Ragtime
piano rolls
Scott
Joplin
1916
Seven
recordings
One of the most cumbersome, expensive, and unique playback
systems invented was the player piano. The idea of a full-sized instrument that
could reproduce the playing of a human was in the air for decades, but remained
unperfected until 1895. After that, it became enormously popular for a time,
creating an industry that would last until the advent of electrical audio
recordings in the mid-1920s improved sound playback on disc enormously, at a
far more cost-effective rate.
The player piano works pneumatically; that is, through
compressed air. Holes poked in a roll of paper correspond to notes played on
the piano. When a hole is “read” by the mechanism, it shoots a burst of
compressed air at the lever action that forces the proper key to be struck.
Sounds complicated? It only took about 20 years to iron out the problems
inherent in the technology.
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A typical piano roll. |
Once the technical aspects were figured out, the player
piano became a familiar part of the culture of the period. Whether buying new
rolls for the home machine, or plunking nickels into machines set up in bars
and restaurants, customers spent freely on the device. Commercial customers
found that, after the initial capital outlay for the machine, the cost of
buying new rolls and maintaining the player were cheaper than hiring live
performers – no doubt causing a wave of technology-related unemployment.
The novelty of the player piano, with its magically moving
keys pressed as though by invisible fingers, was a draw, as was its
consistency. (Some prominent players who grew during this 30-year span,
1895-1925, describe learning how to play by slowing down the mechanism’s action
and aping the keystrokes, just as English blues players of the 1960s learned by
slowing down American records and working out the chord changes.)
A short list of noted performers who “cut” piano-transcriptions
includes Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Percy Granger, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton,
and James P. Johnson. These invaluable records teach us much about the players’
techniques. One of the most prominent names to record piano rolls was, of
course, the greatest ragtime music composer, Scott Joplin.
Joplin’s day in the sun was short-lived. He faced the
typical bias against African-Americans at the time; it was fine for them to
serve as entertainers and figures of fun, but white society did not accept their
expressions of higher aspirations. Joplin was famous, but solely because of his
rags. Joplin probably consented to record these seven rolls he did in 1916 just
to make some quick cash.
Joplin’s name on these rolls was a draw for the public.
Unfortunately, only one of the seven piano rolls, his second take on “Maple Leaf
Rag,” seems to reflect his genuine playing, a stuttering, uncoordinated effort
that speaks to his advanced stage of suffering from tertiary syphilis. The other
six were edited and “corrected” by the staff arranger at the recording company,
William Axtmann. Joplin would die the following year from his condition, at the
age of 49.
The Joplin revival began in 1971, when Joshua Rifkin recorded
a selection of his work, which received a Grammy nomination. Prominent musicologist
Gunther Schuller orchestrated and produced Joplin’s Red Back Book for a 12-piece ensemble in 1973, and won a Grammy
doing it. Then, of course, Marvin Hamlisch’s use of Joplin in his soundtrack for
the film The Sting the same year
opened the floodgates for Joplin’s rediscovery.
The player piano remained significant for only one other American
composer – the amazing and still under-regarded Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997).
An expatriate in Mexico due to his left-wing leanings, Nancarrow was fascinated
by the possibilities the player piano gave an ambitious composer. Eventually,
he purchased the equipment needed to make rolls himself, and did so from 1947
on.
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Nancarrow cutting a roll. |
Nancarrow recognized that the player piano could reproduce
compositions impossible for one or even two keyboardists to perform. He could
pile line after melodic line on top of each other, as well as multiple
independent rhythms. The results, fortunately preserved, are exciting explosions
of color, harmonics, and sound patterns.
The
National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all
the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Up
next: Williams and Walker’s Victor recordings.
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