The Welte master piano rolls have a mystique which exceeds the
copies produced from them.  Some will claim that the masters are more
accurate, and this is probably true, but whether anyone can hear the
difference is a subject for debate.

Those who appreciate the significance of the master rolls -- and there
is no need to go into their importance as living reflections of the
piano's Golden Age -- automatically have an obligation to assure their
preservation.  The masters must be protected from the ravages of time
and from the elements of nature.  Then there is also the threat from
over-enthusiastic collectors, or worse, those who must possess them
because no one else does.

The Welte master rolls must be reasonably safe from predators and
receive proper care.  It should be impossible for any one individual to
ever obtain all of them.  This does not suggest hiding the rolls away,
as once had been done in a Black Forest barn, but that they be stored
under archival conditions and accessible only with justification.

Who can say what technology will evolve that might bring these recorded
performances to a new audience?  I believe that the master rolls should
be available for any legitimate application including serious study and
commercial ventures of benefit to an appreciative public, but not stuck
in someone's closet or played repeatedly on some hundred-year-old
reproducing device.

No one would deny Beethoven his immortality.  To some degree, the
geniuses of the Welte Company, and all of their recording artists,
likewise deserve some niche in history -- partly for their marvelous
apparatus, but mostly for the artistic heights attained.  Which of
today's music deserves such immortality?

Richard Simonton, Jr.

 [ MMDers John McClelland and Richard Tonnesen have collaborated in
 [ several projects which located Welte T-98 "Green" rolls and 
 [ converted them to Licensee format.  Perhaps they can also help
 [ to preserve the music of the T-100 "Red" rolls in a similar
 [ manner.  Hardly any new equipment is needed for this, whereas
 [ replicating the T-100 format requires a T-100 perforator which
 [ isn't yet available, as far as I know.  -- Robbie