> Interesting that Scott Joplin comes up at this time. I'm taking a > course on the History of Jazz, and we just listened to what is probably > the same recording. It's a scratchy 78 RPM recording of Maple Leaf Rag > from a player piano playing a roll recorded by Joplin. > > I actually heard it before the piano player was identified, and my > reaction was "this is awful!" The left hand accompaniment was clunky > and overpowering. I was extremely surprised when I heard that the > artist was Joplin himself. But when I learned it was from a piano > roll, I realized what had happened. Player pianos are not able to > reproduce dynamics, and all the subtleties of expression have been > wiped out!
There are two kinds of player piano technology. The cheap rolls used by domestic pianolas (like the one I've got but haven't got working) were intended to have tempo and dynamics added by the user. The very much more expensive "reproducing pianos" like the Welte-Mignon system encoded everything, and are about as accurate a representation of what the pianist was doing as a CD and a lot better than MP3 (the only thing they couldn't get was Glenn Gould's groans). Pianola rolls usually don't name a pianist, they were an encoding effort like ABC and the only instruments you need to know how to play are a punch and a sharp knife. Neither is "better" than the other - the pianola was intended to allow creative input after you bought the recording, which makes it an interesting category of musical production. I thought Joplin's recordings were done on Welte-Mignons? In that case, assuming the equipment was adjusted right for both recording and playback, they will be *exactly* what he meant. And if they don't sound like Fats Waller, too bad, maybe he didn't *want* to sound like that. There is no earthly point in listening to a 78 of a piano roll, whether pianola or reproducing piano. The equipment still exists, the rolls still exist, so they can be played live or re-recorded onto present-day media. There are probably zillions of pianola and reproducing piano websites. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760 <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack> * food intolerance data & recipes, Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files, and my CD-ROM "Embro, Embro". Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
