Hello MMD readers,  Once again we are camping on a Maine lake, and
running the E-Mail via a radiotelephone setup at 2400 bps. ...

A recent posting had this to say about Duo-Art rolls:

> What taxes the Duo-Art to its limits then are the pop tunes and
> semi-classical ones, played by artists like Armbruster.  Those
> are the arrangements that only a very well-regulated Duo-Art can
> play realistically.

I disagree, especially as a 'reproducing' roll arranger.

Armbruster and Milne rolls were designed to be pleasant background
music and little more -- something that would play "safely" on out-of-
regulation pianos in the field, and that was that.  You don't need a
Duo-Art to see that "nothing's going on" most of the time: the frozen
dynamics (many juggling only a few stock Theme settings!) and the
excessive sustaining pedal scores speak for themselves.  A half-baked
Duo-Art can trudge through these rolls, assuming that an astute
listener can stay awake through more than one or two performances.

Even Robert Armbruster wrote in a letter circa 1976 (here in my Studio)
that he (a) "did things rapidly so that the dealers could have selec-
tions in time for promotions" and (b) "he didn't care to remember most
of his work from that period," which is understandable considering the
quality that came along later, ending with his work on the M-G-M film
of "Unsinkable Molly Brown".

Once, at an AMICA player club convention, he heard a ratty roll and
said, "That must have been one which we approved on Friday," Friday
being the day that the bootlegger delivered his merchandise to Aeolian
Hall.

Most of the popular music for the Duo-Art is worth being lost, in my
opinion.  The phonograph records of the period are something else, of
course, and should be preserved.

Howard Lutter on brown box Welte-Licensee seems to be the only staff
arranger who introduced new ideas and sparkling arrangements, good
even on an 88-Note pedal player, since the note score is where all the
quality came from the start.  (These would cover about eight years of
the Kohler-owned Welte roll business, ending in 1931.)

The Duo-Art wasn't designed for classical music over popular music.
It merely "tweaks" the Pianola levers which a musical person can often
operate more efficiently.  How the rolls were scored affects the
expression, and the pianist has nothing to do with the final product.

Everything boils down to "good" music vs. "bad" (or "boring") music
anyway -- players included.  You can't voice hammers and turn a few
screws to make Armbruster's slushy rolls strike better or perform in
an exciting fashion.  Nobody would except that the "101 Strings" would
rival Toscanini's NBC Orchestra, and the same is true of formula-made
rolls of the past.

Perhaps the writer hears things I do not, but ... I've found no
performing artist who has one iota of excitement after hearing Fall,
Offenbach, Herbert, Gershwin or anything else on an Armbruster roll.
That's the nature of mood music, after all: to blend into the
surroundings.

Regards from Naples, Maine

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


 [ Editor's note:
 [
 [ Staff arrangers, such as Armbruster and Fairchild, were extremely
 [ competent artisans who accepted a salaried job instead of the
 [ rigors of performing on stage.  The job was to produce piano
 [ rolls.  It was sometimes boring work, and the music reflects
 [ that.  But other times the artist was excited with his work,
 [ and the good ideas flowed.  I can't believe that Armbruster, the
 [ manager of the Duo-Art music arranging department, didn't create
 [ some fine performances.
 [
 [ Please provide specific titles and roll numbers when discussing
 [ the performance of artists and the capability of piano actions
 [ to play their music rolls.  Then we can make our own judgments,
 [ using our own pianos.
 [
 [ -- Robbie