music business began to grow rapidly. Various companies were founded in the later 1870s to manufacture and sell automated reed organs. Most significant to the development of the player piano was the Aeolian Company, founded as the Mechanical Orguinette Company in 1878, initially as retailer of small reed organs made by the Munroe Organ Company and others.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}}

These instruments started out with valveless actions, the air flowing through the paper operating the reed directly. Throughout this period, the instruments grew larger and more complex, and valves were added to switch the air flow, so ensuring faster response and requiring smaller holes in the paper. The idea of incorporating the new player devices into pianos developed over this period. Needham filed a patent in 1880 describing a pneumatic player device in a piano.

The main technical development of this period was the double valve system, which enabled machines to switch the volume of air needed to operate piano actions. The valves effectively worked as amplifiers, a small air flow being used to switch a much larger volume of air.

Inventors persisted with the early cumbersome mechanical linkage systems for a long time, although the valve system was considerably simpler. The main reason for this appears to be that no suitable airtight thin leather was available to make the small pouches which inflate to operate the valves. The pioneer inventor John McTammany comments that inventors have to work within the limits of their age, and that when solving a problem they look for answers among what is at hand. Without pouch leather being available, they couldn't invent a machine that used it. By the late 1880s the development of suitable pneumatic materials and leathers had advanced sufficiently that effective and reliable player mechanisms were starting to enter the marketplace.

=== 1890–1900 ===
In 1896, Theodore P Brown introduced and marketed the "Aeriol Piano", which was the first substantially complete player piano. That same year, Wilcox and White introduced their "Angelus" cabinet player, which was a modification of their earlier grand and upright player pianos. None of the early player pianos was a success, though John McTammany (self-proclaimed "inventor of the player") credited Brown as the first to organize, in a practical manner, the ideas others had developed over the previous 20 years.

Through the middle 1890s, Edwin S Votey developed his piano playing device, the '''Pianola'''. This was offered to the Aeolian Company to sell alongside their range of ]s. It was launched in 1897, and very aggressively marketed over the following years. It was the advertising organized by Harry Tremaine and the Wilcox and White Company that established the market for piano playing devices. Without Tremaine's business acumen there probably would never have been a player piano industry.

In these early years the main demand was for cabinet players (devices rolled to the keyboard of an existing piano, to press the keys with mechanical wooden "fingers"), and it was some years before the public preferred to buy an entirely new self-contained instrument and trade in their old perfectly good regular pianos. As market demand changed, the "internal player" came back into view and was developed again, this time in earnest.


=== 1900–1910 === === 1900–1910 ===
{{Citation needed section|date=December 2023|reason=This section needs numerous citations, links to ads mentioned, proof of history stated, etc.}}
[[Image:Pneumatic piano.png|thumb|left|The mechanism of a player piano.<br />1. Pedal.
[[Image:Pneumatic piano.png|thumb|left|upright|220px|The mechanism of a player piano.<ol style="margin-left:1.5em;">
2. Pedal connection.
<li><!-- 1. --> Pedal.
3. Exhauster (one only shown).
<li><!-- 2. --> Pedal connection.
4. Reservoir; high tension (low-tension reservoir not shown.)
<li><!-- 3. --> Exhauster (one only shown).
5. Exhaust trunk.
<li><!-- 4. --> Reservoir; high tension (low-tension reservoir not shown.)
6. Exhaust tube to motor.
<li><!-- 5. --> Exhaust trunk.
7. Air space above primary valves.
<li><!-- 6. --> Exhaust tube to motor.
8. Secondary valves.
<li><!-- 7. --> Air space above primary valves.
9. Striking pneumatic.
<li><!-- 8. --> Secondary valves.
10. Connection from pneumatic to action of piano.
<li><!-- 9. --> Striking pneumatic.
11. Piano action.
<li><!-- 10. --> Connection from pneumatic to action of piano.
12. Pneumatic motor.
<li><!-- 11. --> Piano action.
13. Trackerboard (music roll passes over trackerboard).]]
<li><!-- 12. --> Pneumatic motor.
<li><!-- 13. --> Trackerboard (music roll passes over trackerboard).</ol>]]


The Pianola was advertised in one of the most high-profile campaigns ever, making unprecedented use of full-page color advertisements. It cost $250 (£65) (equivalent to over $6,000 (£4,000) in 2009 money). Other, cheaper, makes were launched. A standard 65-note format evolved, with {{convert |11+1/4|in|mm|adj=mid|-wide}} rolls and holes spaced 6 to the inch, although several player manufacturers used their own form of roll incompatible with other makes. Votey advertised the Pianola widely, making unprecedented use of full-page color advertisements. It was sold initially for $250, and then other, cheaper makes were launched. A standard 65-note format evolved, with {{convert |11+1/4|in|mm|adj=mid|-wide}} rolls and holes spaced 6 to the inch, although several player manufacturers used their own form of roll incompatible with other makes{{Citation needed|date=December 2023|reason=every claim in this paragraph is uncited}}.


Huge sums were spent: by 1903, the Aeolian Company had more than 9,000 roll titles in their catalog, adding 200 titles per month. Many companies' catalogs ran to thousands of rolls, mainly of light, religious or classical music. ] did feature, but not commonly: in this period, the player was being sold on its artistic capabilities to rich buyers. By 1903, the ] had more than 9,000 roll titles in their catalog, adding 200 titles per month. Many companies' catalogs ran to thousands of rolls, mainly consisting of light, religious, or classical music. ] also featured.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}.


The pioneer of this decade was Melville Clark, who introduced two key ideas: the full-scale roll which could play every note on the piano keyboard, and the internal player as standard. Both ideas were ridiculed by his competitors as unnecessary or impractical, but Clark rapidly won both battles. Melville Clark introduced two important features to the player piano: the full-scale roll which could play every note on the piano keyboard, and the internal player as standard.


By the end of the decade the piano player device was obsolete, as was the 65-note format. This was a major catastrophe for many small manufacturers, who had spent all their capital on setting up 65-note player operations, and the result was rapid consolidation in the industry. By the end of the decade, the piano player device and the 65-note format became obsolete. This caused problems for many small manufacturers, who had already invested in 65-note player operations, ultimately resulting in rapid consolidation in the industry.


A new full-scale roll format, playing all 88 notes, was agreed at an industry conference in Buffalo in 1908, the so called ]. This kept the 11¼-inch roll, but now had smaller holes spaced at 9 to the inch. Any player made anywhere in the world could now play any make of roll. Understanding the need for compatibility was the defining moment of the player industry. The consensus was key to avoiding a costly ], which plagued almost every other form of entertainment media that followed roll music. A new, full-scale roll format, playing all 88 notes, was agreed at an industry conference in ] in 1908 at the so-called ]. This kept the 11{{frac|1|4}}-inch roll, but now had smaller holes spaced at 9 to the inch. This meant that any player piano could now play any make of roll. This consensus was crucial for avoiding a costly ], which plagued almost every other form of entertainment medium that followed roll music.


While the player piano matured in America, a young inventor in Germany, Edwin Welte, was working on a player which controlled all the aspects of the performance automatically, so that his machine would play back a recorded performance exactly as if the original pianist was sitting at the piano keyboard. This device, the ], was launched in 1904. It created new marketing opportunities, as manufacturers could now get the foremost pianists and composers of the day to record their performances on a piano roll, allowing owners of player pianos to experience such a performance in their own homes on their own instruments, exactly as the original pianist had played it. While the player piano matured in America, an inventor in Germany, Edwin Welte, was working on a player which would reproduce all aspects of a performance automatically, so that the machine would play back a recorded performance exactly as if the original pianist were sitting at the piano keyboard. Known as a Reproducing Piano, this device, the ], was launched in 1904. It created new marketing opportunities, as manufacturers could now get the foremost pianists and composers of the day to record their performances on a piano roll. This allowed owners of player pianos to experience a professional performance in their own homes on their own instruments, exactly as the original pianist had played it.


Aeolian introduced Metrostyle in 1901 and the Themodist in 1904, the Themodist being an invention which was said to bring out the melody clearly above the accompaniment.<ref name="New York Sun">''New York Sun'', 14 March 1909.</ref> Sales grew rapidly, and with the instruments now relatively mature, in this decade a wider variety of rolls became available. Two major advances were the introduction of the hand-played roll, both classical and popular, and the word roll.
From the early days, manufacturers sought to create mechanisms which would pick out the melody of a musical composition over the background of the rest of the music in the same manner as a live pianist. The true player piano was designed to be a fully interactive musical experience rather than merely an automatic instrument, and hence they are fitted with interactive control levers intended for the "player pianist" or "pianolist" to create a music performance to their own taste. The player piano would provide aspiring pianists and music lovers with the technical dexterity they lacked whilst permitting them to control the musical performance interactively as if they were an accomplished pianist.
* Hand-played rolls introduced ] into the rolls, so that player pianists did not have to introduce it through the use of tempo controls, which few felt inclined to do.
* Word rolls featured printed lyrics in the margins,<ref name="Sanjek 1988 3">{{cite book|author=Russell Sanjek|title=American Popular Music and Its Business: The First Four Hundred Years, Volume III: From 1900-1984|url={{Google books|EzVesnkLEtUC|page=29|plainurl=yes}}|volume=3|date=28 July 1988|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-802127-8|page=29|oclc=300414899 |access-date=July 28, 2022}}</ref> making it simple to use players to accompany singing in the home, a popular activity before radio and disc recordings became widely available.


The other major advance was the arrival in America of two commercial rivals for the Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano: the ] (from 1911 but fully 're-enacting' by 1916) and the Duo-Art (1914). Artrio-Angelus also introduced a reproducing player from 1916. When World War I came in 1914, German patents were seized in the US. In England, Aeolian had a huge factory and sales network and easily outsold the Ampico. Other makers of Reproducing systems, Hupfeld Meisterspiel DEA (1907) and Philipps Duca (c 1909), were successful in Europe. Hupfeld perfected an 88 note reproducing system, the Triphonola, in 1919, and around 5% of players sold were Reproducing Pianos.
Aeolian introduced Metrostyle in 1901 and the Themodist in 1904, the latter being an invention "bringing out the melody clearly above the accompaniment."<ref name="New York Sun">''New York Sun'', 14 March 1909.</ref> With sales growing rapidly, and the instruments themselves relatively mature, this decade saw a wider variety of rolls become available. Two major advances were the introduction of the hand-played roll, both classical and popular, and the word roll. The hand-played roll introduced ] into the roll, so that the player pianist did not have to introduce this by using the tempo controls&nbsp;— something that few owners ever felt much inclination to do. Word rolls made it simple to use the player to accompany singing in the home, a very popular activity in the years before radio and acceptable disc recordings became available.


In America by the end of the decade, the new 'jazz age' and the rise of the fox-trot confirmed the player piano as the instrument of popular music, with classical music increasingly relegated to the reproducing piano. Most American roll companies stopped offering large classical catalogs before 1920, and abandoned 'instrumental' rolls (those without words) within a few years.
The other major advance was the arrival of major commercial rivals for the Welte-Mignon: the Ampico and the Duo-Art systems, both launched around 1914. When World War I came in 1914 and German patents were seized in the US, these two companies were left to compete with each other. In England, Aeolian had a huge factory and sales network, so easily outsold the Ampico. It is estimated that perhaps 5% of players sold were reproducing pianos.


In England, the Aeolian Company continued to sell classical material, and customers remained willing to contribute to performances by following directions printed on the rolls and operate the hand and foot controls themselves. Sydney Grew, in his manual ''The Art of the Piano Player'', published in London in 1922, said that "it takes about three years to make a good player-pianist of a man or woman of average musical intelligence. It takes about seven years to make a good pianist, or organist, or singer".<ref>Quoted in Leikin, Anatole. '''' (2016), p.10</ref> Word rolls never became popular in England, as they cost 20% more than non-word rolls. As a result, post-World War I American and British roll collections looked very different.
In America by the end of the decade, the new ‘jazz age' and the rise of the fox-trot confirmed the player piano as the instrument of popular music, with classical music increasingly relegated to the reproducing piano. Most American roll companies stopped offering large classical catalogs before 1920, and abandoned ‘instrumental' rolls (those without words) within a few years.

Things were somewhat different in England, where the Aeolian Company continued to promote classical material to a receptive public. Word rolls never became the norm in England, always being charged at a 20% premium over non-word rolls. As a result, post-World War I American and British roll collections look very different.

=== 1920–1930 ===
1920–30 was the decade that saw the player piano reach its peak, and then its rapid decline. The peak sales of instruments and rolls were in the first few years of the decade. At one point, more than half of all pianos being made in America contained a player unit. The player piano was not an obscure by-line&nbsp;— it was the dominant force in the industry.

In the early 1920s, many pianists of note, in classical and popular fields, were called on to make rolls.

Little new technically arose through the 1920s. Perhaps the most significant was the launch of a significantly improved form of the Ampico system, the Ampico B, in 1926. This was accompanied by an automatic recording device that could record a pianist's note timings and dynamics.

The technical advances of the 1920s were instead in ] technology. The key development there was the introduction of amplification, so that it was possible to sit around the radio and listen as a family, unlike the earlier crystal sets which required the use of headphones. Amplification was also applied to the recording of ] records, the electrical recording systems introduced around 1925 allowing a major rise in sound quality. Radio and these new records rapidly eroded the market for the player piano, and it was declining from the mid-1920s onwards. Novel attempts to combine the appeal of the player piano and its new rivals were made by building radios and/or phonographs into player pianos themselves, but even this could not entice the public to continue buying player pianos.

When the Wall Street crash came in October 1929, the player piano was already in a very weak position, and sales effectively ceased. Only a few well-capitalized companies continued in business after this. Many of these companies were the result of consolidation throughout the 1920s, which had already seen the loss of most names, particularly in the roll-making field.

During this period player piano pneumatic technology was used as the basis for the ]s by inventor ]. This device, powered by suction and bellows, moved realistically in response to a pilot's operation of the controls. Link developed the flight simulator in his father's Binghamton, New York factory, which made coin operated pianos for commercial establishments and movie theater pipe organs. The Link Company commercialized the device in 1929. A British equivalent was the Silloth trainer, based on Duo-Art technology. Electronic descendants of these devices are now widespread.

=== 1930–1950 ===
A few companies struggled on through the 1930s. In 1931 Aeolian purchased the American Piano Company, makers of the Ampico. To bring capital to the business, they sold off all their overseas assets, so the large piano factory at Hayes was closed and sold with one month's notice, to the ], also based in the town. The joint Aeolian-American operation stopped making new classical rolls and concentrated on popular material, and the final new rolls were issued in the late 1930s.

A major survivor throughout this was the QRS piano roll company, originally an offshoot of Melville Clarke's operation. Owned by the mid-1920s by Max Kortlander, and funded by his income as a composer, QRS continued to issue rolls, all of them created by J. Lawrence Cook, chief roll arranger from 1921 to 1961 (he supplemented his income as a postal worker). Thanks to QRS, roll repertoire is available from the 1930s and 1940s.

Other than QRS, the end of the 1930s had seen the end of the player piano era. The lingering roll production in England finally ceased in 1941 when paper rationing made it impossible to continue. The Aeolian Duo-Art recording machinery was destroyed by bombing during the ], as was the Welte factory in ].

However, the immediate aftermath of the war saw the growth of interest in this lost era. ] purchased the surviving Welte-Mignon rolls from Edwin Welte, and the first disc recordings were made of the performances. The enthusiast era had, tentatively, begun.


=== 1950–present === === 1950–present ===
] ]


During the early 1950s, a number of collectors began to rescue player pianos and all the other instruments of the 1920s and earlier. Amongst them was Frank Holland, who formed his collection while working in Canada. On returning to England he located a number of like-minded enthusiasts and started to hold meetings at his house in west London. In 1959 this was formalized as ‘The Player Piano Group'. By the early 1960s, Frank Holland had formed the British Piano Museum (now the Musical Museum) in Brentford. In the early 1950s, player pianos and other instruments of the 1920s and earlier became collectable. An enthusiast, Frank Holland, who had collected player pianos while working in Canada, returned to England and held meetings of like-minded enthusiasts at his house in London. In 1959 this gathering was formalized as 'The Player Piano Group', and in the early 1960s Holland founded the British Piano Museum (now the ]) in Brentford.


In America, another collector was Harvey Roehl, who was so enthused by the players that in 1961 he published a book called ''Player Piano Treasury''. This sold by the tens of thousands, and was followed by books on how to rebuild and restore these instruments. Harvey Roehl's Vestal Press was a major driving force in raising awareness of the player piano within the general population. In America, another collector, Harvey Roehl, published a book called ''Player Piano Treasury'' in 1961. This sold in large numbers and was followed by books published by Roehl's Vestal Press on how to rebuild and restore the instruments. Other societies were formed worldwide to preserve and study all aspects of mechanical music, among them the Musical Box Society International (MBSI) and the ] (AMICA) in the USA.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.amica.org/|title=A M I C A |website=amica.org |access-date=July 28, 2022}}</ref>


The revival of interest in player pianos in the 1960s led to renewed production. Aeolian revived the Pianola, this time in a small spinet piano suited to post-war housing, and other manufacturers followed. QRS offered a traditional player piano in its Story and Clark piano. Early enthusiasts could often get by with limited patching and repairs, although original 1920s instruments could still be found in working order.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}} Complete rebuilding of old instruments to original condition became possible.
Other societies worldwide were formed to preserve and study all aspects of mechanical music, such as the Musical Box Society International (MBSI) and the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors' Association (AMICA<ref>{{citation | url = http://www.amica.org/ | title = Amica}}.</ref>) in the USA.

In 1961, Max Kortlander died of an unexpected heart attack, and QRS was run by his wife until she sold the company to Ramsi Tick in 1966, in whom it found another stalwart champion whose business philosophy was not so much profit as to limit losses. QRS's presence ensured that owners of newly-awakened players could purchase rolls of the latest titles, so ensuring that the instrument remained current, not just a historical curiosity.

So great was the revival that in the 1960s, production of player pianos started again. Aeolian revived the Pianola, albeit this time in a small spinet piano suited to post-war housing. Other manufacturers followed, and production has continued intermittently ever since. QRS today offer a traditional player piano in their Story and Clark piano.

In recent years there has been greater focus on full rebuilding as original instruments finally stop working. Early enthusiasts could often get by with limited patching, but the repair requirements have slowly risen, although even to this day it is possible to find original 1920s' instruments that still work after a fashion&nbsp;— a tribute to their quality, and an indication of their continued popularity.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}}


== Types == == Types ==
] ] reproducing piano (1919)]] ] ] reproducing piano (1919)]]
A player piano is a piano that contains a manually controlled, pneumatically operated piano player mechanism. The operator manipulates control levers to produce a musical performance. Various aids were developed:

Whilst there are many minor differences between manufacturers a player piano is a piano that contains a manually controlled pneumatically operating piano player mechanism. It is intended that the operator manually manipulates the control levers in order to produce a musical performance. Various aids to the human operator were developed:

; Split stack control: These instruments (the vast majority of all player pianos) have the pneumatic player mechanism divided into two approximately equal halves. The operator can lower the volume of either half of the keyboard independently of the other in order to create musical effects.
; Theme control: These instruments have peripheral pneumatic hardware systems fitted which, when used in conjunction with special music rolls, are able to highlight those notes in the score which are intended to be accented away from those whose volume it is desired to subdue. Basic theme pianos subdue all notes and release full power to only those notes which are align with special music roll "theme" perforations. More subtle systems (such as Hupfeld's "Solodant" and Aeolian's "Themodist") have a graduated theme control where the background subdued level and the foreground melody level are both controllable. The nature of the mechanism is such that where a chord occurs notes to be emphasised have to be advanced slightly away from their neighbors in order for the mechanism to identify them.
; Isolated theme: The hardware of these pianos is able to pick out the melody notes away from their background accompaniment within the entire range of the keyboard without the necessity for breaking up chords i.e. a software workaround. Manufacturers of these systems were the UK "Dalian" and "Kastonome" and the US "Solo Carola".
; Reproducing pianos: These are fully automated versions of the player piano requiring no human manual control in order to produce the illusion of a live musical performance. This is achieved by the utilization of music rolls where tempo mapping is fully incorporated into the music rolls i.e. the note lengths of a live performance have been captured. This obviates any need for manual tempo lever manipulation. The volume dynamics are created by peripheral pneumatic expression accessories under control from system-specific music roll coding. This obviates the need for human manipulation of the manual dynamic control levers. Typically an electric motor provides power to remove the human operator from the necessity to provide motive power by treadling. Most reproducing pianos are capable of manual over-ride operation, and many are constructed for dual functionality both as regular player pianos and also as reproducing pianos. Numerous companies made these utilizing different technology. The first successful instrument was called the "Mignon" launched by ] in 1904.
; Orchestrions and Nickelodeons: These are automated instruments typically intended from use in a coin-operated commercial setting rather than any domestic one. Various manufacturers made numerous ranges of instruments featuring different combinations of pianos, organ pipework, percussion and other fittings. They were eventually superseded by the ] following the introduction of effective electrical sound amplification.

== Player mechanism ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=December 2008}}
]]]
]

The player mechanism is essentially a bank of switches activated by software. The switches are pneumatically operating valves which switch on the motive force used to play the piano action. This motive force is created by switching suction into a miniature collapsible pneumatic bellows with one assembly assigned to each individual note. The valve switching system is triggered by the music roll. As the paper perforations run over the music reading bar (known as the "tracker bar") air is allowed to enter. This causes a pressure differential within the mechanism triggering the switching valves to operate. The note channels can be either on or off hence the music roll can be regarded as an early form of programmable binary software.

The apparatus operates from suction generated by two foot-treadled bellows coupled to a pressure equalizing reservoir system to even the air flow. The motive force may be used to power peripheral mechanisms within the piano operating sustain pedal function, music roll centering and suchlike.


; Split stack control: In these instruments (the vast majority of all player pianos) the pneumatic player mechanism is divided into two approximately equal halves. The operator can lower the volume of either half of the keyboard independently of the other.
Player pianos are all fitted with hand levers for the performer to vary volume and speed to imitate a live performer. As such they may be regarded as the first truly interactive acoustic music making machine; something without any parallel until only the past half-decade with the advances in modern computing technology and software.
; Theme control: These instruments have peripheral pneumatic hardware systems which, when used in conjunction with special music rolls, are able to highlight notes in the score which are intended to be emphasised while others are made quieter. Basic theme pianos subdue all notes and release full power to only those notes which are aligned with certain music roll "theme" perforations. Subtler systems (such as Hupfeld's "Solodant" and Aeolian's "Themodist") have a graduated theme control, in which the background subdued level and the foreground melody level are both controllable. The nature of the mechanism is such that where a chord occurs, notes to be emphasised have to be advanced slightly away from their neighbours in order for the mechanism to identify them.
; Isolated theme: The hardware of these pianos is able to pick out the melody notes from the background accompaniment within the entire range of the keyboard, without the need to break up chords. Manufacturers of these systems were the UK "Dalian" and "Kastonome" and the US "Solo Carola".
; Expression player : The hardware of these pianos is able to generate a broad general musical dynamic from roll coding. The pneumatic stack operates at fixed, pre-set tension depending on the coding, giving an effect of musical dynamics. Examples of this system are "Recordo" and "Empeco"
; Reproducing pianos: These are fully automated versions of the player piano, requiring no human control to produce the effect of a live musical performance. This is achieved with music rolls in which tempo mapping is incorporated into the rolls and the note lengths of a live performance have been captured. The volume dynamics are created by peripheral accessories controlled by the music roll coding, which removes the need to operate control levers. An electric motor provides power. Most reproducing pianos are capable of being played manually, and many are constructed for dual function. Numerous companies made these, and the first successful instrument was the "Mignon", launched by ] in 1904.


== Music rolls == == Music rolls ==
{{Main|Piano roll}}


]
]s for pneumatic player pianos, often known as ]s, consist of a continuous sheet of paper rolled on to a spool. The spool fits into the player piano spool box whereupon the free end of the music sheet is hooked onto the take-up spool which will unwind the roll at an even pace across the reading mechanism (the "tracker bar") The music score to be played is programmed onto the paper by means of perforations. Different player systems have different perforation sizes, channel layouts and spool fittings though the majority conform to one or two predominant formats latterly adopted as the industry standard.
]s for pneumatic player pianos, often known as piano rolls, consist of a continuous sheet of paper rolled on to a spool. The spool fits into the player piano spool box whereupon the free end of the music sheet is hooked onto the take-up spool which will unwind the roll at an even pace across the reading mechanism (the "]") The music score to be played is programmed onto the paper by means of perforations. Different player systems have different perforation sizes, channel layouts and spool fittings though the majority conform to one or two predominant formats latterly adopted as the industry standard.


Music is programmed via a number of methods. Music is programmed via a number of methods.
Line 165: Line 80:
# modern computer software and ] software can be used to create piano roll stencils for operating modern-day perforating machines and create new titles. # modern computer software and ] software can be used to create piano roll stencils for operating modern-day perforating machines and create new titles.


The player piano sold globally in its heyday, and music rolls were manufactured extensively in the USA, as well as most European countries, South America and Australia. Even New Zealand had their own home-grown roll brand and machinery. A large number of titles from all manufacturers survive to this day, and rolls still turn up regularly in large quantities. The player piano sold globally in its heyday, and music rolls were manufactured extensively in the US, as well as most European countries, South America, Australia and New Zealand. A large number of titles from all manufacturers survive to this day, and rolls still turn up regularly in large quantities.


It was reported that the last remaining mass producer of piano rolls in the world, QRS Music, temporarily halted production of the rolls on December 31, 2008.<ref>{{cite web| last = Sommer| first = Mark| title = The day the music died: QRS has ended production of player-piano rolls |publisher=The Buffalo News| date=3 January 2009| url=http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article134934.ece| accessdate = 12 September 2010}}</ref> It was reported that the last remaining mass producer of piano rolls in the world, QRS Music, temporarily halted production of the rolls on December 31, 2008.<ref>{{cite web| last = Sommer| first = Mark| title = The day the music died: QRS has ended production of player-piano rolls| publisher = The Buffalo News| date = 3 January 2009| url = http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article134934.ece| access-date = 12 September 2010| archive-date = 10 June 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110610220347/http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article134934.ece| url-status = dead}}</ref>
However, QRS Music still list themselves as the only roll manufacturer remaining, and claim to have 45,000 titles available with "new titles being added on a regular basis".<ref>{{cite web| title = Music|publisher=QRS Music|url=http://qrsmusic.com/music.asp| accessdate = 12 September 2010}}</ref> However, QRS Music still list themselves as the only roll manufacturer remaining, and claim to have 45,000 titles available with "new titles being added on a regular basis".<ref>{{cite web| title = Music| publisher = QRS Music| url = http://qrsmusic.com/music.asp| access-date = 12 September 2010| archive-date = 5 March 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100305061344/http://www.qrsmusic.com/music.asp| url-status = dead}}</ref>


The ] in Brentford, London, England, houses a nationally significant collection of piano rolls, with over 20,000 rolls, as well as an extensive collection of instruments which may be seen and heard.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About |url=https://www.musicalmuseum.co.uk/about-us|access-date=2021-12-17 |website=The Musical Museum |language=en |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211217214839/https://www.musicalmuseum.co.uk/about-us |archive-date= 2021-12-17 }}</ref>
=== Preservation and restoration ===
Roll scanning has made significant advances in recent years, applying technology to possibly the most obvious yet hardest of all conservation and preservation topics, the replication of aging and disintegrating piano rolls.

Roll scanning is the process of reading a music roll into a computerised form that can be used for any purpose, such as cutting new rolls or operating old or new instruments directly. This uses the same technology as domestic flatbed scanners, hence the term roll scanner. The ubiquity of computers makes scanning fundamental to the preservation of rolls of all types, as well as providing the basis for secondary activities such as operating instruments directly.
Roll master re-creation is the process of understanding how the roll was originally manufactured so that errors arising from the scanning are removed, and the computer works to the same accuracy as the original perforators in the roll factory. This allows exact replica rolls to be made, and maximises the accuracy of any secondary activity.

Replication of the original master from which a perforated paper roll was created is the highest aim of roll scanning. Roll masters are not literally replicated, because they were originally large cardboard rolls, but re-created in a computerised form. The rationale is that starting with the master in this form, anything can be done with the music&nbsp;– cut new rolls, operate player pianos fitted with electronic valves, or simulate a performance for playing on modern instruments&nbsp;– all without introducing any errors.

This is the case because virtually all rolls were punched in fixed rows, where punches will occur only in one row or the next, but never in between: the roll is effectively a digital storage medium. Scanning simply counts the distance from the start of the roll to each note event, giving an analogue, and hence inaccurate, representation of the roll. If instead the rows are counted, the result is an exact representation of the original roll&nbsp;– a perfect digital copy. This can be done by applying knowledge about the original roll's creation to the scan.

Once the master computerised copy has been recreated, all of the information in the roll is retained, and anything done after this can be done with the accuracy of the original roll. When using the analogue version, all its timing errors are carried through to whatever you do with it. This is particularly true when making recut rolls, where imposing the punch-row spacing of the perforator over the (different) row spacing of the original roll causes surprisingly obvious and audible errors. However, even analogue uses of the scan, such as operating instruments directly, benefits from the recreated master because of the way it removes timing errors from the basic scan, and in so doing allows the accuracy of the scanner itself to be calibrated.

Roll scanning itself is not of major significance&nbsp;– it simply adds optical technology to the pneumatic, electrical and mechanical technologies previously used to extract data from perforated paper. The ability to store the extracted data on electronic media marked the start of the modern era of scanning, but did little more than act as a substitute for the paper roll. The most familiar such system is the Marantz Pianocorder, but at least two systems were produced, by Wayne Stahnke and Peter Phillips, to operate pneumatic pianos.

From having the performance in ‘streaming’ form on a tape to extracting the note events into a list in a computer is a fairly small step. Such computerisation of the scanned data adds the ability to edit and manipulate it. The key advance we are concerned about here is the manipulation that converts the analogue scan data to a replica of the perforation master.

{{Unreferenced section|date=November 2009}}

The first serious and sustained roll master replication exercise was probably that of Wayne Stahnke, who described his by-then completed methods in the Mechanical Music Digest in March 1996, and used them to practical advantage in his Rachmaninoff-Bösendorfer CDs. He started with a pneumatic roll reader (from the mid-1970s, for the IMI Cassette Converter system and later projects) and later moved to an optical system. He has been offering commercial scanning and roll master re-creation since the mid-1990s.

Within UK Player Piano Group circles the topic of recreating roll masters was already well established by 1996. Rex Lawson had raised the topic as part of his work developing a perforation-level roll editor software suite for his Perforetur rolls, and the topic was publicly discussed in the PPG bulletin during winter 1994/5 when Rex explained precisely why rolls should be copied punch-for-punch, digitally.

Richard Stibbons started his roll-scanning attempts in the mid-1990s, and described his progress in PPG article “The PC Pianola” in December 1995. Soon afterwards he adopted the master replication idea, described very thoroughly in September 2000. This led directly to the launch of the Rollscanners group in February 2001.

The aim of this group has been to focus and publicise scanning efforts worldwide, encouraging sharing of progress and knowledge, a radical shift from the earlier essentially private attempts.


== Modern implementations == == Modern implementations ==
] ] Upright Mark III]] ] ] Mark III]]
] ] Upright Mark III]] ] ] Mark III]]


Later developments of the '''reproducing piano''' include the use of ] and ]s, rather than piano rolls, to record and play back the music; and, in the case of one instrument made by ], ] assisted playback. Later developments of the '''reproducing piano''' include the use of ] and ]s, rather than piano rolls, to record and play back the music; and, in the case of one instrument made by ], ] assisted playback.


In 1982, ] introduced the "]", which was the first mass-produced, commercially available reproducing piano that was capable of digitally capturing and reproducing a piano performance using floppy disk as a storage medium.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yamaha.com/about_yamaha/corporate/product_history/|title=Development of Products - About Us |website=Yamaha Corporation |access-date=July 28, 2022}}</ref> The Piano Player was replaced in 1987 by the Yamaha ] and since 1998, the ] models are capable of capturing and reproducing "high-resolution" piano performances of up to 1024 velocity levels and 256 increments of positional pedaling using Yamaha's proprietary XP (Extended Precision) MIDI specification.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yamahaden.com/anatomy-of-a-disklavier|title=Anatomy of a Disklavier|first=George F.|last=Litterst|website=Disklavier Education Network |publisher=Yamahaden |access-date=July 28, 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517141308/http://www.yamahaden.com/anatomy-of-a-disklavier |archive-date= May 17, 2022 }}</ref>
Almost all modern player pianos use ] to interface with computer equipment. Most modern player pianos come with an electronic device that can record and playback MIDI files on floppy disks and/or ]s, and a MIDI interface that enables computers to drive the piano directly for more advanced operations. The MIDI files can trigger electromagnetic devices called solenoids, which use electric current to drive small mechanical pistons mounted to the key action inside the piano. Live performance or computer generated music can be recorded in MIDI file format for accurate reproduction later on such instruments. MIDI files containing converted antique piano-rolls can be purchased on the Internet.


Almost all modern player pianos use ] to interface with computer equipment. Most modern player pianos come with an electronic device that can record and playback MIDI files on floppy disks and/or ]s, and a MIDI interface that enables computers to drive the piano directly for more advanced operations. The MIDI files can trigger ]s, which use electric current to drive small mechanical plungers mounted to the key action inside the piano. Live performance or computer generated music can be recorded in MIDI file format for accurate reproduction later on such instruments. MIDI files containing converted antique piano-rolls can be purchased on the Internet.
{{As of|2006}}, several player piano conversion kits are available (PianoDisc, Pianomation, etc.), allowing the owners of normal pianos to convert them into computer controlled instruments. The conversion process usually involves cutting open the bottom of the piano to install mechanical parts under the keyboard, although one organization&nbsp;— Logos Foundation&nbsp;— has manufactured a portable, external kit. A new player piano conversion kit was introduced in 2007-08 by Wayne Stahnke, the inventor of the Bosendorfer SE reproducing system, called the "LX".


{{As of|2006}}, several player piano conversion kits are available (PianoDisc, PNOmation, etc.), allowing the owners of normal pianos to convert them into computer controlled instruments. The conversion process usually involves cutting open the bottom of the piano to install mechanical parts under the keyboard, although one organization—]—has manufactured a portable, external kit. A new player piano conversion kit was introduced in 2007-08 by Wayne Stahnke, the inventor of the Bösendorfer SE reproducing system, called the "LX".
== Comparison to electric pianos ==


{{As of|2023}} ] manufactures a player piano based on Wayne Stahnke's Live Performance LX system, which was sold to Steinway in 2014 and re-branded as Spirio. Unlike other piano brands, a recording option was not originally available,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://qz.com/658430/steinway-just-released-an-ipad-controlled-piano/|title=Steinway just released an iPad-controlled piano|first=Anne|last=Quito |work=qz.com |date=19 April 2016 |access-date=July 28, 2022}}</ref> but in 2019 Steinway introduced Spirio | r models, which can also record.<ref>{{cite web | title=Steinway Spirio R Piano | publisher=Steinway| url=https://steinway.co.uk/pianos/spirio-r/ | access-date=25 December 2023}}</ref>
A player piano is neither an ], ], nor a ]. The distinction between these instruments lies in the way sounds are produced. A player piano is an acoustic piano where the sound is produced mechanically by moving keys which cause hammers to strike the piano strings, without using electric or electronic components to create the sounds.


] is a British music upcomer on the player piano market offering totally bespoke pianos, available in luxury department store ] since 2017<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/edelweiss-pianos-play-well-at-harrods-9071584/ |title=Edelweiss Pianos play well at Harrods|first=Mike|last=Scialom|date=28 May 2019|publisher=Cambridge Independent |access-date=July 28, 2022}}</ref> and according to the '']'' ] channel 'How to Spend it', Edelweiss is "regarded as the most upmarket of today's breed of the self-playing piano".<ref>{{cite AV media |date=November 30, 2018 |title=Financial Times 'How to Spend it' featuring Edelweiss Pianos |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXNDpF5vyd0&t=52 |work=www.youtube.com |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/hXNDpF5vyd0| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|access-date=March 10, 2020 }}{{cbignore}}</ref>
==Notable pianists with recorded works==
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]


==Notable composers with recorded works==
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]


== Comparison to electric pianos ==
A player piano is not an ], ], or a ]. The distinction between these instruments lies in the way sounds are produced. A player piano is an acoustic piano where the sound is produced by hammer strikes on the piano strings. Electrical components in post-pneumatic versions are limited to moving the keys or hammers mimicking the actions of a person; sound is not generated or amplified electronically.


== See also == == See also ==

* ]
* ] * ]
* ]
* ]
* ] * ]
* ]
* '']'', a piano piece specifically designed for the player piano
* ], a significant composer for the player piano


== References == == References ==
{{Reflist|refs=}}

{{reflist}}


== Further reading == == Further reading ==
* Grew, Sydney. '''' (1922)

* Reblitz, Arthur A. ''Player Piano Servicing and Rebuilding''. ISBN 0-911572-40-6 Lanham, Maryland: Vestal Press, 1985. * Reblitz, Arthur A. ''Player Piano Servicing and Rebuilding''. {{ISBN|0-911572-40-6}} Lanham, Maryland: Vestal Press, 1985.
* Reblitz, Arthur A. ''The Golden Age of Automatic Musical Instruments''. ISBN 0-9705951-0-7 Woodsville, New Hampshire: Mechanical Music Press, 2001. * Reblitz, Arthur A. ''The Golden Age of Automatic Musical Instruments''. {{ISBN|0-9705951-0-7}} Woodsville, New Hampshire: Mechanical Music Press, 2001.
* White, William Braid. ''Regulation and Repair of Piano and Player Mechanism together with Tuning as Science and Art''. New York: Edward Lyman Bill, 1909. * White, William Braid. ''Regulation and Repair of Piano and Player Mechanism together with Tuning as Science and Art''. New York: Edward Lyman Bill, 1909.


== External links == == External links ==
{{Commons category|Player pianos}}
* in London, England
{{Wiktionary}}
* in Traverse City, Michigan, USA
* England * The Pianola Forum
* England
* London, England * London, England


{{Mechanical instruments}}
{{Wiktionary}}
{{Music technology}}
{{Commons category|Player pianos}}
{{Authority control}}


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Latest revision as of 23:35, 8 December 2024

Piano that plays prerecorded works For other uses, see Player piano (disambiguation). "Pianola" redirects here. For the village in Italy, see Pianola, L'Aquila.
A restored pneumatic player piano
Steinway reproducing piano from 1920. Harold Bauer playing Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22, excerpt of 3rd movement. Duo-Art recording 5973-4

A player piano is a self-playing piano with a pneumatic or electromechanical mechanism that operates the piano action using perforated paper or metallic rolls. Modern versions use MIDI. The player piano gained popularity as mass-produced home pianos increased in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sales peaked in 1924 and subsequently declined with improvements in electrical phonograph recordings in the mid-1920s. The advent of electrical amplification in home music reproduction, brought by radios, contributed to a decline in popularity, and the stock market crash of 1929 virtually wiped out production.

History

The first practical pneumatic piano player, manufactured by the Aeolian Company and called the "Pianola", was invented in 1896 by Edwin S. Votey, and came into widespread use in the 20th century. The name "pianola", sometimes used as a generic name for any player piano, came from this invention. The mechanism of this player piano was all-pneumatic: foot-operated bellows provided a vacuum to operate a pneumatic motor and drive the take-up spool, while each small inrush of air through a hole in the paper roll was amplified in two stages to sufficient strength to strike a note.

1900–1910

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The mechanism of a player piano.
  1. Pedal.
  2. Pedal connection.
  3. Exhauster (one only shown).
  4. Reservoir; high tension (low-tension reservoir not shown.)
  5. Exhaust trunk.
  6. Exhaust tube to motor.
  7. Air space above primary valves.
  8. Secondary valves.
  9. Striking pneumatic.
  10. Connection from pneumatic to action of piano.
  11. Piano action.
  12. Pneumatic motor.
  13. Trackerboard (music roll passes over trackerboard).

Votey advertised the Pianola widely, making unprecedented use of full-page color advertisements. It was sold initially for $250, and then other, cheaper makes were launched. A standard 65-note format evolved, with 11+1⁄4-inch-wide (290 mm) rolls and holes spaced 6 to the inch, although several player manufacturers used their own form of roll incompatible with other makes.

By 1903, the Aeolian Company had more than 9,000 roll titles in their catalog, adding 200 titles per month. Many companies' catalogs ran to thousands of rolls, mainly consisting of light, religious, or classical music. Ragtime music also featured..

Melville Clark introduced two important features to the player piano: the full-scale roll which could play every note on the piano keyboard, and the internal player as standard.

By the end of the decade, the piano player device and the 65-note format became obsolete. This caused problems for many small manufacturers, who had already invested in 65-note player operations, ultimately resulting in rapid consolidation in the industry.

A new, full-scale roll format, playing all 88 notes, was agreed at an industry conference in Buffalo, New York in 1908 at the so-called Buffalo Convention. This kept the 111⁄4-inch roll, but now had smaller holes spaced at 9 to the inch. This meant that any player piano could now play any make of roll. This consensus was crucial for avoiding a costly format war, which plagued almost every other form of entertainment medium that followed roll music.

While the player piano matured in America, an inventor in Germany, Edwin Welte, was working on a player which would reproduce all aspects of a performance automatically, so that the machine would play back a recorded performance exactly as if the original pianist were sitting at the piano keyboard. Known as a Reproducing Piano, this device, the Welte-Mignon, was launched in 1904. It created new marketing opportunities, as manufacturers could now get the foremost pianists and composers of the day to record their performances on a piano roll. This allowed owners of player pianos to experience a professional performance in their own homes on their own instruments, exactly as the original pianist had played it.

Aeolian introduced Metrostyle in 1901 and the Themodist in 1904, the Themodist being an invention which was said to bring out the melody clearly above the accompaniment. Sales grew rapidly, and with the instruments now relatively mature, in this decade a wider variety of rolls became available. Two major advances were the introduction of the hand-played roll, both classical and popular, and the word roll.

  • Hand-played rolls introduced musical phrasing into the rolls, so that player pianists did not have to introduce it through the use of tempo controls, which few felt inclined to do.
  • Word rolls featured printed lyrics in the margins, making it simple to use players to accompany singing in the home, a popular activity before radio and disc recordings became widely available.

The other major advance was the arrival in America of two commercial rivals for the Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano: the Ampico (from 1911 but fully 're-enacting' by 1916) and the Duo-Art (1914). Artrio-Angelus also introduced a reproducing player from 1916. When World War I came in 1914, German patents were seized in the US. In England, Aeolian had a huge factory and sales network and easily outsold the Ampico. Other makers of Reproducing systems, Hupfeld Meisterspiel DEA (1907) and Philipps Duca (c 1909), were successful in Europe. Hupfeld perfected an 88 note reproducing system, the Triphonola, in 1919, and around 5% of players sold were Reproducing Pianos.

In America by the end of the decade, the new 'jazz age' and the rise of the fox-trot confirmed the player piano as the instrument of popular music, with classical music increasingly relegated to the reproducing piano. Most American roll companies stopped offering large classical catalogs before 1920, and abandoned 'instrumental' rolls (those without words) within a few years.

In England, the Aeolian Company continued to sell classical material, and customers remained willing to contribute to performances by following directions printed on the rolls and operate the hand and foot controls themselves. Sydney Grew, in his manual The Art of the Piano Player, published in London in 1922, said that "it takes about three years to make a good player-pianist of a man or woman of average musical intelligence. It takes about seven years to make a good pianist, or organist, or singer". Word rolls never became popular in England, as they cost 20% more than non-word rolls. As a result, post-World War I American and British roll collections looked very different.

1950–present

A player piano performing

In the early 1950s, player pianos and other instruments of the 1920s and earlier became collectable. An enthusiast, Frank Holland, who had collected player pianos while working in Canada, returned to England and held meetings of like-minded enthusiasts at his house in London. In 1959 this gathering was formalized as 'The Player Piano Group', and in the early 1960s Holland founded the British Piano Museum (now the Musical Museum) in Brentford.

In America, another collector, Harvey Roehl, published a book called Player Piano Treasury in 1961. This sold in large numbers and was followed by books published by Roehl's Vestal Press on how to rebuild and restore the instruments. Other societies were formed worldwide to preserve and study all aspects of mechanical music, among them the Musical Box Society International (MBSI) and the Automatic Musical Instruments Collector's Association (AMICA) in the USA.

The revival of interest in player pianos in the 1960s led to renewed production. Aeolian revived the Pianola, this time in a small spinet piano suited to post-war housing, and other manufacturers followed. QRS offered a traditional player piano in its Story and Clark piano. Early enthusiasts could often get by with limited patching and repairs, although original 1920s instruments could still be found in working order. Complete rebuilding of old instruments to original condition became possible.

Types

Steinway Welte-Mignon reproducing piano (1919)

A player piano is a piano that contains a manually controlled, pneumatically operated piano player mechanism. The operator manipulates control levers to produce a musical performance. Various aids were developed:

Split stack control
In these instruments (the vast majority of all player pianos) the pneumatic player mechanism is divided into two approximately equal halves. The operator can lower the volume of either half of the keyboard independently of the other.
Theme control
These instruments have peripheral pneumatic hardware systems which, when used in conjunction with special music rolls, are able to highlight notes in the score which are intended to be emphasised while others are made quieter. Basic theme pianos subdue all notes and release full power to only those notes which are aligned with certain music roll "theme" perforations. Subtler systems (such as Hupfeld's "Solodant" and Aeolian's "Themodist") have a graduated theme control, in which the background subdued level and the foreground melody level are both controllable. The nature of the mechanism is such that where a chord occurs, notes to be emphasised have to be advanced slightly away from their neighbours in order for the mechanism to identify them.
Isolated theme
The hardware of these pianos is able to pick out the melody notes from the background accompaniment within the entire range of the keyboard, without the need to break up chords. Manufacturers of these systems were the UK "Dalian" and "Kastonome" and the US "Solo Carola".
Expression player
The hardware of these pianos is able to generate a broad general musical dynamic from roll coding. The pneumatic stack operates at fixed, pre-set tension depending on the coding, giving an effect of musical dynamics. Examples of this system are "Recordo" and "Empeco"
Reproducing pianos
These are fully automated versions of the player piano, requiring no human control to produce the effect of a live musical performance. This is achieved with music rolls in which tempo mapping is incorporated into the rolls and the note lengths of a live performance have been captured. The volume dynamics are created by peripheral accessories controlled by the music roll coding, which removes the need to operate control levers. An electric motor provides power. Most reproducing pianos are capable of being played manually, and many are constructed for dual function. Numerous companies made these, and the first successful instrument was the "Mignon", launched by Welte in 1904.

Music rolls

Main article: Piano roll
A player piano roll being played

Music rolls for pneumatic player pianos, often known as piano rolls, consist of a continuous sheet of paper rolled on to a spool. The spool fits into the player piano spool box whereupon the free end of the music sheet is hooked onto the take-up spool which will unwind the roll at an even pace across the reading mechanism (the "tracker bar") The music score to be played is programmed onto the paper by means of perforations. Different player systems have different perforation sizes, channel layouts and spool fittings though the majority conform to one or two predominant formats latterly adopted as the industry standard.

Music is programmed via a number of methods.

  1. the music is marked out on master stencil on a purely metronomic basis direct from the printed sheet music with the player-pianists being left to create their own music performance
  2. the music stencil is created metronomically via a piano-keyboard operated punch machine
  3. a live performance is played onto a special piano connected to an electronically operated marking mechanism, and a physical stencil is produced from this live output, either as-is or after some general regularisation of tempo where necessary
  4. modern computer software and MIDI software can be used to create piano roll stencils for operating modern-day perforating machines and create new titles.

The player piano sold globally in its heyday, and music rolls were manufactured extensively in the US, as well as most European countries, South America, Australia and New Zealand. A large number of titles from all manufacturers survive to this day, and rolls still turn up regularly in large quantities.

It was reported that the last remaining mass producer of piano rolls in the world, QRS Music, temporarily halted production of the rolls on December 31, 2008. However, QRS Music still list themselves as the only roll manufacturer remaining, and claim to have 45,000 titles available with "new titles being added on a regular basis".

The Musical Museum in Brentford, London, England, houses a nationally significant collection of piano rolls, with over 20,000 rolls, as well as an extensive collection of instruments which may be seen and heard.

Modern implementations

Player and control unit of Yamaha Disklavier Mark III
Sequencer control unit of Yamaha Disklavier Mark III

Later developments of the reproducing piano include the use of magnetic tape and floppy disks, rather than piano rolls, to record and play back the music; and, in the case of one instrument made by Bösendorfer, computer assisted playback.

In 1982, Yamaha Corporation introduced the "Piano Player", which was the first mass-produced, commercially available reproducing piano that was capable of digitally capturing and reproducing a piano performance using floppy disk as a storage medium. The Piano Player was replaced in 1987 by the Yamaha Disklavier and since 1998, the Disklavier PRO models are capable of capturing and reproducing "high-resolution" piano performances of up to 1024 velocity levels and 256 increments of positional pedaling using Yamaha's proprietary XP (Extended Precision) MIDI specification.

Almost all modern player pianos use MIDI to interface with computer equipment. Most modern player pianos come with an electronic device that can record and playback MIDI files on floppy disks and/or CD-ROMs, and a MIDI interface that enables computers to drive the piano directly for more advanced operations. The MIDI files can trigger solenoids, which use electric current to drive small mechanical plungers mounted to the key action inside the piano. Live performance or computer generated music can be recorded in MIDI file format for accurate reproduction later on such instruments. MIDI files containing converted antique piano-rolls can be purchased on the Internet.

As of 2006, several player piano conversion kits are available (PianoDisc, PNOmation, etc.), allowing the owners of normal pianos to convert them into computer controlled instruments. The conversion process usually involves cutting open the bottom of the piano to install mechanical parts under the keyboard, although one organization—Logos Foundation—has manufactured a portable, external kit. A new player piano conversion kit was introduced in 2007-08 by Wayne Stahnke, the inventor of the Bösendorfer SE reproducing system, called the "LX".

As of 2023 Steinway manufactures a player piano based on Wayne Stahnke's Live Performance LX system, which was sold to Steinway in 2014 and re-branded as Spirio. Unlike other piano brands, a recording option was not originally available, but in 2019 Steinway introduced Spirio | r models, which can also record.

Edelweiss is a British music upcomer on the player piano market offering totally bespoke pianos, available in luxury department store Harrods since 2017 and according to the Financial Times YouTube channel 'How to Spend it', Edelweiss is "regarded as the most upmarket of today's breed of the self-playing piano".

Comparison to electric pianos

A player piano is not an electric piano, electronic piano, or a digital piano. The distinction between these instruments lies in the way sounds are produced. A player piano is an acoustic piano where the sound is produced by hammer strikes on the piano strings. Electrical components in post-pneumatic versions are limited to moving the keys or hammers mimicking the actions of a person; sound is not generated or amplified electronically.

See also

References

  1. Roehl, Harvey (1973). Player Piano Treasury. Vestal Press. p. 316. ISBN 0-911572-00-7.
  2. Wills, Matthew (2017-12-26). "Player Pianos and the Commodification of Music". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
  3. "Aeolian Co. Pianola Model Piano Player". National Museum of American History. Retrieved July 28, 2022. Edwin Votey is attributed as the inventor for this instrument.
  4. White, William Braid (March 12, 1909). Regulation and Repair of Piano and Player Mechanism: Together with Tuning as Science and Art ... E.L. Bill. Retrieved July 28, 2022 – via Google Books.
  5. New York Sun, 14 March 1909.
  6. Russell Sanjek (28 July 1988). American Popular Music and Its Business: The First Four Hundred Years, Volume III: From 1900-1984. Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-19-802127-8. OCLC 300414899. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  7. Quoted in Leikin, Anatole. The Performing Style of Alexander Scriabin (2016), p.10
  8. "A M I C A". amica.org. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  9. Sommer, Mark (3 January 2009). "The day the music died: QRS has ended production of player-piano rolls". The Buffalo News. Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
  10. "Music". QRS Music. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
  11. "About". The Musical Museum. Archived from the original on 2021-12-17. Retrieved 2021-12-17.
  12. "Development of Products - About Us". Yamaha Corporation. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  13. Litterst, George F. "Anatomy of a Disklavier". Disklavier Education Network. Yamahaden. Archived from the original on May 17, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  14. Quito, Anne (19 April 2016). "Steinway just released an iPad-controlled piano". qz.com. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  15. "Steinway Spirio R Piano". Steinway. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  16. Scialom, Mike (28 May 2019). "Edelweiss Pianos play well at Harrods". Cambridge Independent. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  17. Financial Times 'How to Spend it' featuring Edelweiss Pianos. www.youtube.com. November 30, 2018. Archived from the original on 2021-12-11. Retrieved March 10, 2020.

Further reading

  • Grew, Sydney. The Art of the Player Piano: A text book for student and teacher (1922)
  • Reblitz, Arthur A. Player Piano Servicing and Rebuilding. ISBN 0-911572-40-6 Lanham, Maryland: Vestal Press, 1985.
  • Reblitz, Arthur A. The Golden Age of Automatic Musical Instruments. ISBN 0-9705951-0-7 Woodsville, New Hampshire: Mechanical Music Press, 2001.
  • White, William Braid. Regulation and Repair of Piano and Player Mechanism together with Tuning as Science and Art. New York: Edward Lyman Bill, 1909.

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