Back in the 1970s, when I was a little younger and heavy into
rebuilding player pianos, I met a guy I considered a musical genius.
His name is Ted Perrin.  Lost track of him years ago.

Ted wanted to make some piano rolls, so we started out with two small
ones: "The Homecoming" and "Peter Piper".  He listened to a young man
play them on my Weber Duo-Art and then they were cut by hand.

I did the Duo-Art coding -- a real labor of love.  I had created a set
of push buttons to be tubed in parallel with the expression holes on the
tracker bar so I could listen to a roll and decide on the expression
levels; it worked quite well.  We had 20 copies made by Play-Rite and
sold them.  I still have one of the original hand-cut masters.

We got more ambitious.  Ted got the sheet music for the complete score
of "Pictures at an Exhibition" and made original rolls, a 2-roll set.
Again I did the Duo-Art coding; it took hundreds of hours.  Play-Rite
also copied these (20 copies) -- they sounded pretty good if I do say
so.

After that experience we also made Schubert's "Wanderer Fantasy" (20
copies).  Then we got really ambitious and created a four roll set of
Beethoven's "Emperor" piano concerto.  All the music was cut and the
first two rolls were Duo-Art coded (an enormous job) when for some
reason we lost interest in the project.  I went through a house fire
and my Weber Louis XVI got cooked -- the case looked like a heat gun
was taken to upper part and I ended up selling the piano after an
inferior refinishing job.

After my wife passed I had rejoined AMICA after many years and visited
the San Francisco convention.  I went on home visits and ended up at
Bill Kaiser's home in Santa Rosa and he had my "Wanderer Fantasy" and
I heard it again for the first time in 25 years.  When I got home I had
an opportunity to re-acquire a Weber upright that I had restored in the
late 70's.

To make a long story short, I have managed to get back "Pictures at
an Exhibition", "Wanderer Fantasy", the Beethoven "Emperor" concerto
(now completed) and some other rolls of sentimental value.  I have
thought about copying some, but there does not seem to be a market.
Maybe someone is interested?

Also, I have managed to collect a copy of every piano concerto listed
in Charles Davis Smith's Duo-Art Catalog except the Tchaikowsky No. 1
(listed as C-916-1088-1089-1090) and played by Grainger.  I would love
to get a copy but I haven't yet seen one anywhere.  If you know where
there is one or want any other info, please email me or call the number
in the AMICA members listing.

Ian Mavor
ianmavor@gmail.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]