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MMD > Archives > June 2012 > 2012.06.01 > 02Prev  Next


Piano Roll Arrangements vs. Transcriptions
By Harald M. Mueller

[ Jeff Taylor wrote in 120531 MMDigest:

> This suggests arrangers were sitting at keyboards and playing their
> arrangements to prepare a roll.  Does that make sense?  In 1913?
> Is it the "hand-played" idea, but with the performer working from
> a musical score he or she prepared him/herself?

I cannot speak for what was technically possible or common in 1913 --
only for the musical side: every arranger (and composer) has his or her
own way of creating music.  I think you will find the full spectrum
from "notation only" (as far as I know, the famous Gershwin rolls of
"An American in Paris" by Frank Milne were directly drawn on the master
roll; and of course rolls for orchestrions etc. required writing of a
score) to "play only" (still, usually with subsequent corrections on
the master roll).

In my practical experience, creating quality rolls by "hand-playing"
is substantially more expensive than writing a score, mostly because
adding in the required precision is about as much work as creating the
raw score.

Harald Mueller


(Message sent Fri 1 Jun 2012, 08:58:20 GMT, from time zone GMT+0200.)

Key Words in Subject:  Arrangements, Piano, Roll, Transcriptions, vs

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