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MMD > Archives > November 2009 > 2009.11.03 > 02Prev  Next


Who Played the Estey Organ Company Music Rolls?
By David Sharpe

In 091102 MMDigest Jim Crank asks about Estey player pipe organ rolls.
There was a thread in 2008 on this topic. (See "Estey" in the Subject
Index of the MMDigest Archives.)

I briefly repeat what I said in 2008, that I have two Estey rolls
which claim to be played by live artists - Park V Hogan and Chanderler
Goldthwaite.  These two rolls list the artist on the box label.  One
other roll mentions no artist on the box but the roll itself claims
"Recorded by Gottfried H Dederlain" (to my best interpretation of his
signature.)  This roll, however, sounds to me like a drafting board
arrangement.

I also repeat the observation by Bob Taylor that many of the Estey
titles were not available from Aeolian.  This would seem to prove that
at least some were not copied from Aeolian.  Also, the one piece I have
on both Aeolian and Estey rolls are completely different arrangements.

My undated "A Catalogue of Music for the Estey Organ" states that,
"A corps of competent musicians is constantly at work producing music
for the Estey Residence Organ . . ."  and, "We are ready to arrange any
composition which a customer may desire, and this can be done with
surprising promptness." and, "When a piece of music has been arranged
for the Estey Organ at the request of any organ owner, that piece will
be put into the bulletin, and subsequently into the catalogue, and will
be available to any owner who cares for it."

This catalog lists rolls up to about number 365.  The two I have that
seem to be hand played are 1020 and 1029, so it seem likely that Estey
did record actual artists in the later life of their player.

David Sharpe
Western Massachusetts


(Message sent Tue 3 Nov 2009, 20:48:54 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.)

Key Words in Subject:  Company, Estey, Music, Organ, Played, Rolls, Who

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