Pianola and Duo-Art Recordings
A varying repertoire of actual live recordings of player pianos
Here are one or two recordings of my player pianos, offered to allow an actual piano to be heard playing these rolls, rather than the more commonly-heard MIDI simulations which rarely capture the full range of what a reproducing piano is capable of. These recordings are in no way offered as ideals, just my own instruments recorded using a very basic home recording setup.
Griffes' Scherzo, played by Rudolph Reuter (Duo-Art 7030).
This is a rather obscure roll that a collector has sought for many years. Thanks to the roll-scanning group a copy has been located, scanned, and new replica copies made. This is the result! Recorded on a 5'6" Weber Duo-Art grand.
An improved recut of Duo-Art 6266, Chopin's Fantaisie Op. 46, played by Harold Bauer.
This roll was issued in two forms by Aeolian. The original was too long to fit on to a standard spool, so a shortened version was created that was 2/3 of the length, with its marked playing speed was reduced to keep the overall performance the same. The shortening also reduced the length of the gaps between the notes.
Unfortunately, this piece has a number of very rapid repeats, and the shortened version of the roll doesn't have have sufficient space between perforations for many pianos to repeat successfully so the original rolls don't play well. To make matters worse, old-fashioned roll-copying misses these small gaps, running all the notes together so guaranteeing that the repeats won't sound.
With the roll master-recreation process used here it is not only possible to identify and replicate this gap exactly as originally cut, but it is also possible to do what Aeolian should have done when they shortened this roll. This is where possible to make the note gaps a little larger by shortening preceding notes, which allows the repeats to play properly. The recut offered here does precisely that, so is a rare case where a copy can play better than an original! The recut roll is here recorded on a 5'6" Weber Duo-Art grand.
Chopin Fantaisie Op 66, mono mp3, 7Mb
Updated 12 June 2008