Hello MMD readers,  We have a series of Internet pages, many with music
roll illustrations (old and new) about this experimental work by George
Antheil, "Ballet Mecanique", including two reviews of a recent attempt
to present the work with the aid of multiple solenoid players, at
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/antheil.htm

Deems Taylor was a composer, critic, author and sometimes a gadfly in
the 'arty' scene of American music, especially in the 'Twenties through
the start of the 'Forties.  His ballet-pantomine for two pianos,
"A Kiss in Xanadu" is on a slushy Armbruster roll, for the Duo-Art
player ...  and his opera, which owes much to the spirit of Richard
Wagner, "The King's Henchmen", was given at the Metropolitan, some
arias of which were recorded by the famous baritone, Lawrence Tibbett.
(Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay contributed the libretto for the opus.)

While this was going on, Mr. Taylor lent his name to Duo-Art
advertisements, which - I suspect - were written by Aeolian hacks.
You might want to check out Issue #2 of our Artcraft Newsletters, which
has a section entitled, "Deems Taylor, the Duo-Art and Sex!"  The old
advertisements, allegedly penned by Taylor, linked the topic of the
Pianola to a book by H. G. Wells, which I finally read.  Portions of
it are quoted in the companion page, linked from the basic text, here:
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/issue2.htm

Taylor also became the Narrator in Disney's "Fantasia" of 1940 --
filmed in an early stereo system called 'Fantasound' ... and he was
the spokesman for the postwar quality high fidelity components made
by Radio Craftsmen - the ancestor of what later became the Sherwood
Electronics, builder of high end audio equipment.

As for the 1927 concert at Carnegie Hall, of the Antheil music,
I recommend conductor Maurice Peress' recreation of it on CD, a Music
Masters recording of 1992, featuring Antheil's "Jazz Symphony" and
other compositions.  There is a Pianola buried in the "Ballet
Mecanique" ensemble, but the talented keyboard pianists, like Ivan
Davis, are what carry the music along.

Sponsored, in part, by Baldwin pianos (with the Welte-Mignon being the
"official player" for the concert, and so designated in the programs),
Antheil's Carnegie Hall debut was supposed to launch a national tour,
with the success he had, previously, in Paris.  Instead, he misread the
American taste, and the concert was not that successful, causing the
composer to return to Europe.  The "flag waving" part - in the Taylor
quote - was staged, for media hype, since the idea was to "create a
riot" as had happened at the Theatre Champs Elysees in Paris, when the
music was taken from the intimacy of Salons to the concert hall.

Subject to endless performance revisions, by the composer (in later
years) as well as by self-styled experts of today, "Ballet Mecanique"
really began as a series of 4 piano solos, first performed by George
Antheil in Berlin: "Mechanisms", "Aeroplane Sonata", "Sonata Sauvage"
and "Death of the Machines" (early urban renewal?).  These were cut to
fit movies-in-flux by Dudley Murphy and others in his group, including
Man Ray and Fernand Leger.  My Pianola score - originally written for
the Pleyel company - shows endless changes in the musical segments,
adjusting to the ever-changing "time space" scenes of cinematic
texture.  One part of the manuscript has "Give George a big chord,
here!", written in the margin.

George Antheil said, in print, on many occasions, that the lack of
synchronization -- which was the result of having multiple musicians
-- made "Ballet Mecanique" unsuccessful, in most presentations.
If you read between the lines, that means the solo Player-Piano or
Foto-Player, with a movie projector (in a Salon setting), is where the
ideal crisp, staccato percussive sounds could be experienced.

My reconstruction of the music, for player rolls, was done at the
request of director Anders Wahlgren for Swedish TV-Radio in 1991.
Subsequently, the Antheil Estate gave me a copy of the Pleyel score,
and, with minor revisions, the 3 roll Set was copyrighted, in that
year, and remains part of our music roll catalogue.  This remaking of
"Ballet Mecanique" - using the old rolls in combination with sheet
music scores, and analyzing some phonograph records - was also the idea
of Douglas Heffer, doing business as 'Pneumatique Contemporaine' in
Paris, my player roll representative for Europe.

While all sorts of things have been tried, from MIDI methods to
multiple pneumatic players - beyond keyboard pianists and synthesizers
- "Ballet Mecanique" has a power and an electrifying presence, when
performed in its original medium, that of a single pneumatic player.
There, the 31-note chords and pulsating, synchronized staccato can be
enjoyed, for best effect, by a small group of people.  As the composer
said, "This is a 'chamber music' composition" - and it is, when
divorced from the litany of sound effects and extra musicians.

Thus, you have two versions of this work: a) the old (botched) Pleyel
rolls from 1925 and my in-production Set, which was first released in
1991, for a solo Player-Piano.  The instrument imitates heavy
machinery, aeroplane motors, knitting machines and all types of
industrial sounds; b) the expanded for an ensemble version, with or
without the motion pictures, with the Pianola being demoted to an
"effect" (a sound-effects machine), and that's what the Carnegie Hall
performance was, complete with visual phony propellers, for the
"Aeroplane Sonata" musical quotes.

Hope the above has shed some light on this experimental work,
originally an audio-visual presentation for Player-Piano and motion
picture projector.

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

PS: You'll note, when reading about the theatrical, ensemble versions
of "Ballet Mecanique" - past and present - most of the discussion
concerns the NUMBER of instruments and a LIST of the sound effects:
klaxon horn, tom-tom, xylophone, telephone bell, Chinese gong, fire
siren, etc.  This isn't necessary with the rolls, which just get
played, while the listeners' jaws drop, collectively, at the scope of
the piano's performance.  Antheil later replaced the fake aeroplane
propeller props with tape loops of jet planes (in 1953), and I'll bet
some new, improved(?) version comes along, with a nose flute or a
whoopee cushion, to make this composition into, yet, another "first,
ever" premiere debut!