Hi Robbie,  Regarding your comments at the end of Craig's posting on
Pauline Alpert, I have a mid-'70s letter from Armbruster in which
(while discussing the sundry versions of Rhapsody in Blue that 'he
made' for Aeolian) he says that he "doesn't remember and doesn't care
about" the hurried work he did in those days for the Duo-Art.  (I can
send you the EXACT sentences if you wish; this is a paraphrase.)
Perhaps in a social situation, such as at an AMICA meting, he was there
to "please people" as most musicians and performers are.

Am sending a c.c. of this note to Richard Dearborn, whose George Steck
piano she played at one of the AMICA club conventions.  His discussions
with her differed from the recollections which have been appearing in
the MMD.  Of course, musicians 'change' all the time, which is why my
posting in The Pianola News talked about William Bolcom.  Since that
time I've received a recording from Karl Ellison via E-Mail which is
'in between' the performance extremes discussed in my web site (linked
at the bottom of the page).  My article, "Will the real William Bolcom
please stand up?", is the text which covers this kind of subject.

Armbruster, like Emse Dawson and other factory staff musicians, were on
a tight schedule for low pay much of the time.  That hoopla about
Alpert "paying too fast to be believable" was probably Aeolian's
equivalent of the "We improved upon the artist" line that many Ampico
Hall people used to spout in the late '40s and early '50s when I talked
with them.  Rolls by Friedheim and others were clearly as fast as
Pauline's playing, the Don Juan Fantasy by Liszt (on Duo-Art) being a
good example.  However, at the Tempo 70-95 roll speeds this was really
impossible, beyond the gimmick of piano marketing methods.

This is why I go in for "compression" --- cutting down to a 128th of a
note (five flags!) -- because it's the only way to circumvent the slow
roll speed problem.

Pauline kept accelerating the tempo on Mr. Dearborn's Steck, saying to
the effect that Milne cut her arrangements "too slow".  She preferred a
racing melody, with the approximation of her staccato, over a satisfying
melodic line with the clumpy Milne cutting (which was kinder to player
action valves).

As I said before, you get Milne on "Alpert" rolls and Alpert on her
many stellar audio recordings.  I don't hear her on the Duo-Art --
'good' as many of the formula rolls might be.  Players are "the
_arranger_ plus the _roll interpreter_ (the pianolist)"  -- and the
pianist was given money and publicity for use of their name.  Whatever
keyboard 'recording' work they did _never got through_ the factory roll
duplicating process, if pedal effects, dynamics, key depression times,
etc. are taken into account.  (Pianists did make it on to the leaders
and roll labels, of course!)

Regards,
Douglas Henderson
ARTCRAFT Music Rolls
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/