Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
OCTOBER 28,
1922
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
A Discussion of the Divided Pumper System and Some of the Advantages
Which Would Result from a Division of the Bellows Whereby the Treble
and Bass Parts Would Each Have Its Own Separate Pedal and Power-plant
The expression lay-out of the ordinary foot-
expression player-piano is by now pretty well
standardized. It consists of divided softening
buttons, damper and tempo controls, and foot-
control of the air-flow. The division of the
hammer-rail or of the pneumatic stack or both,
into two parts, each controlled by one button,
for softening effects seems at first to constitute
a very rough and ready method for obtaining
contrasts of tone and color, which is, of course,
its object. Yet in practice it is found that the
results are a good deal better than could rea-
sonably be expected. The simplest of all ex-
pression lay-outs is constituted on the basis of
sensitive bellows plus divided action or hammer-
rail, usually the latter. A skilled player-pianist
can do very wonderful things with the simple
apparatus here described, but at the same time
there are certain limitations which this system
cannot overcome.
Extremists have always contended that the
player-piano fails completely at the important
point where the difference between the right
and left-hand parts of the ordinary piano piece
would normally be most distinct. Of course,
very many, indeed, of the defects of player-
piano interpretations arise from the fact that
music rolls mathematically arranged from the
pianoforte score can only be played on the
player-piano satisfactorily when the player-
pianist is as good a musician as the manual
pianist would have to be. Yet the pneumatic
action itself has to bear some of the blame.
The situation is not half so bad as the extrem-
ists would pretend, but the fact remains that the
single bellows system, supplying power to all
parts of the action at one level for any one
moment, does not enable even the most highly
skilled performer to get out of the player-piano
some of the fine results he knows he wants to
get.
Faults of the Single System
As things stand, the bellows system delivers,
at any stroke of the feet on the pedals, a power
impulse which is utilized by any pneumatic or
pneumatics which may at the moment be se-
lected by the music roll. All perforations
crossing the tracker-bar simultaneously must
be sounded with equal force, therefore, unless
one or more of them is otherwise treated
through the interposition of some auxiliary de-
vice. The scheme of dividing the hammer-rail
in two parts, with each part separately capable
of being thrown towards the strings, serves to
make a rough contrast between the first forty-
four and the last forty-four notes of the scale.
But the musical value is limited, since it so
often occurs that an accent is wanted in each
of the regions of the scale simultaneously. The
two accents ought usually not to be equal in
intensity, and in each case there may be sur-
rounding tones which are not be accented at
all. In a case like this the utmost skill of the
player-pianist is taxed to obtain a fair result.
He may do much by rapid and judicious manipu-
lation of the softening devices, where the sec-
ond-rate or unskilled performer is entirely at
a loss.
Now, it has not seemed to occur to many
engineers—what is the undoubted truth—that
almost all the requirements of the case could
be met by the simple device of dividing the
pumper system into two parts, one assigned to
each pedal, and each managing the pneumatic
power for one-half of the playing action. That
sounds simple, and so it is. There is no mechan-
ical difficulty whatever about it. Anyone can
see its mechanical simplicity. The only mechan-
ical addition would be a partition in the bellows
trunk, and one in the action. But how would
it work?
How It Would Work
Well, in the first place, the result would sim-
ply be that each half of the action would have
its own supply of power. The player-pianist
/
would treat each pedal separately and assign to
each whatever effort might be needed to give,
from moment to moment, the appropriate power
intensity to the corresponding half of the action.
He would, in fact, have two foot parts, just
as the manual pianist has two hand parts. That
would mean at once that half of the complaints
made against the foot player on the score of its
(Continued on page 10)
/.* \
WHY WE ADVERTISE
TO THE DEALER
The perception of piano dealers all over
the country is largely responsible for the
fact that more than sixty manufacturers
are installing the P R A T T R E A D
PLAYER A C T I O N .
These dealers have found the Pratt Read, with its
built-in quality, absolute control and exclusive fea-
tures, an easy player to sell and a "friend-maker"
after it is sold*
By means of printed facts which are not overdrawn, we want
dealers who are not yet specifying the Pratt Read in their orders
to know more about a player action that closes difficult pros-
pects and makes more sales*
THE PRATT READ PLAYER ACTION CO.
MAIN OFFICE AND FACTORY, DEEP RIVER, C O N N .
Foreign Office, 21 Mincing Lane, London
mm