Hupfeld Phonola Rolls
By Dan Wilson
John Phillips mentioned his Animatic 88n roll 51757 "Akademische Festouverture, op.80." played by Weiss and Stefaniai, as being suspiciously similar to the 73n roll mentioned earlier.
"Animatic" was a Hupfeld trade name adopted before WW1 to internationalize its products - I have several Animatic rolls made before 1914. Hupfeld 88n theme rolls began to be marketed in Europe in 1909 as a direct result of the freeing of the Melville Clark standards for international use in the two famous Buffalo standardizing conventions of 1908 and 1909. In London they were handled by Bluthner, whose pianos employed Hupfeld player actions. These were marketed as "Solophonola" and I understand that the reason this name wasn't used for the rolls as well was to prevent the public thinking they would only play on those pianos. (This would have benefited Bluthner, of course, but not Hupfeld !)
As far as I am aware, all the early 88n titles were straight (and very accurate) transcriptions of existing 73n Phonola issues. These in turn were largely but not wholly "hand-played" versions of recordings taken for the DEA system. Harold Bauer in the 1920s, though, recalled that he had made recordings for Phonola in the 1910s which, it had been made clear to him, was a semi-expression and not a reproducing system (in other words, something similar to Aeolian's "Themodist" system). Before 1912 or so, these 88n rolls sometimes bore halftone photo reproductions of the pianist concerned, in the same way as DEA and some Phonola rolls had done. In the way that in the UK 65n production continued long after it stopped in the USA, 73n rolls continued to be made at Leipzig until the slump of 1929-30 (though I'm pretty sure Hupfeld also made 65n rolls, as there were other German machines to this standard !).
With competition from Duo-Art in particular, thought was given during the war to an 88n improvement on the DEA system and this appeared as the Triphonola in (I think) 1919. Technically it's very like two Ampicos going at once - one for theme and one for accompaniment - and like the Green Welte, was designed to provide all 88 notes. This meant cramming all the dynamic perforation tracks into dangerously close positions on the edges of the rolls where you really need them spaced wider - a thing only possible with Hupfeld's high quality of manufacture. Triphonola only sold well in France and Germany but there are some good surviving collections in Italy and there is a project there to transcribe some of the performances to Duo-Art. The rolls work the same as Animatics when pedalled on "theme"-equipped pianos.
Since on all Hupfeld's 88n rolls including the semi-reproducing Clavitist rolls for cafe pianos, tempo "50" is equivalent to American/British tempo 70-75, I suggest the tempo marking on 73n rolls needs to be scrutinised closely before marking up any transfers to and from 88n !
By 1940 sales of Hupfeld rolls in England had dropped to zero and when the temperature also did so that winter, the firm of Maxwell, Whelpdale & Codd who had taken over the Bluthner business (making the very fine Welmar "Bluthner-clone" piano) ran its boilers for two days on the remaining stock of Animatic rolls, the janitor tossing them in without taking them out of the boxes ! Those employees who still possessed player-pianos were first permitted to take as many away as they wished and it is believed that many of the very late Animatic rolls still in circulation here originate from this source.
The general history of Hupfeld, possibly the finest single player-piano maker ever, is very little known in the English-speaking world and I for one would welcome some posts on the subject from Germany.
Dan Wilson
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