The Automatic Musical Instrument of NOW
By Stephen Kent Goodman
[ Quote from conversation between Stephen Kent Goodman and Pete Woodwarth
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> Pete Woodworth - Two-Bit Music Co.
> cwoodwor@oboe.calpoly.edu --- http://calpoly.edu/~cwoodwor
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> IN%"cwoodwor@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu
> from S.K.Goodman
Hi Pete;
Responding to your note:
> Stephen,
> Thanks for your intro to the automatic-music list!
> We probably crossed paths many times, as I used to spend whole summers
> sitting in front of that Balboa "Fun Zone" PianOrchestra!!! It has been my
> love of that particular instrument which has now caused me to launch
> headlong into automatic music some 35 years later. I have often wondered
> what happened to it, but until I discovered the 'Encyclopedia' did I
> recognize that *roll changer*.
Pete, it amazes me how many people I hear from whose lives were touched by that one orchestrion and the courses of events that ensued. It too, became the touchstone for my involvement with AMIs, especially as a disillusioned 17-year old having to work with musicians who had little or no respect for a "kid" who could conduct or write better than they could. I longed for an alternative to humans!
> .[stepping onto soap box] I am convinced that these wonderful orchestrions
> and band organs can make a comeback for this generation, _providing_ that
> they are able to play contemporary music---as they did in their time.
I find that the automatic musical instrument of NOW is the midi file- the ragtime I write is written today, therefore "contemporary", although I do seldom use devices that overtly try and make it sound post first generation (I use traditional elements but use them creatively and non-traditionally at times). There is a tremendous growth among the under 30 crowd with ragtime. I have the sales figures to prove it. The accessible instrument for the next century will be the multimedia player- sound card and/or synthesizer. Music may be created just for this medium that can't or won't be played by human performers.
> Now and then I'll ask a student at the University here, when the last
> time was that they had listened to a nickelodeon or orchestrion...
> The few who had heard (of) a nickelodeon had heard one at a pizza parlor
> or theme park (even Disneyland's is a poorly-maintained repro). None
> knew what an orchestrion or band organ is. =( So, I'm gunna hafta
> build my own (new) MIDIfied instruments.
Good for you....most collectors secret away their collections so that the general public never will be able to hear them. They keep them as "prestige" items which makes me laugh- I remember a time when they could be had for almost the hauling away- machines that were strictly utilitarian for beer halls, saloons, bordellos, et al. Some "prestige", huh?
> I would love to correspond with you regarding arranging for automusic. I
> am researching existing copyright law and beginning communications with
> BMI, ASCAP, et al, regarding performance and arrangement rights of MIDI
> files for "acoustic reproduction". We'll see how it goes...
> Eventually I hope to start an AMICA chapter here on the Central Coast.
Save your research time & money. Except for arrangements owned outright by current roll producers, I doubt if anyone at WurliTzer today will remember that they had a roll arranging department at all. Rand and a few others may use names like "Clark Orchestra Roll Co.", but do not have dibs on any pre-existing arrangement unless in their articles of incorporation or statement of ownership expressly stated that they do (I doubt if it even occurred to Rand). Besides, according to my ASCAP attorney, the (c) law only extends back 75 years. Good luck with AMICA. Ever visited members in Fresno? I hear that there is a guy who owns a photoplayer here. Have you ever heard of him?
SKG
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(Message sent Wed 23 Aug 1995, 01:26:54 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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