WurliTzer Orchestrion Rolls Needed
By Harvey Roehl, forwarded by Bob Conant
I am passing on this request for the loan of some Wurlitzer orchestrion rolls from Harvey Roehl. Many of you know Harvey as the founder of the Vestal Press and as one half of Marion Roehl Recordings. This is his request in his own words:
HELP !! HELP !!
Harvey Roehl in Vestal, NY, (phone 607-797-9062 or fax 607-797-2624) needs 18 more WurliTzer "changer" tunes to have enough to produce a recording of their CX orchestrion that features the best set of bells you've ever heard on one of these models. They plan to make a CD as well as an audio cassette. He has access to lots of rolls; the problem lies in finding tunes on the WurliTzer APP scale that are worth recording and meet some special criteria:
1) Tune titles should be known to the general public. (Exceptions can be made, but most should be at least recognized.)
2) Original tune must have been written in 1920 or earlier. (This means that they are in the public domain, and this is important to many purchasers of the recording because they can play the recording wherever they wish and not be concerned with the possibility of having to deal with or to pay any special fees for public use to copyright owners or their agents.)
3) He's looking for good keyboard arrangements; the snappier and raggier, the better !
4) Only WurliTzer rolls after #1500 appear to feature any bell scoring. Of course not every tune to be recorded will have to feature the bells.
(We're told that after QRS came in business in 1916, WurliTzer started using many QRS arrangements instead of their own. We do know that after a certain time, the music is appreciably better. Exceptions exist, of course, but most of the stuff released earlier by WurliTzer -- which paid its house arrangers 5 cents per foot for their work -- is really "blah".)
Rolls without leaders are ok; Harvey can provide his own leader for the "changer" mechanism.
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Anyone loaning a roll to Harvey that gets used will, of course, get a credit on the CD packaging and a copy of the finished product. If you have any for sale or for loan that meet the criteria, please let him know as soon as possible. Harvey isn't on the internet so please communicate through Bob Conant <bobconant@aol.com> or call Harvey Roehl collect at the phone number above.
Thanks, Bob Conant |
(Message sent Mon 4 Dec 1995, 00:35:47 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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