This note is intended for Mike Walter.  I am posting it here because it
may be of interest to other readers of the Digest.

Mike, at your request I retrieved from cold storage my copy of Ampico
Roll 50715, Debussy's "Reflet dans l'eau" played by Leo Ornstein.  The
first thing I noticed is that the title of the roll is exactly as given
above -- in French, and with the correct capitalization.  My original
1929 Ampico catalog includes a listing for the roll, also with the
title in French, but improperly capitalized.  My memory of the particu-
lars about the spool ends and label (I mentioned these a few days ago
in Digest 971115) are correct, allowing us to bracket the date of
manufacture.

Examination of the roll itself shows that it is not a later "B"
version, but rather a late copy made from an early master roll.  Given
that my copy was manufactured so late (according to your research, it
dates from 1935 or later), I think we are justified in concluding that
there is no "B" version of this particular roll.  There is no reason to
believe that an existing "B" master roll would not be used after 1935
if it existed, and there is also no reason to imagine that re-coding
would take place during the Depression, when resources were stretched
so thin.

I scanned the roll and reconstructed the master roll for it.  I will
send you the master roll privately (it is too large to attach to the
Digest) so that you can draw you own conclusions about the roll from
the coding style and webbing patterns.

To answer your last question: the Rachmaninoff project is finished.
The complete reproducing piano rolls played by Rachmaninoff are
available on a two-disk set from my company, Live Performance.

With best regards,

Wayne Stahnke


 [ Editor's Note:
 [
 [ Wayne has agreed to let Foxtail market his "Live Performance"
 [ disks on the Internet.  While I am not yet prepared to be an
 [ "on-line shopping cart", with complete order-taking and credit card
 [ processing, we hope to be able to do that soon.  In the meantime,
 [ I've put a (hopefully) complete list of available disks, each with
 [ a connected page containing the titles, on the MMD web site as:
 [
 [      http://mmd.foxtail.com/livep
 [
 [ Those wishing to order from us may send an e-mail message to
 [ <rollreq@foxtail.com>.  Of course, you can contact Wayne directly
 [ if you prefer.  Prices will be the same, but placing the order
 [ through us will help support MMD, and we can accept payment by
 [ MasterCard and VISA.
 [
 [ Please note that these disks are in Yamaha Disklavier format and
 [ cannot be directly used on a PC.  They will play in a variety of
 [ MIDI disk readers, including Roland Sound Brush (SB-55), PianoDisc
 [ PDS-128, all Yamaha disk players (Disklavier, Clavinova, and
 [ external), and probably others.
 [
 [ Wayne and I discussed placing sound-bites of these pieces on the
 [ MMD web site via Real Audio, but I'd like to know if there's any
 [ significant interest.  Unfortunately, because of the problems of
 [ unauthorized duplication, disks purchased cannot be returned,
 [ although they may be exchanged for the same title if unreadable.
 [
 [ Wayne will be releasing CD audio recordings of the Rachmaninoff
 [ piano roll project at some time in the future.  The audio
 [ recordings were performed on the Boesendorfer SE Imperial Concert
 [ Grand and are stunning.  I don't know if I'll be lucky enough to
 [ be able to sell these CDs too, but I hope so.
 [
 [ -- Jody