The concept of the modern player piano originated in the USA about 100 years ago.
These early devices, called 'Piano Players', took the form of a cabinet which could be wheeled up to the front of a conventional piano. Projecting from the back of the cabinet was an adjustable row of sixty-five felt lined wooden 'fingers' which was lined-up with the keys of the piano. Once in position, the cabinet was clamped in place, a music roll inserted and then by pedalling with the feet, and by adjusting small hand levers, suitable expression could be inserted into the resulting music. They were given the appropriate nickname of 'Push-Ups'.
These clumsy, rather cumbersome contrivances soon gave way to the Player Piano where the automatic mechanism was built within the casework of the standard piano.
The 'Push-Up' marketed by the Æolian Company was christened the 'Pianola' and was such a success that the name caught on and has been misused ever since to mean any type of automatic piano.
The music rolls were produced by a clever musician / technician who simply translated the printed notes of the sheet music into a series of perforations. All the role did was to play the right notes in the correct order! The fun of putting the expression into the music was left to the operator.
In 1904, Edwin Welte of Freiburg, Germany, invented an electrically operated Push-Up. This enabled the piano to be played exactly as recorded by famous pianists visiting the Welte factory. All the nuances of expression, tempo and phrasing were encoded into the paper music roll.
This fully automatic mechanism was later built into the standard piano casework and several other firms brought out their own versions of Reproducing Pianos. Notably, the Duo-Art of the Æolian Company and the 'Ampico' of the American Piano Company enjoyed great success.
Steinway-Duo-Art Pedal-Electric Grand
The Musical Museum is unique in its extensive collection of this type of self-acting piano, one of the most famous being the Steinway Grand Piano which once belonged to Princess Beatrice - Queen Victoria's youngest daughter. It is fitted with the Duo-Art reproducing system.
All the famous pianists of the first three decades of the last century recorded for at least one of the reproducing systems and we can still enjoy the 'live' playing of such eminent persons as Greig, Rachmaninov, Paderewski, Myra Hess and George Gershwin.
This fine instrument was once the property of The Princess Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria. Reference is made to this instrument under H.R.H the Princess Hanry of Battenberg on page 55 of the "Player Piano Treasury" by Harvey Roehl published in 1961. It was removed from Kensington Palace in the spring of 1960, just before Lord Snowdon moved in. It has been restored and used for making recordings for the archives of the BBC. The quality of recordings made from this instrument were almost up to the standard of those made from any 9 foot Steinway grand.
To hear this instrument playing Country Gardens, composed and performed by Percy Grainger, click here. (MP3 File 3.43MB)
