I want to focus on an area of mechanical music that I feel is under
appreciated: "arranged rolls".  Of course orchestrion rolls and
other multi-instrument machines must use arranged rolls.  Many of
us appreciate the great arrangers in that field.  Piano and pipe
organ roll libraries include both hand played rolls and arranged rolls.
But to fully exploit these instruments, an arranged roll can perform
what is humanly impossible and still be faithful to transcribed
orchestral music.

The focus of this submission is the artistry found in arranged music
on the Aeolian pipe organ Duo-Art rolls.   Arranged Duo-Art rolls
are often summarily dismissed as merely adaptations of early, dull
116-note rolls.  That view is short-sighted.

Many of the arranged Aeolian Duo-Art rolls for organ are spectacular.
Attention should be given to Alfred Hertz's roll of Hansel and Gretel,
Dream Pantomime.  In this presentation, the orchestral nature of the
Aeolian organ is fully exploited with delicacy.  The music transcribed
for organ is rendered in a manner that cannot be heard properly outside
the realm of the orchestral organ.

Hertz utilizes Aeolian's divisional swell shutters, independently,
to properly phrase each voice as it is introduced so that it blends
subtly.   Stops are added and subtracted almost invisibly, but also
abruptly at times, with stunning affect.  As in many Aeolian rolls,
the voicing of each rank is utilized to create an illusion of more
than a two-manual rendering.   That is, a single rank may be used as
both accompaniment and solo voice simultaneously but sounding as if
two ranks on different divisions are used.

Within the moods of this roll, the softest rank with its division
shutter completely closed provides an almost inaudible fade out that
is followed with new ranks added as the shutters only open slightly
to leak out more sound.  The contrast is stunning. The conclusion of
the piece repeats the fade out process once more to a quiet finale.

In his 2018 concert tour, Cameron Carpenter stated that he continues
to explore the depths of the pipe organ.  He feels there is much more
for him to explore.  Likewise, Aeolian was exploring the pipe organ
100 years ago.  Aeolian's effort included building high quality
orchestral pipe organs that possessed commonality so that arranged
rolls could be played with success on all Aeolian organs.  Staff
musicians and guest artists skillfully arranged the rolls taking full
advantage of these instruments.

The exploration that began with the Aeolian Duo-Art roll was never
completed as the economics of the great Depression brought an end to
that era long before many possibilities were explored.

Aeolian did establish a library of important opera and symphony works
transcribed for the pipe organ.  Tremendous skill is required to make
the music mimic the orchestra.   Alfred Hertz was successfully
conducting opera orchestras and simultaneously working with Aeolian
arranging rolls for its orchestral organs.  Today, few operational
Aeolian organs remain, and even fewer in public venues.  I have posted
some recordings of Aeolian Opus 1280 to keep the artistry alive.

A YouTube posting of Hansel and Gretel, Dream Pantomime, roll 3106,
has been made.  In that presentation, the listener can hear the skill
of the arranger (Hertz) as he matches the orchestra music to the
capability of the Aeolian Organ.  Balancing solo voices, accompaniment,
organ registration, and swell shades is indeed a work of art as the
performance rendered is polished.  It is not in the realm of
"mechanically sounding" music.  Rather, it is music arranged well,
performed mechanically.

The YouTube posting is at https://youtu.be/-lcfv-Hcqs8 

Bob Taylor
Missouri