Hello, Saw your MMD posting and thought I'd dash off a few lines.

Back in the '60s I issued a few 58-Note rolls for Orchestrelle --
which meant that the division was in a different place than for the
player-pianos of that period ... and also the Aeolian pipe organs which
used the 58-Note scale for some time, as well as Mason & Risch player
reed organs and other instruments.  ([If memory serves me correctly,
the division took place at the G-sharp below Middle C for the
Orchestrelle scale.)

What makes the 'Aeolian Grand' style of roll so awful, for me, is that
it combines the worst features for two dissimilar instruments, the
organ and the piano.

The commercial Aeolian rolls of the day -- being made for the existing
Orchestrelle/pipe organ market as well as the 58-Note Pianolas and
Aeriol pianos (by Theo. Brown) -- sustained the treble for the sake of
the organ performance, and this muddies any hope of a sparkling piano
performance, which is an artistic exercise in percussion effects!

Meanwhile, for the sake of the piano performance, the bass notes were
cut in short, often staccato, lengths, as dictated by the notation
scores.  That's fine for the piano ... but the organ reeds barely get
going before they are choked off, and a pipe organ has a carousel
organ sound.

This compromise led to British Aeolian (The Orchestrelle Co.) issuing
some well-arranged "pipe organ/reed organ" rolls for their player organ
lines.  These English-made rolls had sustained bass notes to give a
foundation and texture to the music.  We used to have many of them,
purchased in England from Frank Holland over thirty years ago, when
he (in the U.K.) and we (the Konvalinkas and I in the States) were
beginning our respective museums.

That some 'Aeolian Grand' rolls were actually made for organ, and not
piano, was quite an eye-opener for me at the time!

Thus, I made some organ-only rolls of pieces like Mozart's Barrel Organ
Fantasia, and these were duplicated by Ed Fryer in Flemington NJ at the
time.  (Due to the poor sales in that period, I returned to Pianola
roll formats again!)

With a little study, and a pen-knife or hand-punch, you can see the
"patterns" and alter the choppy 'Aeolian Grand' rolls for whatever
organ you wish to use.

Years later the FilmMusic Co. in Calif. did the same thing with their
organ series of PictuRolls for the Foto-Player and similar instruments.
These had connected notes in the 61-note scale for pipe organs of that
period.  (Earlier keyboard organs had 58-Notes, by comparison, and
so did the rolls!)

I don't think you'll learn that much from the book you seek, since
Orchestrelles and Aeolian Grands varied so much, many being recycled by
Aeolian on trade-ins and sold again with modifications, right to the
end of the '20s.  Valves vary, and it's better to diagram the
instrument you are rebuilding and take it from there, relying on
pneumatic theory to "make things work".

Back in the '60s I took many Polaroid photos of my 'XY' Solo-
Orchestrelle, since its interior didn't match others I had seen
-- and anything one touched fell apart, being stuffed with brittle
hoses and flap valves.

To return to the 58-Note organ roll arrangement idea, you might study
some "slushy" mathematically-arranged rolls for the piano: ballads
on the Ideal, Artempo and Pianostyle labels would be fine for this
purpose.  Then, you would see the patterns for holding down bass
octaves and mid-range chords and take it from there.

Good luck, and keep me posted!

Regards,

Douglas Henderson
Artcraft Music Rolls, Wiscasset ME 04578
(207) 882-7420
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/