"Pianola" as a collective term for self-playing upright and grand pianos hardly suggests the great variety of these instruments. This diversity is due to the successive development of technical possibilities and the different demands of buyers - but also to the large number of manufacturers who wanted to make a profit from this lucrative market. Many of these manufacturers tried to push through their own ideas - or to circumvent existing patents - and therefore repeatedly built new variants of pianolas with a similar basic design.
The following characteristics can be used to differentiate between the various pianola systems:
Design (cabinet, upright, built-in piano or grand piano)
Type of construction (pedal piano, art piano, reproduction piano)
Skala (number of notes addressed on the sliding block) and
There are basically four different types of construction: The cabinet, the push-up player, the built-in upright piano and the built-in grand piano.
The Kabinett
Cabinets are systems that combine the self-playing technique with an acoustic piano in one case, but do not have their own keyboard. The acoustic piano in the cabinet was purchased from leading manufacturers, usually Feurich. In these systems, the self-playing technology directly accesses the piano's action. As far as we know, these are exclusively reproduction systems that play the music fully automatically and with emphasis. These systems were particularly suitable for music lovers who only wanted to hear the music from the music rolls and not play the instrument themselves. Cabinets were built by Welte, Philipps and Hupfeld - today they are rarely found - and, if at all, mostly by Welte-Mignon.
The Vorsetzer
The so-called push-up players were the first systems to be produced in large numbers. Pianola from the Aeolian Company and Phonola from Hupfeld AG are well-known examples. A push-up player is placed in front of a hand-played piano or grand piano. The self-playing mechanism is located entirely in the Vorsetzer. The Vorsetzer usually has 65-88 fingers (others/earlier ones also have fewer), which rest on the keys and thus play the music read from the music roll directly via the keyboard. The Vorsetzer existed in all three forms, as a pedal instrument (early pianola/phonola etc.), as an art instrument (later pianola/phonola etc. with accentuation possibilities) and as a reproducing instrument (Welte, Hupfeld DEA, etc.). Vorsetzers are interesting if you want to enjoy the sound of an existing upright or grand piano - or if you want to use different instruments with the Vorsetzer.
THE PIANOLA BUILT-IN PIANO
Manufacturers of self-playing mechanisms soon realised that more and more customers found it inconvenient to have to set up the piano attachment each time, as it not only had to be pushed up to the instrument, but also had to be adjusted correctly in terms of height, pedal position and playing strength. In addition, fewer and fewer people wanted the extra furniture in their homes. Last but not least, the sale of combined instruments opened up lucrative additional business for the manufacturers of self-playing mechanisms. So it wasn't long before manufacturers such as Aeolian or Hupfeld co-operated with many well-known manufacturers of upright and grand pianos - and often took them over later - and offered pianola pianos in particular.
THE PIANOLA BUILT-IN GRAND PIANO
From 1908 onwards, pianola systems were increasingly built into upright and grand pianos. With the pianola technology built into the instrument, the instrument could be used as a hand-playing instrument and as a pianola. With upright pianos, it quickly became apparent that many customers found the boxes for holding the pedals on the grand piano too bulky and that the operation of the often shortened normal piano pedals was not so favourable. These were no longer necessary on later electrically operated pianola grand pianos, as the suction air supply was provided by the motor.
In addition to these main designs, there were also a number of other creative self-playing solutions that did not catch on. For example, there were substructures for grand pianos, keyboard attachments for upright pianos, etc..
TYPES OF PIANOLAS
There are three main types of construction
the pedal instrument
the artist instrument
the reproducing instrument
All three types were available in the four aforementioned designs - and in combinations of the designs in one instrument (e.g. Hupfeld Tri-Phonola). The exception to this are the so-called cabinets, as these were mostly designed as reproduction instruments. Purely pedal instruments became rarer from around 1907 and were replaced by so-called art instruments. The types differ in the way they reproduce different music rolls.
THE PEDAL INSTRUMENT
This is the simplest and earliest form of the standard pianola. The self-playing mechanism for playing the music rolls is driven by pedalling. The music roll contains only the punchings for the notes taken from the sheet music, no perforations for emphasis, tempo or dynamics. The task of giving the piece of music emphasis and expression falls to the so-called pianist, i.e. the person sitting at the pianola. Hupfeld wrote about the operation of the levers in one of his instructions (see picture opposite).
With this type of pedal piano, the term "self-playing" instrument is only partially correct. Although the notes are played in the correct order and composition via the music roll, it is up to the pianist to turn them into a melodious and possibly beautifully interpreted piece of music, as the pianist controls the tempo, dynamics and emphasis. Many music rolls have information on them for this purpose, so that the pianist can use this to control the dynamics and emphasis as intended for this piece of music by the music roll manufacturer. In fact, the pedalling technique is decisive for the design of the music with this type of pianola.
Sehr bald schon stieg der Anspruch an diese Tretinstrumente und die Kunden wollten ein weniger mechanisch und oft leblos klingendes Musikerlebnis. So kamen um 1907 so genannte Künstlerrollen auf den Markt – hier sind die Töne des Musikstückes so auf der Notenrolle angesiedelt, wie ein bestimmter Pianist dieses Stück spielte – es wurden also erste „Aufnahmen“ gemacht. Zumeist war dann auch der Pedaleinsatz (rechtes Pedal) und die Melodiebetonung auf der Notenrolle bereits vorgesehen und durch Lochungen platziert. Bis zur Standardisierung erfolgte dies in herstellerspezifischer Weise. Die Gestaltung der Dynamik und der Betonung obliegen dann aber immer noch dem Pianolisten, so dass er entweder im Sinne des einspielenden Pianisten den auf der Rolle angegebenen Dynamik- und Betonungsbefehlen folgen – oder eine eigene Interpretation vornehmen konnte. Um diese Künstlerrollen abspielen zu können, wurden Kunstspielinstrumente auf den Markt gebracht.
THE ARTIST INSTRUMENT
By expanding its functions, the pedal instrument became an art instrument. Additional functions are: automatic melody accentuation (solotant with Hupfeld, themodist with Aeolian, melodant with Angelus, etc.), pedal function (fortepedal = right pedal), which are also automatically activated by corresponding perforations on the music rolls. In addition to the levers of the pedal piano, further levers for switching the melody emphasis and pedal function on and off are usually found in the area of the music roll box.
From about 1908 onwards, artist instruments were the dominant type of pianola. The quality of the fittings and finish varied depending on the manufacturer. In Germany, Hupfeld dominated this market. In the beginning, artist pianos were mainly available with a pedal pedal function - but later also with an electric blower system, which then had automatic switch-off, return, sometimes a repeat function and sometimes also simple emphasis functions.
Examples of manufacturer-specific names of the art instruments are Solophonola by Hupfeld, Pianola Themodist by Aeolian, Ducanola by Philipps, Estrella by Popper, etc....
THE REPRODUCING INSTRUMENT
Es wurde bereits 1904 als „Artist“ von Hugo Popper aus Leipzig und M. Welte und Söhne aus Freiburg vorgestellt. Herrn Welte und Herrn Bockisch ging es darum, das Spiel eines Pianisten mit allen Details aufzunehmen und über eine geeignete Vorrichtung zu reproduzieren. Aus einem Welte Firmenprospekt zitiert, heißt es dazu: „Eine noch so sorgfältig gezeichnete mechanische Musik wird immer mechanisch klingen, es fehlt ihr die Freiheit in der Bewegung, der natürliche Fluß, der Schwung in der Auffassung, die oft unscheinbaren und doch so reizenden Tempowechsel. Kurz, das Spiel hat nicht das, was es „künstlerisch“, was es „perfekt“ macht. Wir erkannten nach langem Studium, dass die einzige Lösung, die all die genannten Unvollkommenheiten gründlich beseitigt, in der Aufnahme des Pianisten selbst und dessen Wiedergabe auf einem Flügel oder Piano zu finden ist.“
The special music rolls for reproducing instruments contain all the information required for fully automatic reproduction of the piece of music. It is neither intended nor possible for the pianist to influence the reproduction, as is the case with the art piano. The realisation of the high quality of the reproduction was achieved in different ways by the manufacturers. This also means that reproduction music rolls only work on the instruments of the respective manufacturers and develop the intended quality. The reproduction instruments play 80-88 notes and have an additional 10-25 holes in the sliding block for the controls. You can find more information about the instruments and the music rolls on these pages in the respective sections. Of particular interest are, of course, those music roll recordings which are the only sound documents - as with Alfred Reisenauer and many others.
MOST IMPORTANT REPRODUCING INSTRUMENTS
Welte-Mignon red (T100) as of 1904
Hupfeld DEA (as of 1907)
Philipps Duca (as of 1908)
Aeolian Duo-Art (as of 1913)
Ampico A (as of 1913)
Hupfeld Triphonola (as of 1919)
Welte-Mignon green (T98) as of 1924
Ampico B (as of 1929)
In addition, there were other reproducing instruments which, like the Popper Stella from 1908, never achieved a significant market share and for which there are almost no reproducing reels available today.
Als die letzte Entwicklungsstufe dieser Reproduktionsinstrumente kann das Ampico B angesehen werden. In dem Buch „Re-Enacting the Artist“ schreibt Larry Givens über das Ampico B System: „With its fewer moving parts, its electric roll drive mechanism, its quieter pump and exhaust, its rapid-acting valves, and many other improvements and innovations the Model B Ampico cannot be considered anything less than the zenith of player piano development.„
Alle Reproduktionsinstrumente waren mit elektrischem Gebläse ausgestattet – integriert in die Instrumente, als nebenstehendes Gebläse in einem Schrank oder einer Truhe sowie als zentrale Versorgung in einem separaten Raum. Reproduktionssysteme gab es als Vorsetzer, tastaturloses Kabinett und eingebaut in Klaviere und Flügel. Einige Reproduktionssysteme konnten auch zusätzlich als Kunstspielklavier genutzt werden. Darauf deutet z.B. die Bezeichnung „Duo“ bei DuoArt oder „Tri“ der Triphonola hin, d.h. z.B. bei der Triphonola die drei verschiedenen Einsatzmöglichkeiten in einem Instrument.
Of course, there were many other types of instruments in which a piano was operated as a self-playing instrument alongside others - these so-called orchestrions are not discussed in detail here.
SKALA OF A PIANOLA
The Skala of a pianola refers to the structure and range of the tone and control spectrum available on the note glide block via holes. Most pianolas up to ~1945 had 85 keys, many grand pianos and so-called concert pianos often had 88 keys. Initially, pianolas only addressed a portion of the tones available on the piano.
The most important and most common standard scales for pianolas include the
65note Skala (Aeolian, as of ~1897)
72/73 note Skala (Hupfeld, as of ~1902)
88 note Skala (standard, as of ~1908)
This aspect of the larger range for reproducing pieces of music in the original notation was emphasised by the companies as an important differentiating feature. In the case of reproduction instruments, differentiation was also attempted with the tonal range (e.g. Philipps Duca with exactly one tone more than Welte), and each manufacturer had its own patents for controlling the accentuation apparatus, so that different scales were also introduced here and retained for a long time. It was not until the 1920s that Welte and Hupfeld, for example, offered their reproduction instruments with a scale that corresponded to the standard 88-note scale, at least in terms of the size of the music roll. This meant that standard 88-note rolls could also be played (then only as an art playing function).
A much-cited analysis by Chase & Baker from 1908 based on the 3838 music rolls in their catalogue showed that with the scale of 65 notes, significantly fewer pieces of music could be converted 1:1 from sheet music into rolls. Of the 3838 music rolls, 1130 (29%) could be played with a 65-note scale. 2425 (63%) music rolls required a range of 78 tones, 2542 (66%) required 80 tones, 2660 (69%) required 83 tones, 3676 (96%) required 85 tones and all rolls could of course be played with a range of 88 tones. In order to be able to reproduce pieces of music on the 65-note scale, reductions and octave shifts were made to stay within the 65-note range. This Chase & Baker analysis clearly influenced the decision in favour of a 65-note standard and an 88-note standard scale. Although this standardisation was determined in America and only by the leading American companies, the European manufacturers also gradually followed the 88-note standard, which was considered modern.
CONSTRUCTION STYLES OF THE PIANOLAS
Naturally, the various manufacturers tried to build their instruments in such a way that they could achieve higher sales on the market than their competitors. This can be seen both in the design of the self-playing mechanism and the design of the piano bodies. The style design was adapted to the different groups of buyers, markets and contemporary tastes. Instruments for private households were designed differently to instruments for use in cafés or restaurants. The technical realisation of the self-playing mechanisms - although similar in basic principle - differed from manufacturer to manufacturer, and was often not uniform between the various systems even within a single manufacturer. Reproduction instruments were often housed in extraordinarily ornate cases, sometimes based on artists' designs and customised to suit the buyer's style of furnishing.
