When describing the different reproducing piano systems to visitors
to my home, I often compare the systems to the old days of Beta and VHS
video cassette recorders: both were VCRs (the pianos) and both played
cassettes (the rolls) but each system was unique and couldn't play the
media of the other system.  This usually helps their understanding in
general terms.

I'm drawn again to the VHS tape for another analogy: The VHS tape
had the ability to record at various speeds.  The faster the recording
speed, the more information the tape could hold (better quality and
detail) but the total recording time was shorter.  The slower the
recording speed, the tape could hold less information (worse quality
and detail) but the total recording time was longer.

Regarding the Tempo marks of reproducing piano rolls, the same is true.
Many early rolls (pre-1920) have little expression coding and play at
quite slow "Tempos" of 50-60-70, yet in terms of actual beats per
minute (the "metronome tempo") these rolls sound quite lively and sound
to the naked ear "fast."

At the same time, these early rolls are quite short in physical length,
oftentimes not nearly filling the entire spool yet playing to over 3
minutes of music.  For our comparison, these early recordings are like
the VHS recording at slow speed: not a lot of detail in the coding, but
saved space.

The inverse was also true.  When editors embraced all that the
reproducing piano was capable of and when the coding of rolls became
an art form in and of itself in the hands of a master (Milne, Fairchild,
Lutter, etc.) we see a direct connection with the increase in Tempo in
order to provide enough stability in the paper to support so much
information in an almost constant succession.

After 1930, in all of the reproducing systems, it is not unusual to see
marked Tempi of 95-105 yet again, in terms of actual beats per minute
("metronome tempo") the music we hear sounds more or less the same
speed at as the rolls recorded ten years earlier at Tempo 50.
(Fox-trot rolls are the best example but the same is true for ballad
and song rolls.)

Lastly, in evaluating the proper Tempi for rolls one should remember
a few facts.  In the 1920s especially, but into the 1930s as well,
the fox-trot piano roll sound was an imitation of the dance band sound.
The reason dance bands existed was to provide music for dancing.  So
many of the wonderful "standards" we know today started off as songs
from Broadway shows which became popular through performances and
recordings of dance bands.

As we entered the swing era of the big-bands in the 1940s, the
fox-trot, as a dance, becomes pass and disappears.  Luckily for
listeners (or perhaps unluckily for dancers) many of these songs were
resurrected by the crooners of the 1950s (Sinatra, et al.) and found
new lives as ballads and in all sorts of other stylistic arrangements.

To that end, we must remember that the Tempo printed on the roll
represents the tempo the way the 1920s/1930s listener would have danced
to the song.  Listening to "Stars Fell on Alabama" or "The Song is You"
or even "Ol' Man River" may seem even comical to hear at their original,
fox-trot printed tempi; however that was very much the style and rhythm
which made these tunes popular in the first place.

In our own understanding of these original tempo indications we must
listen with "pre-Sinatra" ears.

Adam Aceto
Burbank, California