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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
II
The Mechanical Go-ordination of Player Action and Music Roll—The One Is
Absolutely No Use Without the Other, and the Object of This Talk Is to
Discuss the Subject from Different Angles—Annual Conference Suggested.
It is a misfortune from the point of view of
efficiency in attaining artistic and mechanical per-
fection that the business of making music rolls has
been so largely dissociated from that of building
player actions. It is not enough to say that the
music roll makers have done wonders in the direc-
tion of fitting their products to the player action.
For we may, and quite cheerfully do, admit all of
these contentions without thereby vitiating the
argument now to be presented. We may, in fact,
admit that everything that can be done in present
conditions to make the music roll a perfected
article is being done, and done efficiently. Yet the
point that we now have to make is by no means
less acute after this admission.
The player action and the music roll have been,
on account of the peculiar conditions of the trade
hinted at above, more or less completely dissociated
in the minds of the public; and hardly less so in
those of the player designers and builders them-
selves. Now, the fact is that the one most im-
portant thing about the player action and the roll
alike is their complete interdependence. The one is
absolutely no use without the other, and whatever
the one is it is in virtue of this alliance. Hence it
would appear that the problem of properly co-
ordinating these two elements in their physical
make-up and their inter-relations is the most im-
portant problem that could possibly be presented
to students of the pneumatic art. Yet it is not
saying too much to say that this point of view
has been quite habitually neglected. To it there-
fore we propose to address the purpose of this
article.
Looked at from one important point of view, the
music roll is an integral part of the player action,
for it furnishes the preliminary valve system
whereby the interior valve which operates the pneu-
matic for each note is itself set into operation. The
alternations of paper and perforation, perforation
and paper, what are they but the opening and clos-
ing of eighty-eight valves, of which the seats are
represented by the eighty-eight ducts leading from
the tracker bar. Does not the music roll, then, rep-
resent the active element in a large valve system
of controlling important to the operation of the
piano player action? Call the perforated sheet a
selective valve system, instead of a "music roll,"
and you have a conception of the highest im-
portance, but one which has been almost universal-
ly neglected in the thought of designers and con-
structors.
Importance of the Conception.
The idea of the roll as a valve system is an idea
which should be cultivated by all who are engaged
in the player business. The reason for insisting
upon the importance of this idea lies not alone in
the fact that it is true, but also that much of the
prevailing misconception and misunderstanding of
the functions of the roll might be removed if this
thought were more common. For instance, it is
commonly supposed that the nature of the aperture
Royal
Music
Rolls
There are all
kind* of music
rolls and ROYAL
ROLLS.
Royal rolls are cut in
conformity with the estab-
lished standard measure*
ments and we guarantee that
they will fit ALL standard
players.
You won't know roll satisfaction
until you play the Royal.
Royal Music Roll Co., "J
which the punches of the perforating machine make
is a matter of scarcely more than academic im-
portance. Nevertheless the moment we begin to
think of the perforated sheet as a valve system
and of the perforations as representing the open
position of the valves, it becomes evident that
there is a. great deal of importance in the question
of aperture. Plainly, an aperture which meets the
tracker duct squarely admits a larger quantity of
air at the moment of incidence than does a rounded
aperture. This does not mean to imply that the
square cut is necessarily either the better or the
worse, for the matter of the quantity of air ad-
mitted does not depend for its analysis of ad-
vantages upon anything so crude as this. But this
does mean to imply that it is possible to modify
the rate of air admission to the primary pouches.
And this again means that if the perforated sheet
as a valve system and the internal system of the
action be considered in correlation, considerable
modification of both would be likely to emerge,
much to the advantage of all concerned.
The Question of "Touch."
While we are studying the possibility of pro-
ducing a real "human touch," as it is rather loosely
called, upon the player-piano—a statement which
really means reproducing the tone color character-
istic of hand-playing—we should not neglect to
study the roll apertures, their nature, the manner
of their incidence and kindred matters. For it is
evident that a great deal more good can be had
by modifying the action of the pneumatics them-
selves than by wasting our time on finding in-
genious ways of connecting with the piano action
in imitation of the human finger on the key or
otherwise. This latter business is all very well,
but anybody who has made an analysis of touch
from the physical viewpoint knows that hammer
velocity is the controlling factor in all varieties of
"touch," and that, in fact, whether the pianist
knows it or not, all the shades and varieties of
key manipulation are reducible to th\s one basis.
Hence the importance of studying the relation of
the roll as a valve system to the operation of the
primary valves, and thence of the pneumatics them-
selves.
. Graduated Pneumatic Attack.
It is fairly evident that if we could even meas-
urably control the operation of the pneumatic in
respect of the time consumed in its operation of
the piano action, we could do a great deal more
toward coloring the tone of our playing than we
can in any other way. The fundamental difficulty
in the way of getting good tone out of the pneu-
matic action is simply that it is much harder to
control the hammer velocity as we want to when
we can control only the atmospheric pressure than
it would be if we could control both the atmospheric
pressure and the time expended in collapse. In
order to get anything like this we must, of course,
discover a method whereby, for instance, a gradu-
ated admission of air under the primary pouch
would lead to a graduated displacement of air
from the pneumatic. The thing cannot be done
with present existing rolls and valve actions, de-
pend on that. No mere alteration of aperture will
or can do any such thing. But the problem is by
no means impossible of accomplishment if well
studied out.
What the Hand-Played Roll Has Revealed.
The hand-played roll has done a great deal more
than merely give us reproduction of pianists'
phrasing. It has done the immensely important
thing of giving us a knowledge of much of the in-
ternal secrets of hand playing; secrets of the
highest importance. It has shown, for instance,
that one of the defects of the straight cut roll is
its excessive correctness, if one may use the term
somewhat loosely. In other words, to give a con-
crete instance, the straight cut roll gives us right
and left hand parts exactly as they are written with
respect to each other. The hand-played roll re-
veals the curious fact that the right and left hands
of no pianist operate with equal facility, so that*
each individual has a peculiar and characteristic
action of his own with regard to the manner in
which these two are correlated. Of course, this
interesting fact, while it tends to afford proof that,
more is required b'efore we can emulate the best
tone polor in pneumatic playing, is not of itself
any argument for the superiority of bad correlation
of hands over perfect correlation thereof. It only
shows that some part at least of what we have
esteemed the "human, spiritual, emotional element"
in piano playing is due to an absolute mechanical
imperfection. Yet from this even we may draw
safely the conclusion that the music roll must be
studied also from this angle if its correlation with
the pneumatic action is to be brought to anything
like the perfection that is possible.
We believe sincerely that a great deal of good
would be accomplished by reviving and making an-
nual the music roll conference which did so much
in 1909. Not to push the suggestion too far, we
are of the opinion that much is to be done in the
way of working out the destiny of player and roll
in concert, and the conference, if seriously taken
and seriously attended, could do a great deal in a
field where there is much of the utmost importance
to be done.
RTEMPO
^ T L Music Rolls are NEW;
they reproduce the ac-
tual interpretation of the artist
without the use of expression
levers.
Individual expression
may also be used if desired.
Can be used on all 88-note player-
pianos. We specialize in the produc-
tion of hand-played music roll records
and offer a service that is bound to
increase the sales and satisfaction of
your player-piano clientele.
Send for a sample Artempo roll and
prove that this roll is of exceptional
merit.
Bennett & White, Inc.
54 Austin Street
Newark, N. J.