Just to add to Julian Dyer's (and Paddy Handscombe's, highly
informative) account of the Triphonola [000705 & 000706 MMDigest].

Julian said:

> The Triphonola roll library is drawn from the superb Hupfeld Animatic
> library of hand-played 88-note rolls.  The Triphonola rolls merely
> have expression coding added down the margins; what proportion of
> rolls were coded I don't know. (-snip-)  It seems that many of the
> 88-note rolls sold in the 1920s as Animatic or Triphonola actually
> originate from 1905 onwards, the dynamic coding being a later
> addition or conversion from the earlier systems.

Triphonola was a major tragedy.  The intention was to correct the
mistake that had been made with the DEA system, which was to use a
completely unique roll standard incompatible with all others, resulting
in the pianos not being able to play plain rolls of any description.
DEA had also suffered by virtue of being launched on the eve of the
Great War.

A fresh start was made in 1917 and after only a year of development
(much of the DEA technology was re-used, so as to be able to recode the
performances easily) the Triphonola was launched in Germany and
Holland, a year later in Rome and some time later than that in London.

Hupfeld did not organise a proper agency in Australia until 1930
-- plainly an act of desperation in the Depression.  To overcome
anti-German sentiment, the Hupfeld name was dropped from their 88-note
themed rolls, which took the name "Animatic", while the 88-note Phonola
piano became the Solophonola to ease marketing of the two brands.

I _think_ I'm right in saying that no masters recorded earlier than
1908 (for the 73-note Phonola, no dynamics) were re-employed for the
Triphonola.  I have only once seen a Triphonola catalogue; the series
appeared to include everything issued in DEA (much of which had been
"tweaked" from Phonola masters anyway) but only a few plums directly
from the Phonola list.  Obviously dynamic coding was an expensive
business.  Compared with the (by comparison with Aeolian, already
modest) Animatic catalogue, the Triphonola list was about a quarter
of the size.

Hupfeld had a glorious series of instruments, a masterly and neat
reproducing mechanism and the best quality of roll in the business.
What they didn't have was a man in a goatee from New York State with
a loud voice telling them what would sell internationally.  All you
could ever get on Triphonola rolls were the great piano classics and
some of the Hupfeld mittel-Europa schmaltz.  And no effort was put
(one sympathises, but piano companies must survive) into making the
mechanism more economically until it was too late.  Hupfeld nailed the
flag of "high quality - high price - high brow" to their mast and
braved the storm.

The result, painfully evident by 1926: Triphonola was trampled flat
by Ampico and Duo-Art.  I once met a former Bluethner (London office)
tuner and he said that Triphonolas stopped being advertised there in
1929, though you could get one by special order until the early 1930s.

Huge stocks of the rolls survived, and along with "Animatics" were used
to heat the offices in the severe winter of 1940-41, being thrown
non-stop in their boxes into the furnace by the janitor and a cleaner
for a full two days.  It is thought that the very large numbers of
Animatic rolls surviving in England are partly thanks to the management
having, shortly before this dreadful act, permitted the staff to take
home as many as they could carry.

Julian also remarked:

> Recut Triphonola rolls?  Never heard of any, seems unlikely to have
> happened.  The Triphonola version of Hupfeld rolls are not
> particularly common, although the 88-note versions are easy to find.

Recutting is bedeviled by the necessity to cram the six dynamic tracks
in between the "theme" ports and the roll edges, this being required to
make the Triphonola a full 88-note system.  This can't be done at nine
ports to the inch, so these tracks are crowded up at about 12 to the
inch.  So a special punch would be needed (but it could also make
Duo-Art rolls).

There is a lot of interest in Italy in the Triphonola and a centre of
information there is Antonio Latanza in Rome (I think his details are
in the MMD resource list).

Dan Wilson, London

 [ Antonia Latanza may be contacted via Associazione italiana Musica
 [ Meccanica (AMMI); more information is in the list of organizations
 [ at Musica mechanica, http://www.cnam.fr/museum/.musica_mechanica/
 [
 [ A good email contact in Italy about Triphonola lore might be
 [ Francesco Massimi <f.massimi@libero.it> , who is currently
 [ researching Triphonola rolls played by Scriabin.  -- Robbie