[ Editor's note:
 [
 [ MMDer John McClelland found a piano roll in Texas bearing marks
 [ and stamps that suggest it was made by the Aeolian Company of Paris.
 [ We asked Lorraine for more information.  See her story, and the nice
 [ images she provided, at
 [
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/MMMedia/index.html     Mechanical Music Media
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/MMMedia/brands.html    Music Roll Brand Names
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/MMMedia/EMP/index.html Edition Musicale Perforee
 [
 [ An image of a pretty certificate issued by the Aeolian Company of
 [ France is at http://mmd.foxtail.com/MMMedia/AeoUni/AeoFr/index.html
 [ and an Odeola piano roll made by l'EMP is displayed at
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures/odeolaCat.html
 [
 [ -- Robbie

Dear Robbie,  There will be several emails to send you: JPEG images
scanned from rolls, advertisements and catalogs.  So this message is
number one.

Toulouse, where I live, is too far away from Paris to make research
easy.  When I was interested in toy theatre, I spent a full day taking
notes in the city library in Paris from their "Mon Theatre" collection,
and it was only 24 newspapers.  Writing the story of such an important
commercial firm as Aeolian Company will take several weeks and much
money for the hotel!  Surely Douglas Heffer is the right man to do the
job, as he is in the locale and is said to have a lot of archive
material.

So, during past two days I did research only from the collection of
rolls and catalogs owned either by me or Societe Perforons la Musique
which has a large library.  First about the Ravel l'EMP/Aeolian roll
[found in Texas].

As I mentioned in a previous email, the two rolls of Ravel, RA 1792 X
and RA 1796 X, are from L'EMP.  They are listed on page 143 of the
"Catalogue de Musique pour Instruments Autopianistes 88 notes" of
January 1925.  See the three JPEG files (EMP catalog, cover,
introduction) and the two pages with Ravel rolls.

I think the introduction is interesting as they claim to follow exactly
the sheet music (what we might complain about today).  Also, you'll see
that Ravel rolls are numerous.  L'EMP had a massive production with a
large range of choice.  They made rolls for Odeola and Aeolian, and so
it is time now to have a look at the image file, "EMP rouleaux
alignement".

You can see from right to left: L'EMP roll ("Nuits de Chine") with its
typical label, next is two rolls of "En caravane", one with the Odeola
red sticker at the top, the other one with the Aeolian red sticker you
already know.  There is no difference!

At the far left side is an Aeolian roll ("Aeolian", Fox-trot) sold
in France from a French dealer.  Such Aeolian rolls are very common
here and are UK production.  The only difference is an added small
green sticker at the bottom covering the UK address, with the name
"The Aeolian Company" and the address 32 avenue de l'Opera, Paris,
and the mention "Importe d'Angleterre", meaning imported from England.
Inside, the roll is an original UK product and any markings are in
English.

If we have a look at a typical and beautifully designed L'EMP roll
(here "Nuit de Chine"), we'll discover exactly the same mention
"fabrication francaise" that is printed on the Ravel roll -- the
lettering and punching are the same.

Was the French customer obliged to get Aeolian rolls from England
in 1925 ?

I continue in part 2 as soon as possible.

Lorraine Aressy
Perforons la musique Society
Toulouse, France

 [ In the introduction of the roll catalogue, EMP says:
 [
 [  "To our customers ...
 [   We have as our absolute principle the replication of scores
 [   as they were written by their authors, without permitting
 [   any arrangement introducing foreign motifs to the work itself."
 [
 [ I guess the customers wished to add the foreign motifs
 [ themselves.  ;-)  -- Robbie