Lionel Van Aertryck made this rather mysterious comment [MMD 980817]:

> The last project, still awaiting, is to make music rolls for
> an automatic piano.  I don't have a lot of information at
> the moment, but it seems that the principal is similar to the
> barrel organ books.  The differences are in the size of the
> hole (just little holes) and that there are holes for the notes
> and holes for other controls.  The music rolls are in fact
> paper book music !  Where can I find a description of that format ?

Lionel, is this a piano which plays rolls, or which plays folding card?
If it's a roll-playing piano, it will be well known and you may get all
the information you need from the French group "Perferons La Musique",
c/o Mme Lorraine Aressy, 27 Rue Labat be Savignac, F31500 Toulouse.

The most common player piano in France was the Pleyela 88-note,
which had an accentuating system similar to the German and British
"Solodant".  With this, a lever was moved by the operator
("Pleyeliste"?  -- en Anglais, "pianolist") from NORMAL to SOLODANT
when the roll indicated SOLO, and back again when it indicated NORMAL
(stamped on, usually in red ink.)

This action suppressed the playing level, making everything play softly
except for notes whose perforations started at the same time as the
small double "theme" perforations in note positions zero and 89, which
play with a loudness proportional to the "Pleyeliste"'s pedalling.

However, Pleyela rolls did not say "SOLO" but "CHANTEUR", so perhaps
the pianos do too, instead of SOLODANT.

The roll format is identical to the American/British "Themodist"
but Themodist pianos use the rolls slightly differently, allowing
independent power levels in bass and treble to be set up with thumb
"subduing" levers, either of which are overridden by the bass or treble
"theme" perforations.  Here there is no need to switch the accentuating
feature on and off, since it is brought into play whenever the subduing
levers are used.

The most common reproducing piano in France was the "Duo-Art", marketed
briskly by the Aeolian Co in Place de l'Opera, Paris -- followed by the
original, red-paper Welte-Mignon.  Welte had a sales office in Paris
which necessarily had to change its parent office from Germany to
America when the 1914 war broke out.  Until 1917 Welte's New York
office could and did obtain rolls from Freiburg and forward them to
Paris !  There are some impressive Welte roll collections in France.

Dan Wilson, London