Several earlier postings on MMD alerted readers that 2014 is the
centennial of my Aeolian Opus 1280.  Three concerts were presented the
week end of October 18.  Of course not many people from out of town
attended, but the locals were generous with their praise.  The events
gave me the opportunity to "spread the word" about mechanical music.

In presenting the concerts, I tried to emphasize how the Aeolian organ
is unique and not similar to church organs.   Starting with the concept
of the 116-note roll, which is essentially two sets of information on
the same roll, Aeolian was able to build an instrument that could
imitate a large orchestra.  This was the foundation of the Duo-Art
library which is primarily made up of transcriptions.  The Aeolian
organ itself is orchestral in nature.  Thus, rolls and organ could work
together to create the illusion of a symphony orchestra.

Music of Richard Wagner was used more often than any other composer.
Aeolian's staff of skilled arrangers often worked in anonymity, known
only as the "Aeolian Organ Guild".  But several well-known musicians
were given credit for their arrangements.  The most prolific in this
group was Harry Rowe Shelley.  A Shelley roll was part of the program
in my concerts.

If you would like to hear an example of Shelley's work, I've added a
Centennial page to my web site.  There you can listen to the MP3 file
of Gounod's Jewel Song from Faust.  That site's URL is

   http://aeolianorgan.com/aeolian/Centennial.html 

Also, part of my centennial celebration is a new YouTube presentation.
Using shots from last year's nasty winter, I made a video of a favorite
Christmas tune played by Archer Gibson.  The audio portion and some
video was recorded last December and some more current video shots were
made this last week.  I was a bit careless in getting the scenes set in
an identical manner, so if you see rolls mysteriously appearing and
disappearing as well as piano lids both up and down, you know why.
This gives a clue to the challenges facing film makers.

The YouTube URL is  http://youtu.be/0FE0mKYaTkI 

Bob Taylor
Missouri