Hello MMD readers,  Just saw the postings on the 'errors-in-rolls'
subject and thought I'd add a few lines to the topic.

Michael Potash brought me some QRS Rolls 'played by Hi Babbitt' --
originally from precise pneumatic reading at the Imperial Industrial Co.
(the same system being used when I was there in the early 'Sixties) --
which had been perforated in recent times, on brown paper and possibly
with some computer scanning methods.

The results were that a chord would stall while the roll continued to
move, or the reverse, sounding as if the ladder chain on the wind motor
had a hitch.

I repaired these rolls in my Studio for him, and they had a 'zebra
stripe' appearance afterwards, since the added/subtracted paper strips
were anywhere from a 32nd note (single punch) to about a musical beat
(approximately 6 punches).  Thanks to a splicing machine that was
developed by John Powers (d.b.a. Atlantic Music Rolls in the early
'Eighties) and the miracle of Magic Mending Tape I made the rolls
perform perfectly, albeit ugly to see as they played (brown vs. white
paper being what it is!).  (Having made rolls _before_ the days of
Magic Mending Tape, it's still a miracle for me!)

In our museum -- The Musical Wonder House -- we had a Melville Clark/
QRS Roll of Boieldieu's Caliph Of Baghdad Overture, and it had a couple
of breaks which ended in the wrong key -- obviously not bothering the
users of the Apollo Concert Grand (15 1/2" roll) and/or 11 1/4" stan-
dardized rolls!  I corrected this roll for use at the museum, and after
leaving the operation there in 1986, I believe that Danilo Konvalinka
had it recut a few times by the Tonnesens, using my edited version.
The Caliph of Baghdad was also marketed by Atlantic Rolls for a time
in the early 'Eighties, again using this version.

The astute 'roll reader' will find many such instances, past and
present, the most annoying to me being Kimball and Melville Clark/QRS
rolls being plus-minus one or two punches per measure, suggesting 1:1
reading and a sloppy transfer operation in these two plants!  When I
remade 3 Melville Clark/QRS rolls in the #30,000-series as The New
Castle House Medley I corrected the tempo on the Leabarjan #8-B for
every single measure.  The music 'snapped' and 'bounced' as never
before, when stripped of the built-in rhythmic errors in the three
vintage rolls.

Player-Pianos weren't the only vehicle prone to these things.
Invitation To The Dance by von Weber on 15" Regina discs had the
Waltz portion accompaniment _in the wrong key_!  It was produced
in Rahway, NJ that way, recut by Lloyd G. Kelley with the off-key
accompaniment, and continued with the sour waltz-beat with several
subsequent disc makers.  Lois and Danilo Konvalinka -- and I -- cringed
whenever the 3/4-time melody played on this Regina arrangement, and
avoided using the tune sheet on our Guided Tours for that reason!

The beauty of perforated rolls is that one can correct these mistakes
with a pen-knife, hand-punch or other editing equipment.

For Danilo's use at The Musical Wonder House I took an 88-Note roll
of Asleep In The Deep -- which was a 65-Note Aeolian arrangement that
repeated THREE times! (getting nowhere in the process) -- and added
notes beyond the 65-Note range.  By the time Danilo performed the final
chorus on the S&S pedal "O" grand, the piano was playing octaves and
fuller chords, and the final measures used the _lowest keys_ of the
bass, as one would expect for this particular number.  (The center of
the piano was still playing the original 65-Note arrangement thrice as
these added musical developments took place.)

Rather than being disturbed at an error in a music roll arrangement,
my pet peeve is _repeated content_.  Why -- to use the example above --
should music play 3 times 100% the same without any striking or
thematic changes?  So many old commercial rolls start off with a bang,
and then behave like a 'stuck' phonograph record from the 78 rpm days!

No pianist would wish to play something several times _exactly_ the
same way, which a mechanical musical instrument can do without fail.
(Human striking varies even reprised material.)  Music -- like story
telling -- should build to a climax, or fade into the ether, as in a
Debussy selection of my roll of Fata-Morgana by Danilo's grandfather,
composer Ferdinand Lang.

There again, it's a simple matter to add breaks, octaves and get those
old rolls out of a performance rut.

Now, if echo-ambiance could only be removed from some piano solo CD's
of our time ...

Regards from Maine,

Douglas Henderson
Artcraft Music Rolls
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/