Hello MMD readers,  One of my long-time roll customers, Richard
Dearborn, in New Jersey, finally got through to the powers-that-be at
his community-supported classical FM radio station.

Tired of hearing his Trenton-based broadcasters reciting the mostly
fantasyland CD jacket notes, he wrote them a letter explaining how
piano rolls worked and how artists on roll box labels had little or
nothing to do with the final product.  Then related a personal
experience he had, in the presence of Vladimir Horowitz, who exploded
with rage upon seeing a Duo-Art roll (in the hands of somebody else),
which he said "I never made!".

I have heard similar stories involving Horowitz from other collectors,
plus softer music roll put-downs, as in the case of Artur Rubinstein,
who told a friend of mine (also wishing to have his roll autographed),
"You should get a medal to listen to this music."  Rubinstein added,
"They cut what they wanted after we played their 'recording' piano,
anyway."

Thus, if you are listening to WWFM in the Trenton area, don't be
surprised if there's a disclaimer which precedes the CD, be it a music
roll performance or a "gunning-the-engine" scanning job for MIDI with
Rachmaninoff 'performances' on a solenoid player.

Supposedly Dearborn's letter was going to be given to all the
announcers, making it a policy to point out that rolls are primarily
arrangements in the names of real and pseudonym artists, and that as
pleasant that they might be to hear, the performances are not authentic
reproductions of their keyboard playing.  It sounds like New Jersey is
ahead of the other broadcasters on this subject!

Perhaps that "ghost of Gershwin" hype, so overworked in the earlier
days of the Disklavier, will start to fade out, as it should.  One only
need to play the 78s or hear the Movietone short or the surviving radio
transcription that features this composer at the keyboard to realize
that the rolls were the work of other people and, in the case of
Aeolian, were identifiable staff arrangers/musicians.

Regards,
Douglas Henderson - Artcraft Music Rolls
Wiscasset, Maine, USA
http://wiscasset.nnei.net/artcraft/