Hi all,  Regarding the Celebrity Series statements I've made in the
MMD, please note that I never said that the artists didn't play upon
the Melville Clark recording piano, or that rolls weren't made from the
pencil marks which came from the process.

My problem begins when the term 'editing' appears, which I consider to
be 'arranging'.  If the note-length is changed, or not recorded as
played in most cases, due to delays in the system, the pedal effects
are different, and a host of variables are introduced into the music in
order to make a presentable roll, then I just don't hear the specific
pianist!

The duo-pianist version of Tiger Rag in the Celebrity Series is partly
based on cadenzas that the artists played, I should imagine, but other
sections are totally 'arranged' and confirm to mathematical principles,
just as the old 'graph paper' Milne rolls did.

Years ago, at The Musical Wonder House, I used to perform Beer Barrel
Polka as arranged by J. L. Cook in the "style" of Liberace, and then
feature the same selection "played by Liberace" in the Celebrity
Series.  Many museum visitors preferred the totally mathematical roll
by Cook -- now discontinued, I believe -- and didn't relate the 'live
performance' roll to the showy pianist.

I guess the trouble is that some people make the jump from perforated
music to reality, having overdosed on reprints of exaggerated claims by
the piano industry of the past.  The 'record/playback' nature of the
player-piano was long a selling point, and 'editors' (or 'arrangers',
in my book) weren't part of the publicity or the roll labels, in most
cases.

The point is to enjoy the perforated music, and introduce what
interpretive elements suit your taste and your particular piano.

That's been my message all along: "Personal involvement" with all music
rolls, including those created for the so-called 'reproducing' piano.

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