Dear all,  In my spare time, I have been pursuing a long term ongoing
project for the past 3+ years of transcribing (typing out) all monthly
roll listings of all companies (mostly 88-note and reproducing) listed
in the Music Trade Review (MTR) magazine, to a text-file format for
easier searching and to aid in the eventual creation of rollographies
for these companies.

I have attempted to transcribe these as faithfully as possible, with
spelling and grammar errors (or what I feel to be errors) copied
verbatim, with a "sic" in brackets afterwards, to let readers know that
in that case, I did not make a typo, the MTR editor or roll company did
(and generally, I try to make as few typos as possible).

I wish to submit to MMD, as a starter of hopefully many more to follow
(and I have several dozen others in the pipeline ready to send), a
couple of complete Music Trade Review year-listings I have for the
Aeolian Co.'s rolls, namely the years 1916 and 1926.

These include all monthly roll listings in the periodical for the 12
months of each of those years, so 24 listings in all for now (I want to
get a few more years completed and send the next batch in soon as a
complete year of listings).  I have attached these as two separate text
files.

Important notes:

- These listings are complete in terms of what _was published_ in
Music Trade Review.  However, they are not complete in terms of (a)
listing every single roll issued by Aeolian that month (they list many,
but not all), and (b) listing/mentioning roll numbers.

- The first two 88-note monthly listing pages I've found so far in
MTR (November, 1910 and December, 1910) _do_ give complete listings of
everything issued by those particular roll companies for those months,
complete with roll numbers.  They are thus, of course, a great boon in
our current times when the original paper catalogs and bulletins issued
by the roll companies can be very rare to nonexistent.

(This, again, is why it's _so important_ to save and _scan_ every
single roll bulletin or catalog, and also, for that matter, every
instrument bulletin or catalog you find, even on the off chance it
does end up duplicating another one existing somewhere.  Terry Smythe
and the folks in AMICA have already scanned many bulletins and several
roll catalogs so far, making for a great resource, and they need more).

- However, for some reason (probably because the roll firms were losing
money on the paper roll bulletins and catalogs that they had printed,
and which probably were suddenly not selling well due to the MTR's
1910 complete-listings-with-numbers efforts), the Music Trade Review's
monthly roll listing format changed radically in January, 1911, into
a sort of "curated" or "selected" list of what the MTR roll department
editor personally felt was "the best" music issued by those firms each
month, usually classical, with a smattering of popular music (and the
popular music usually mentioned in the editor's text in pejorative and
belittling terms, revealing the MTR department editor's views on this
music!)

Thus, the MTR roll listings from 1911 through 1919 (at least) are,
unless specifically noted as "complete" (or "in its entirety") in the
text of that particular MTR roll listing editorial, _partial_ lists of
what a certain firm issued each month.

This is certainly better than nothing, because, in the absence of any
extant bulletins or catalogs to fill in the gaps, we can, today, take
our own lists of extant rolls by that firm (compiled by watching eBay,
getting lists from roll auctions, collectors etc), which hopefully have
most other roll info known (title, composer(s), artist/arranger(s) if
listed, publisher if listed, date if listed, roll number), and finally
add to this actual month-by-month release dates to MANY of the rolls,
if not all of them, allowing the rest to have their release date at
least guessed in terms of the adjacent number to known rolls, probably
with the accuracy of about 2 to 3 months each way of the actual release
date.

- By 1920 or so, (and certainly by the mid-1920s), the MTR's "curated"
monthly roll listing policy, or whatever, had been finally dropped
and the periodical returned to listing a complete-appearing (probably
complete) format of everything(?) issued by those particular companies
those months, with one major difference: roll numbers were not listed
for most firms, unlike in 1910.

(This was probably a way to satisfy both the roll makers who needed
to sell their bulletins and catalogs, so dealers and customers could
discover what all was available, and also the roll numbers of rolls
they wanted to order, and also to keep the dealers happy who just
wanted to know what was issued each month in a hurry).

The exceptions that I've seen to the no-roll-numbers-listed after
1910 rule are

1. The U. S. Music Co. pre-1920 or so roll listings (which are
generally given in full at least in the 1911-1916 or so years, in
a different place or different issue of the MTR from the rest of the
rolls, WITH the roll numbers.  I have the feeling that US specifically
requested that the MTR do this, and maybe paid a little more to have
these listings run).

I've been transcribing these US listings and will send them in later,
perhaps after I get all the 1911-1929 Aeolian 88-note, Themodist, and
Duo-Art listings finished and submitted.

2. A few select firms like Connorized, Pianostyle, Republic, Standard,
and a few others, had small-format list-type roll bulletin ads made up
(usually taking up 1/6 page to 1/3 page) which DO generally give roll
numbers, although they aren't always a complete list of that firm's
rolls for the month (Standard and Republic usually ARE complete,
Connorized usually aren't, and I haven't yet taken a close look at
Pianostyle).

3. A few firms, including The Aeolian Co./Universal Music Co.
(occasionally), and the Rythmodik Co. (somewhat more frequently) took
out occasional (not regular) full-page roll ads in MTR, which could
appear in any issue (not just the last issue of the month like normal
MTR roll listings) and give either a complete or partial list of the
rolls for that month, or in some cases, promote a special set or
package of "demonstration rolls" or a "starter set" for customers,
or some variation thereof, which the dealers could offer at a special
price.

The latter groupings ("demonstration sets"; "starter sets") are
interesting, because they sometimes explain why certain pieces of music
on certain roll labels turn up MUCH more frequently than do others
today, beyond the popularity of the actual piece.

Anyway, I hope you folks find this all at least mildly interesting,
and hopefully really useful, and please go take a look at the listings
once they're posted on the MMD page, and feel free to bookmark and
refer back to them if you like to look up release dates of rolls, or
are just curious as to WHAT was issued (titles, composers, pianists)
etc.

I hope this info eventually gets entered into a spreadsheet format
(Microsoft Access), with no additional errors introduced, but for now
this is way better than nothing, and a text format is great for
searching, copying, and pasting.

I also hope these listings will show some of our roll-scanning friends
like Warren Trachtman, Larry Doe, Robert Perry, etc. exactly when
certain now-public-domain rolls were released (especially in the
teens), so that they can perhaps add a column of roll release dates
(year and month, so like, 1916-05 for May, 1916) to their scan
listings, to aid in making sure all public-domain scanned rolls are
identified as such and made freely accessible to the public, while also
keeping those for which the music copyright is still in force
(1923-present) restricted.

To supplement this, as well as help vintage-music researchers,
performers and enthusiasts outside of the mechanical music sphere,
I will eventually put up a web page of music copyright listings I've
also been transcribing (for a few years now) from the "Catalog of
Copyright Entries" to show when certain songs/instrumentals were
copyrighted (generally those published by large and medium size firms
in New York, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, San Francisco,
Williamsport and a few other places).  These are also transcribed
text-listings which can thus be more easily searchable and readable
than graphic images, although not quite as sort-able or
cross-referenceable as a database format.

(I've discovered I'm not nearly as savvy as I need to be to properly
use database software without greatly screwing up the data, thus the
text-file format!)

Hopefully, these copyright entries of popular songs, salon music etc.
1905-1925 (and beyond) will show what is and isn't public-domain, so
the latter can become more widely available in sheet music, piano roll,
and record format (in vintage pre-1923 recordings and arrangements, of
course).

Best regards, and more to follow later,

Andrew Barrett
Costa Mesa, California

P.S. Also pursuant to Aeolian roll interests, I also have a large text
file that is nearly complete, transcribing, in roll number order, all
of the rolls listed in the penultimate (1919/1920) Universal 88-note
roll catalog (the one issued _right before_ or _during_ the period when
Aeolian phased out Universal and started making Mel-O-Dee rolls), from
the PDF version of said catalog made available on the AMICA website and
on Mr. Terry Smythe's website.

Thus, if you're eager to help add to the Aeolian 88-note roll databank
by transcribing this particular catalog, don't, since I'm almost done
and you'd be wasting your time re-inventing the wheel.  I've spent
quite a lot of time on it!  I'll also submit this info to MMD in the
next couple months when I've finished it.

Once the transcribed text info is finished and submitted, you're
certainly welcome and encouraged to enter it into an Access or similar
database and thus make it more searchable.

The same goes for the MTR roll listing data!

P.P.S. Many thanks to the folks both in and outside of MBSI who have
preserved, scanned, uploaded, and made access to these Music Trade
Review magazine issues available for everyone!

 [ Text file containing my transcription of all 12 Music Trade Review monthly Aeolian roll listings for 1916
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/16/10/19/161019_165025_Aeolian%20and%20Universal%20monthly%20Music%20Trade%20Review%20roll%20listings%20for%201916.txt 

 [ Text file containing my transcription of all 12 Music Trade Review monthly Aeolian roll listings for 1926
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/16/10/19/161019_165025_Aeolian,%20Duo-Art,%20Mel-O-Dee,%20and%20Universal%20monthly%20Music%20Trade%20Review%20roll%20listings%20for%201926.txt