Hi all,  Last night (Wednesday, 21:40 U) the ARTE channel (German &
French) broadcast a documentary called "Le piano qui joue tout seul",
"The piano that plays by itself."  Unfortunately I missed the first
half of it.  (I can kick myself for that :-()

The part I saw was about the decline of the Welte factories.  They
mentioned the fact that right before WW2 Edwin Welte had been busy
developing a new system to replace the paper music rolls by using
optical discs (similar to the optical sound track on film).  The
system never got further then the prototype phase.

They also showed the Welte Philharmonie-Orgel 'Titanic' playing
"Nearer My God To Thee".  The rest of the program was dedicated to
Conlon Nancarrow.  They showed him punching a paper roll with a punch
and sitting next to a player piano (one upright and one Ampico),
listening to his music and talking about what it was he was trying
to achieve.

Nancarrow said that initially he was not particularly interested in
the player piano as such, but it was the only means he had to have his
compositions performed, something impossible for a human pianist.

Some other people were interviewed: composer Gyorgy Ligeti, Dr. Juergen
Hocker, president of the German association for self-playing musical
instruments, etc.

The documentary ended with the conclusion that in today's "musical
landscape" the player piano has lost its function as an entertainment
device, but indeed has opened the door to computer music and even
techno-music.

Has anyone taped this documentary and please can make me a copy ?

Best Regards,

P. Boeckstijns
Brussels

 [ The video documentary is entitled
 [
 [      Selbst spielt das Klavier --
 [  Welte-Mignon und die mechanische Musik
 [      Ein Film von Oliver Becker
 [  (1998, Farbe, Digibeta, 42 Minuten)
 [
 [ The video cassette (PAL format for European TV),
 [ may be purchased from the producer:
 [
 [   Oliver Becker Filmproduktion
 [   Sophienstr. 30
 [   D-10178 Berlin
 [   tel/fax: 030-282-1033
 [   email: OliBec9696@aol.com
 [
 [ Mr. Becker wrote in 980510 MMDigest (translated from German):
 [
 [ > The main interview partners in the film are Herr Dr. Juergen
 [ > Hocker, Herr Hans-W. Schmitz and Herr Gerhard Dangel-Reese,
 [ > whom you surely are well acquainted with.
 [ >
 [ > I've worked for years in the area of television documentaries
 [ > about music.  Besides the film about Welte I've produced
 [ > a portrait of Scriabin, and I plan a film about Prokofieff
 [ > for September [1998].
 [
 [ -- Robbie