As many of my regular correspondents knew, May began with a "quick
trip" (in every sense of the word) from Maine to Miami, to pick up my
restored Aeolian-RCA Theremin, which is where Reid Welch lives, the
rebuilder who has the talents to do some really creative restoration.
Something of this kind, being top heavy in the cabinetry and, also,
'antique electronic', doesn't ship that well, so it seemed wiser to
plan a solo journey in our VW Camper, to bring this instrument back
to Wiscasset, even if it meant 3800-plus miles of driving.

My Theremin, played at our museum, decades ago, for duets with Duo-Art
rolls, was sold by Aeolian Hall, so features a "player piano decal"
on the otherwise stock RCA #1264 cabinet.  It had been silent for many
years, due to a number of reasons, including a dead power unit.

Reid added a protective fuse -- something RCA never considered,
evidently -- to the chassis, and also rebuilt it according to his
"Claratone" ideals.  (He coined the name from Clara Rockmore, the
virtuoso Thereminist, whose sister, Nadia Reisenberg, was a well-known
pianist on audio recordings - and Aeolian player roll box labels.
Clara's instrument was faster-acting than the conventional RCA models,
being specially-built for her by the inventor, Lev Theremin.)

A "Claratone" restoration by Reid includes an accelerator feature for
the dynamic antenna, which allows for a more rapid separation of the
music notes.  It also includes a knob, on the upper chassis, which lets
one widen the tonal spectrum and affect the character of the bass.
Today, thanks to his expertise, my Aeolian-RCA model has a richly toned
sound, more like an electronic 'cello and less like those buzzy modern
Theremins, I've heard, in recent years, which weren't based on vacuum
tube designs.

While driving to Florida and back all the provisions were in the
vehicle, with the lower bunk being reserved for the Theremin, on the
return journey.  I used the scanner on the FM car radio to seek out
National Public Radio stations, the broadcasting 'oasis' for those
who don't want rock music, modern country music (i.e. rock with a
twang) and/or religious ranting, the latter of which increases on the
dial, as one heads South, it seems.  Actually, it's easy to seek out
the nearest NPR station, since you keep the scanner going until a
scholarly voice, a piano, a violin or an orchestra is heard; anything
else will be the 'other' kind of broadcasting, in most cases.

What I found to be so interesting, in this particular NPR listening
marathon (caused by being behind the wheel for 8 days, after all) was
the interaction of old audio recordings with modern musicians.  There
were a series of instances where modern singers and instrumentalists
were played in contrast with original 78 rpm recordings, sometimes
being dovetailed in the middle of the performance broadcast.  This
was like an update of the old Edison Diamond Disc "Tone Tests", where
a demonstration record gave way to the real artist, coming up to the
stage and taking charge of the previously-recorded rendition.  Edison's
slogan was: "Comparison with the Living Artist Reveals No Difference".

One of the best in these NPR broadcasting combinations featured the
music and story of Nat King Cole.  It was amazing how close the
contemporary musician was, to the original audio, and I thought to
myself, "I wonder what these modern versions of Dick Haymes, Delta
Blues players and others would be, if only old player rolls were
studied, instead?"  I guess we'd be hearing formula interpretations
that sounded like Delcamp, Armbruster, Cook, Kortlander or Milne,
instead of the advertised musical legends!

My rolls have been based on audio analysis, since the early 'Fifties,
so these various NPR broadcasts merely confirmed, for me, the
importance of audio analysis in the arranging of new player roll
masters.

There was one program which featured a keyboard performance of "Bumble
Boogie" based on the same Jack Fina recording I used years ago.
Driving alone, and absorbed in the musical details, I thought to
myself, "My perforated roll does far more than that!" -- and it does.

Just playing the _same notes_ is not enough, which was the goal for
many original player and 'reproducing' rolls.  This is what gave us
a "Rachmaninoff", a "Gershwin" or a "James P. Johnson" which didn't
sound right, when compared to their old audio discs.

In Maine, National Public Radio decided to enlarge their "core
audience" (whatever that means) and so dropped a lot of classical
music, replacing it with college talk shows, call-in programs, off-key
fake-folk music and what I call "nightly drug addict sounds" --
electronic beeps and sound effects, in lieu of melodic broadcasting.
(I wonder if they use a Theremin for some of this 'reefer-musik' slop?)

At one point, Maine's Public Radio dumped the Saturday Metropolitan
Opera, which was picked up by the classical network here: WBACH, a
chain of commercial stations which cover the Coastal areas.  The low
point, one weekend, featured NPR in Maine running a program about
alcoholism/drugs in popular music, starting with "Cocaine Habit Blues"
and progressing on to "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash.  What did
WBACH broadcast, at the same time?  "Manon" by Massenet!

Since then, the Met has been "restored" to Maine's public radio,
due to a grass roots coalition to 'improve' public broadcasting, but
our stations in Maine are still a sorry lot, when compared to their
programming of prior times.

At this writing, the Aeolian-RCA Theremin is back home, and a vintage
speaker is being obtained for it, also to be rebuilt by Reid in
Florida.  I had the good fortune of hearing him play the instrument on
several speakers and, at his request, I did a shoddy accompaniment on
the grand piano for a duet with the restored instrument.  (I will have
to practice extensively, before half-mastering the Theremin, after all
these years 'away' from a working model.)

As for the broadcasting, which compared old audio to modern musicians:
again and again that reminded me of my eternal suggestion to try one of
our Interpretive Arrangements side-by-side with an old roll ("Brand "X)
or compare it to the original audio, whenever possible.  At best, the
perforated rolls are "performance alternatives" for what is really an
arranged music medium, the Pianola.

Frankly, I thought it amazing that in 2002, a short-lived RCA product
first marketed in 1929 could be rebuilt to be "better" in many ways
than it was originally when it had corporate support.  Similarly,
I enjoyed a week of radio listening, peppered with "before and after"
demonstrations, where the modern musicians were compared with the
original audio.

My first Pianola concert of the season takes place in Searsport Shores,
ME, on May 25th.  As you can guess, for comic relief, I often include a
"Brand X" original roll (excerpt) in contrast to one of my Interpretive
Arrangements, inspired by audio recordings, old and new.

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