Bob Lloyd asked (000321 MMDigest):

> Dear MMD, A question for the experts.  We have 40 88-note
> Themodist-Metrostyle rolls; they have expression, and patent dates
> range from 1904 to 1914.  Most say the Aeolian Co., New York, and
> Orchestrelle Co., London, but Made in U.S.A.
>
> What were they designed to play on?

Bob, now you'll get all the tiresome "artistic" pianola-pedallers
clambering over each other to tell you about these. Including me.

These rolls (and the similar Hupfeld 73-note Phonola rolls in Germany)
were as near as rolls got to providing convincing piano music on the
player before the introduction of the reproducing piano. In fact, the
Hupfeld ones got perhaps rather closer as they were all cut by pianists
at keyboards rather than, as with most Themodist-Metrostyle rolls,
being punched out by technicians from the sheet music on graduated
cardboard masters.

In Europe, "Metrostyle" is regarded as a separate feature of Aeolian
Company players, launched in the USA in 1906 and the UK in 1907.  It
was a moderately ingenious way of helping "pianolists" to approach the
give-and-take of a live performance by getting a skilled user of the
Pianola (sometimes a pianist enthusiast and in early days even the
composer of the piece) to play the roll and record his or her wiggling
of the Tempo lever, necessary along with other control movements to
convert the mechanical arrangement on the roll into a musical
performance, by means of a pen-and-ink trace on the roll.  This trace
was then followed by an operator on a "tower" of production rolls,
marking them with a set of similar pens drawing a thin red line on
each.

The purchaser of the roll could then follow the trace on the production
roll with a pointer (calibrated for Tempo 70 at the start of every
roll) and if not actually produce exactly the same dips and rises in
paper speed, at least get an understanding of what the original
performer was doing.

When this system was new it was taken fairly seriously and the traces
do if followed diligently produce a convincing result, though it has
to be said that the full effect is only obtained by someone who is a
skilled user of the Pianola already and is merely using the trace to
obtain insights from the earlier performer.

It was never explained anywhere, but if you see sharp leftwards jags
in the line, that was produced by the Pianola editors jerking the Tempo
lever towards Stop in order to remove suction from the air motor and
put it in the stack to produce a sharp accent.  So Metrostyle did have
this one dynamic indication.

In later years, alas, no one took much care over the copying and
"Metrostyle" largely became an excuse for charging more for the rolls.
In Europe "Metrostyle" players were sold in some quantity before
"Themodist" also became standard there, and whether for this reason or
not, a separate class of "Metrostyle" roll survived there all the way
to 1936.

"Themodist" (1907 - the earlier patents were for other Aeolian roll
features) is always represented as an American invention but in fact
the elements of it appeared in Hupfeld's 73-note Phonola in 1901 under
the name "Solodant".  "Solodant" was adopted by many American makers
(though they sometimes used different names like Melodant or Accentuist)
but in the Hupfeld and Aeolian forms the system was designed to give
much better control over the instrument.  The purpose of all these
systems was to allow the melody and other notes (chosen by the roll
maker) to stand out markedly from the others.

Essentially, Solodant establishes two suction strengths in the
instrument, the principal one being generated by the operator pedalling
on the exhauster bellows and regulated by the reservoir, and a second,
lower one, throttled down from the main one with "subduing" controls.

In the American Solodant systems, the throttling, achieved by button
controls and valves, was a fixed amount down from the main suction,
while in the Hupfeld and Aeolian's Themodist systems, levers operating
knife valves permitted the subduing to be graduated to suit the music.

Usually in all systems subduing can be applied to the treble or bass
halves of the keyboard separately, but some of the later German and
American Solodant instruments eventually withdrew this facility and had
a single control subduing all the notes at once.

Accentuated notes have "theme" perforations at the edges occurring just
as they start, which operate treble or bass valves switching that half
of the stack from the subdued suction to the main suction.  When in a
chord the rest of which it is required not to accentuate, the "theme"
notes are either advanced or delayed slightly.  The separation is
remarkably good, and got better in later instruments.  The same system
formed the basis for the Duo-Art (and in Germany, Triphonola)
reproducing piano technology.

So the instrument you should have to play these rolls on will be an
Aeolian-made (or other make, Aeolian-equipped) player piano, not too
common in the USA but predominant in Great Britain, distinguished by
having five brass sideways-sliding levers in the keyslip and a
trackerbar with thin additional ports (in common with those on Solodant
pianos) at note positions 0 and 89 (or on 65-note instruments, 0 and
66).

If I number the levers (view in fixed-pitch font, e.g. Courier):

   1 Loud pedal  2 Bass subdue  3 Tempo
   O======       ======O        O=======
   O======       ======O
   4 Soft pedal  5 Treble subdue
  (4 not always fitted)

The "pianolist" normally holds 3 in the right hand, presses 1 and 4
rightwards with two fingers of the left hand and squeezes 2 and/or 5
(whose handles overlap each other to make this easier) leftwards with
the left thumb.

A good test piece for a Themodist instrument is the penultimate
variation in Schumann's Etudes Symphoniques.  There is a running bass
which to start with is almost too soft to hear at all.  There should be
plenty of suction with 2 & 5 hard over left.  If the action is rather
tired and tending to miss, then 4 can be used to even it up and a touch
of 1 given to lift the dampers slightly and make the work easier.  When
the treble melody comes in, it is quite prominent.  The player should
not have to put the melody accents in with the feet, as he/she'd have
to on a non-Themodist player; all the separation should be done by the
instrument.

Gradually, as the piece gets louder, 2 & 5 are released.  You don't
however, think about the controls: you think about the music.  Some
performers prefer not too much subduing, as it progressively removes
control of soft and loud from the feet.  The treble and bass regulators
can be tweaked to achieve the maximum degree needed.

Incidentally, Themodist 65-note instruments usually work exceptionally
well, thanks to the great difference in size between the "theme"
perforations (same as on 88-note) and the note holes (half as big
again).  But the rolls fray more easily as the "theme" is right at
the edges.

The UK-made rolls called "Themodist" are all Metrostyle as well.
Non-Metrostyle "themed" rolls were made by the same plant at Hayes
with a different label which just said "Universal 88-note Accentuated";
they are the same rolls without the red line.  Numerous other labels
were stuck on the same rolls -- for Broadwood, Autoplayer, Triumph (in
its later years) and others -- and Sir Herbert Marshall & Sons took the
same stock and put their own green lettered dynamic line, with AAAA for
Accel and RRRR for Retard, on it for the Angelus-Artistyle rolls.

After 1918, the less common classical Themodist-Metrostyle rolls sold
in America were actually relabelled British Themodist ones, as the
demand for classical was always higher there.  Aeolian retired from the
UK in 1932 but Universal Music Rolls at Hayes went on making the more
popular Themodist rolls under licence using the old Aeolian Co labels
for another 4 years or so.  The really rare "Themodist" (with
Metrostyle) rolls are those made in Berlin by the German subsidiary
of Editions Musicales Perforees, "SM", for the Choralion Company,
an Aeolian subsidiary, during the Great War.  I haven't established
whether they used Aeolian rolls for the Metrostyle line or started
again from scratch !

Angelus-Artistyle rolls were made until 1941, on two machines bought
from Universal.  Two other machines survived the war to be bought by
Gordon Iles for his own firm, Artona Music Rolls, and after a spell in
the 1970s making "Ambassador" rolls at Slough are currently in Rye with
Mike Boyd.  However, I am beginning to drift off-thread ...

Dan Wilson, London