How the record rack lost its groove Aug 11, 2008
First, it was publishers of sheet music and providers of piano rolls who controlled the income, then broadcasters, agencies and promoters of live music. In the second half of the 20th century, as the revenue from sales of recorded music grew and grew, the record companies became the all-encompassing providers of services for artists. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
20 fab fingers Mar 3, 2008
Before records and radios, piano four-hands had a familiar role in home music-making; the thick sound of piano rolls largely springs from it. A large literature written specifically for this conformation has more or less languished for the past 100 years. (Anchorage Daily News)
Cleveland native on a roll’ with new klezmer piano CD Feb 1, 2008
Klezmerola, a brand-new CD created by native Clevelander Bob Berkman, makes it possible for the first time ever to hear Jewish recordings from a long-neglected source: old player piano rolls. Included in the CD is the only Jewish roll by George Gershwin, recorded in 1916 and long thought lost. (Cleveland Jewish News, OH)
Opinion: On ringtones and copyrights Sep 25, 2007
Congress enacted this license in the early 20th century to protect against a vast music monopoly in the heyday of Tin Pan Alley, there was a fear that giant music publishers could purchase the rights to almost every song and then prohibit anyone from making player piano rolls of their own performances of them. It was later extended to sound recordings, and in the 1990s, digital recordings such as MP3 and AAC files. (MacCentral)
Trust is harder to Mar 6, 2007
The music industry is the slowest of the arts to move forward, and this has happened again and again over the decades, from piano rolls to vinyl to cassettes to compact discs all the way to the MP3. Not only do they resist the technology, but they resist the culture. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Technology)
Driving rhythms, superhuman speeds Feb 15, 2007
Beginning in 1947, Nancarrow resorted to a machine, the player piano, to realize his musical visions, painstakingly punching piano rolls by hand and sometimes taking years to complete a piece only a few minutes long. The resulting series of "Studies for Player Piano " is among the richest and most engaging bodies of work produced in the latter half of the 20th century. Tomorrow night at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Nancarrow's music will be performed by Alarm Will Sound, the acclaimed... (Boston Globe)
