As with pianolas, the music rolls differ significantly according to manufacturer, age and type. There are numerous different types of rolls and these are only suitable for certain types of pianola. The value of surviving rolls also varies greatly, depending on the number of surviving rolls and the number of potential buyers.
The following characteristics can be used to differentiate between the many types of music rolls:
Type of roll (drawn rolls, artist rolls)
Skala (standard: 65 and 88 and manufacturer-specific: 72, T98, T100, etc.)
Title (beauty, quality and rarity of the music)
ROLL TYPES
The roll type describes the type of music roll production. Although manufacturers have used all sorts of terms for advertising purposes in the interests of unique selling points, a distinction can essentially be made between two types of rolls: drawn, unrecorded music rolls and recorded artist music rolls.
Drawn rolls
Drawn music rolls were transferred directly 1:1 from the sheet music to music rolls by so-called music engravers. Arranged rolls contain additional editorial intervention in order to adapt the piece of music more to the taste of the time. These drawn rolls (also known as ordinary rolls) were intended to give the pianist the greatest possible freedom in the interpretation of this piece of music. Here, too, there are already different rolls for the same pieces of music, as the notation was dependent on the edition of the respective piece of music. There are a very large number of drawn rolls for 65, 72 and 88-note systems. This type of roll has become particularly popular in the USA.
Artist rolls
Recorded music rolls were created by recording the original playing of a pianist on special recording grands - and usually also edited. These rolls were usually labelled with the pianist's signature to document that this roll represents the pianist's playing. At Hupfeld and other manufacturers, these rolls were called artist's note rolls. Welte only issued recorded rolls. At Aeolian, these rolls were labelled "hand played".
Artists' rolls were produced by the manufacturers in two variants. As artist's rolls for art pianos, i.e. the recorded hand playing of the pianist, the melody accentuation and the forte pedal were included on the music rolls. Further dynamics were the responsibility of the pianist. This type of roll was produced in large numbers - for example the Phonola and Animatic rolls by Hupfeld, the Ducanola/PhilAG rolls by Philipps. The second type are the much rarer reproduction rolls - these contain all the information required for fully automatic playback, including all the details. This type of reel includes Welte-Mignon reels, DEA rolls, Tri-Phonola rolls, DUCA reels, Duo-Art and Ampico rolls.
However the recording was realised - assuming good quality - the decisive moment for a roll of very good quality was the process of post-production, also with the collaboration of the pianist/composer. Even if this post-production did not aim to change the recording, but only to make technical corrections. As a result, post-production achieved a really very good result for some rolls.
However, as with today's artist recordings, there was often also a desire to optimise the recording by perfecting individual passages, increasing the tempo etc.. From the point of view of interpretation, intensive research and discussion is still taking place today to clarify the authenticity of the role recordings. Audio recordings from the same period clearly show that the original performance was indeed captured very well, although even in the first audio recordings, the artists strongly adapted their performance to the recording technology. Regardless of all these technical details, subjective perception remains the decisive factor when enjoying music.
SKALA
The Skala describes the structure (number, width and position) of the perforations on the paper, i.e. the number of notes, the possible control information for melodic accentuation and pedal as well as any additional control information for reproduction functions. This also means that the roll paper widths used by the different manufacturers vary considerably. In addition, the roll flanks and the pins or indentations for the roll holder on the sides are different. Only the 65 and 88 mm standard rolls can be played on all standard 65 and 88 mm Pianolas. All other rolls are only suitable for certain manufacturers, e.g. the 72 Phonola roll only fits Hupfeld Phonola. The scales of the reproduction pianos were all manufacturer-specific, i.e. no roll is compatible with any other system. The different scale formats are described in individual sections.
Roll titles
The market leaders quickly signed the most important pianists and composers - not necessarily contractually exclusive, but de facto exclusive in those cases where these artists did not record elsewhere. Some pianists recorded on almost all systems, e.g. Oswin Keller. However, given the huge repertoire, numerous titles had to be recorded for which no well-known pianist was available. Hupfeld, Phillips and all the others had quasi house pianists, who were often not even listed by name - the main thing was that the rolls could be recorded as artist rolls. Just like today, the manufacturers published the latest music, the newest hits, the most popular artists. The major manufacturers also systematically tried to offer reels for specific target groups, e.g. regional titles, backing music, dance music, marches, etc.. The producers tried to retain customers with subscriptions. In the peak phase, hundreds of thousands of titles were issued - an oversupply, which understandably led to price wars. Due to the short heyday of the pianola, the available titles were less decisive in the end - the most commercially successful were those that conquered the market first, i.e. Welte in particular.
