Hello MMD readers,  A few years ago, when I was still in "printed
materials", I did a long article in my publication, The Pianola
Quarterly, about the Metrostyle subject.

I'm qualified, for two reasons:

First, I have probably 'metrostyled' more rolls than any living person
in our time, for "Mephisto Waltz" by Franz Liszt, is a Duo-Art expression
roll, equipped wtih the red line for paper travel speed corrections,
since the feature is used differently than when employed with pedal
players.  (Aeolian never made that distinction, but following the
Metrostyle line on an electric player does not have anything to do with
the accenting process, as it can with the pedal-operated action.)

Am well over 250 copies of my Metrostyle Duo-Art rolls, at this
writing.  The job involves 12 templates on a motorized editing table,
plus a four-foot ruler, for long stretches, where the line runs without
any variation.  The electric player, with the full Duo-Art expression,
uses the Metrostyle line to "buy time" in a few slow, rubato sections
and also compensates for the paper build-up on the lower spool.  Thus,
the roll starts at Tempo 120, later becomes 100 and finally settles
down to a long stretch of 90, while the musical performance remains
essentially the same, regarding the speed of the interpretation.  It
also helps with wild tempo changes, which would be well beyond the
limits of a fixed-speed roll transport, when playing a single roll of
this length.

Second, my PQ article covered four versions, with illustrations, of
Grieg's "Papillons" (Butterflies) and other "artist autograph" rolls
of the Metrostyle category.  I used to perform multiple copes of the
Grieg number, especially, on our evening concerts at The Musical Wonder
House, and the public was always amazed at the totally different
results.  I played the rolls on our pedal Steinway "O" or on the
electric S&S "AR", following the dynamic suggestions to-the-letter on
the manual versions, using the Pianola control levers.  For a short
period of time, in the early 'Seventies, I even played 65-Note
"metrostyled by Grieg" rolls on our combination 65/88-Note external
Pianola, fitted to the keyboard of the "AR" Duo-Art grand piano.

The upshot of this was that the red Metrostyle lines, the Themodist
holes (when they existed) and the dynamic suggestions, plus the
automatic sustaining pedal (when it was provided), were different.

Only the Grieg logotype seems to have been preserved, intact, from the
65-Note format to the 88-Note one to the Duo-Art roll, allegedly made
from the "metrostyled" edition, under Percy Grainger's supervision.
This was true for other "autograph" Grieg, Busoni, Bauer and other
rolls of the period.  The British and American versions didn't match,
either, in many cases.

Some of the 65-Note rolls with the Metrostyle lines had more subtle
phrasing than their 88-Note counterparts, and generally the rolls of
the Metro-Art period or Pianolist's Library (in 88-Note) have more
generalized lines (possibly due to rubber stamp printing) than the
'ink tracing' copies of the earlier years.

For educative purposes, the Metrostyle feature can be of great help,
if one has never heard the music.  However, at the most, it's a guide,
and the Pianolist will soon "read" the line without the use of the
pointer, and adjust the roll speed for a particular, individualized
performance.

Aeolian ads of the past often had that "ghost" approach, where the
'hand of the Master' was assisting the Pianolist.  Perhaps, but the
fact that all the tempo lines and other elements changed, as the years
progressed, suggests that this was a marketing gadget, more than
anything else.  Many Duo-Art illustrated ads have an expression roll
running, but with the pointer up, for a Metrostyle line.  Clearly,
the visual aspect of this accessory was used to a great extent for
"product recognition".

Regards,
Douglas Henderson -- Artcraft Music Rolls
Wiscasset, ME 04578
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/