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THE MUSIC TRADE
JANUARY 31, 1920
REVIEW
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I The Fundamental Principles Involved
I
in the Composing and Arranging oi
1 BY DR. EDWARD SCHAAF
Music for the Player-Piano
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(Editor's Note. Doctor Schaaf is a musician who has
given much attention to the problem of arranging music
lor the player-piano in such a way as to bring out the
instrument's true voice and real musical value. As he
says, "there is only one way to unlock the magic of the
player-piano keyboard and that is to treat the instrument
as a new voice in music." Doctor Schaaf has self-sac-
ril'icingly devoted much of his time, without thought of
material reward, to the rewriting of music for the spe-
cial purpose of making it truly suitable for the player-
piano and has achieved some astounding results. He has
also composed a number of special pieces for the player-
piano only, conceived in the most modern style of what
he calls "plastic music"; and altogether wonderful. Doc-
tor Schaaf has already published in The Music Trade Re-
view the results of some earlier researches into this sub-
ject, and the present series of extremely interesting and
fascinating articles, of which this is the ninth, represents
the latest fruit of his studies.)
ORNAMENTATION
advanced with the pneumatic as with the manual
mechanism.
The device of iteration, that is to say, of slow
or fast repetition of a tone, for the purpose
of producing an effect parallel in value to the
sustained tone of the orchestra, attains to the
utmost importance in player-piano arranging.
In the first place, it is capable of satisfactorily
replacing the sustained tone which is wanting.
In the second place, it helps to produce the
much-wanted and so-little-obtained "si:ng!ing"
quality, which all pianists ought to be able to
produce through their touch on the keyboard,
but which, in fact, very few ever succeed in
producing.
There is a sort of generally held belief that
a live singing quality cannot be got out of the
player-piano by any means whatever, but this is
not true. Such quality may be obtained with-
out any automatic expression devices, without
even the so-called hand-played roll, simply by
the judicious use of iteration.
Singing Tone
The middle register of the piano is, of course,
most powerful in respect of warm and singing
quality of tone. The transcriber for
the player-piano takes full advan-
tage of this fact. By artistically
scoring iterated melodic tones in
thirds, sixths, octaves, tenths, or
combinations of these intervals, it
is possible to produce highly artis-
tic and desirable effects. The ex-
ample in Fig. 56 is from the player-piano ar-
rangement of the folk-song, "Holy Night,
Peaceful Night," as made by Horace O. Prell.
It will be observed that the melodic tones are
The article which appeared last month in this
section of The Music Trade Review was con-
cerned with that powerful device of ornamenta-
tion known as the trill. It now becomes neces-
sary to direct the reader's attention to another
branch of the same general subject.
Iteration
Someone has said that the trill is "the sup-
port and life of song." In player-piano music,
or in the arrangement and transcription of any
kind of music for the player-piano, the trill
serves to lend animation to otherwise dull pas-
sages and to a variety of other ends which have
been set forth. In respect of ability to impart,
sparkle and life the trill has, however, a for-
midable competitor in the device known as iter-
ation. It is necessary that the transcriber for the
player-piano should quite thoroughly under-
stand the meaning of this term and its peculiar
significance with respect to the kind and quality
of tone produced by the strings of the piano.
It must be recognized at the outset that itera-
tion is peculiarly adapted to tones produced per-
cussively. The bowed-string instruments of the
orchestra can sustain tones as long as they
please. So, too, can the wood and brass instru-
ments to a certain extent. For this reason,
and for others which will be obvious to" any-
one who is familiar with the instruments in
question, the iterated, or repeated, tone does not
Fig. 56
produce -so powerful an effect as the sustained made to sing in the octave with an effect not at
tone. In fact, composers make infrequent use all unlike that of the so-called "vibrato" of the
of this particular device when scoring for the violin and similar instruments.
orchestra.
To bring melodic tones into prominence in
With the piano, and especially with the player- the middle register through the use of a device
piano, however, the case is entirely reversed. such as this is to produce the most telling
Here the iterated tone plays a most powerful effects, so telling, indeed, that without impair-
part, and I think it is proper to say of it that ing in the least the balance of tone the tran-
it constitutes the backbone of melodic scoring. scriber may add various ornamental figures
This is true because the piano's tone is evoked and even obbligato passages.
by the blow of a hammer against a string. The
The Need for Moderation
tone thus produced necessarily begins to die
It is necessary, however, to remember that
as soon as it has been evoked. The finest pianos the vibrato-like effect of which I speak must
with the finest construction cannot therefore not be overdone. Unfortunately it very often
give more than a faint illusion of sustained tone, is overdone, and when this happens the effects
no matter how beautifully the device of the are the reverse of pleasant. It might be well
damper pedal is manipulated. This defect, in- to remind the student here that ornamentation
herent in the piano, is, of course, actually em- should not be applied to transcription for the
phasized in the player-piano, owing to the fact player-piano in what may be called a stereotyped
that individual control over touch is not so far or stock manner. Every one of the useful de-
vices of which I speak may be stripped very
easily of all its musical value if its use is
abused.
Iteration for Brilliancy
No device has such power as has this one we
are discussing to bring a group of tones into
prominence. In many musical arrangements,
unfortunately, this possibility is destroyed by
the disastrous habit of scoring square time in
one register against square time in another. The
resulting effect is necessarily stiff and mechani-
cal. Much destructive criticism of player-piano
music in general may be traced to this unhappy
habit of arrangers. When we are trying to use
the device of iteration for brilliancy and glitter
the proper metho.d is to score the iterated tones
in square time in one register against triple
motion in another. A double effect is thereby
secured. On one hand a valuable contrast in
rhythmic effect is obtained. On the other hand,
as the example in Fig. 57 will show, there is
imparted a certain glitter and brilliance which
cannot be obtained in any other way known
to me.
It should be pointed out here that a piece
Fig. 57
of scoring like Fig. 57 depends for its effec-
tiveness and even possibility upon the pecu*
liarities of the player-piano. That instrument's
ability in light and even accentuation of tones
in any register and at any speed, together with
its unrivaled potency for supporting the melodic
and harmonic structure by the devices of itera-
tion and tremolo, respectively endow it with
means which no other
instrument has ever
possessed for attaining
brilliant, glittering and m
*• ~ T T
even dazzling atmos-
Fig. 58
pheric effects. An illustration of the player-
piano's remarkable superiority in these respects
is shown in Fig. 58.
Though very simple, this scoring would re-
quire an entire hand of the pianist, but the
player-piano can easily manage it while at the
same time dealing with more elaborate struc-
tures in the other parts of the keyboard.
(To be continued)
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