A piano fitted with a self-playing mechanism, normally pneumatic, capable of playing from a perforated paper music roll (piano roll). The first automatic piano-playing mechanism was the Barrel piano, developed at the end of the 18th century. Later developments dispensed with the cumbersome barrel; for example, A.-F. Debain's Antiphonel (1846) operated the piano through a system of wooden boards or planchettes studded with metal pins to represent the music to be played. Napoleon Fourneaux's barrel-operated Pianista (1863) was the first pneumatic piano-playing machine. These were the prototypes of the piano player (also called a cabinet player or push-up player), the forerunner of the player piano. The piano player consisted of a cabinet containing the pneumatic mechanism. When pushed in front of an ordinary piano, a row of felt-covered wooden fingers at the back rested on the keyboard to play it. Inside the cabinet a music roll or note-sheet would pass over a ‘tracker bar’, usually of brass, with some 65 (later 88) slots or ports, one for each note. When a perforation in the moving note-sheet uncovered a port in the tracker bar, suction (generated by foot treadles) would draw air through the port to operate a pneumatic striking action, forcing the wooden finger down. This principle is generally known as the ‘paper-as-a-valve’ system. Levers in the front of the cabinet controlled tempo, the relative loudness of treble and bass, and the operation of the sustaining pedal of the piano; in many cabinets the latter could also be controlled automatically from the music roll. In France, towards the end of the 19th century, some mechanical piano players were still made which played perforated cardboard discs, rolls of heavy waxed paper, or zigzag folded music books.
The player piano was the outcome of a whole series of pioneering piano-playing systems, some of the earliest being mechanical and a few being electrically operated. It marked a radical improvement on previous player methods, the mechanism being built into the piano itself. The control levers were placed in a panel underneath the keyboard. The pneumatic action, fundamental to the player piano, had been developed and refined first in the small portable automatic reed organ called the Organette.
Robert W. Pain built a 39-note, mechanically operated player piano for Needham & Sons in 1880, following it with a 65-note electrically operated one in 1888. Wilcox & White of Meriden, Connecticut, successfully combined a piano and reed organ with a roll-playing inner player in 1892. Considerable experimental work was taking place simultaneously in America and Germany: in 1895 Edwin Scott Votey invented the first ‘Pianola’ piano player (and applied for a patent in 1897), the mechanism of which was later adapted to form his company's first ‘inner player’, and Hupfeld of Leipzig produced a similar instrument at about the same time. However, the first piano to have a practical pneumatic player mechanism built into it was that patented by Theodore P. Brown of Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1897. Melville Clark built his first ‘inner-player’ player piano in 1901, and in 1904 he was the first person to fit a player mechanism to a grand piano.
By careful pedalling and judicious use of expression controls, damper pedal control and tempo regulator, musically pleasing effects could be obtained on a player piano. Some music rolls included printed instructions suggesting the dynamics etc., to be used by the person operating the instrument. Since many people to whom the player piano appealed were musically unskilled, however, player piano manufacturers soon attempted to make the expressive effects automatic by incorporating them into the functions that could be controlled automatically from the music roll. This was then played on an ‘expression’ piano equipped with pneumatic functions to ‘interpret’ the supplementary perforations controlling pedalling and regulating the force applied to the hammers. For further discussion of the expression system, and of subsequent, more sophisticated forms of fully automatic, self-playing pianos, see Reproducing piano.
The ‘key-top’ player was a much smaller and with simpler mechanism made to fit on top of the keyboard. A hand-cranked pneumatic model was introduced by 1899, and several electrically-pumped models were introduced in the USA after World War II, but the variety had insufficient suction power to be able to replicate expressive piano performance due to the small size of its air reservoir.
The success of the early player piano brought many manufacturers into the business, each with its own version. The compass of the piano keyboard that could be played by the player system was somewhat abbreviated due to the physical bulk of the early actions. In the beginning, instruments which played on 58 of the keyboard's notes were common. Other models were produced which worked on 61, 65, 70, 73, 82 and 88 notes. The lack of standardization was a major problem to the manufacturers of music rolls, and in 1910, at a convention of player manufacturers held at Buffalo, New York, it was agreed to standardize on two compasses of 65 and 88 notes.
Between 1900 and 1930, 2·5 million instruments were sold in the USA. In London, a 1922 trade directory listed no fewer than 52 makers. In 1900 171,000 ‘ordinary’ pianos were made and 6000 player pianos; by 1925, at the peak of the player piano's vogue, the totals were 136,000 ordinary pianos and 169,000 player pianos. Important manufacturers included, in the USA, the Aeolian Co., American Piano Co., Auto-Pneumatic Action Co., Melville Clark Piano Co., Standard Player Action Co., and Wilcox & White Co.; in Germany, Hupfeld and Kastner-Autopiano; and in England, Marshall and Sons and the Aeolian Co. Ltd (a branch of the American firm, also known as the Orchestrelle Co.). Many other piano manufacturers purchased player mechanisms for installation in their own pianos. In addition to player pianos for the home, coin-operated machines were produced for use in cafés, restaurants, hotels and other public places. The success of Aeolian's ‘Pianola’ inspired others to capitalize on sound-alike names: Triumphola, Odeola, Monola, Pedola, Humanola and so on, while even the controls were given fanciful names such as Phrasiola, Tempola, Automelle and Transposa. The trade mark ‘Pianola’ itself became synonymous with the player piano, and was commonly adopted as a generic term for any self-playing piano. This form of marketing could not detract from the true value of the instrument, for there is little doubt that the player piano helped to popularize a great deal of music which might otherwise never have been widely known. It was acclaimed as an instrument of musical education by several well-known pianists of the time, who were handsomely paid to write testimonials. Many lending libraries of music rolls were established, and every piano retailer sold players and their rolls.
During the 1929–31 Depression, the market collapsed and sales of player pianos dwindled to almost nothing. In spite of concerted attempts to revive the player-piano market in London, the industry was finished long before the outbreak of World War II. Basic player pianos are still produced in small numbers in America; digitally controlled reproducing pianos have gained a certain popularity for use in public places.
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ARTHUR W.J.G. ORD-HUME