Most of the pieces recorded on reproducing rolls are piano solo pieces. Nevertheless, rolls were also made that were intended to accompany songs, enabling singers then as now to sing along to the original piano accompaniment. These rolls existed for different voice types. To our knowledge, Hupfeld offered the largest repertoire of this kind.
Here, too, the reproducing rolls recorded by the composer himself are of course particularly interesting. One example is Welte-Mignon roll no. 770, “Das himmlische Leben, soprano solo from the 4th Symphony”, one of four rolls recorded by Gustav Mahler on November 9, 1905. This is not, however, an accompaniment roll without the melody line, but a piano reduction – rather a transcription by G. Mahler himself, in order to present the idea and soul of this piece as well as possible on a piano. That is why there are minor deviations in the musical text and above all in the tempo.
In the BR program “Klick Klack” of June 20, 2020, the singer Christiane Karg describes her impressions of singing to a reproducing roll. Hans Schmitz set up the Welte-Mignon roll on a push-up player at a Steinway grand piano and describes the Welte-Mignon system (last segment, from minute 20:20).