I need help with an endeavor to establish the accuracy of a 1925
organ performance.  In December of 1925 Marco Enrico Bossi made
a group organ recordings for Aeolian.  He had been touring the
United States at that time.

One of the compositions he recorded was his own work, Scherzo in
G minor, Op. 49, no. 2.  It is difficult to perform and current
organ students and scholars study this composition.

Recently, I have been in contact with Georgio in Italy.  He has
been seeking audio recordings of this Aeolian Duo-Art roll for organ
to aid his colleagues who are scholars of Bossi's work.

Three years ago, I obtained a copy of this Aeolian roll from noted
restorer and collector, Bruce Newman.  Bruce allowed me to borrow
the roll for the purpose of making a MIDI file.  Once that task was
finished, I posted a YouTube video of my organ performing that roll:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKTkKcE8fpY 

That YouTube video joined several other renditions by live performers
of the same work.  The Aeolian performance is considerably faster.
Now the scholars in Italy question the validity of the Aeolian
recording speed.

Based on their inquiries, I took a second look at roll speed accuracy.
I discovered that the roll speed was indeed 4% faster than the marked
tempo of 65, but that isn't too bad. What is more of an issue is that
a prior owner of this roll protected both edges from damage by putting
modern tape on the edges for the full length of the roll.  That really
works to protect the edges, but there is a huge down side.

The down side is that the full length of the roll is now about twice
as thick as it should be at the edges.  This means as the roll plays,
the paper build-up on the take-up spool is twice as much as it should
be.  So by the time the roll is near the end, it is moving briskly
along -- much faster than intended.

This is Aeolian organ roll 3431.  It is perhaps the only recording
ever made of this work played by Bossi.  He became ill in New York
after the recording and two months later on his return to Italy, he
died.  Rollin Smith, famed Aeolian historian and author, did not find
that Bossi recorded this work for any other company, even though he
made numerous recordings.

I don't know if Bossi ever heard his Aeolian recording before his
fatal journey home.   A question that comes to mind is the tempo
stamped on this roll.  Collectors know that factory workers do
occasionally pick up the wrong rubber stamp and apply that stamp to
the roll.

My appeal at this time is two-fold.  Does anyone on this list have
a copy of roll 3431 that they can lend to me for study and copy?
Would all collectors in this group who have copies of this roll check
the marked tempo and forward that marked tempo to me?

If nothing else, this series of events shows the importance of our
interest.  Within our collections, we have recordings that exist
nowhere else.  Scholars who study this music soon learn, that our
100-year-old music rolls might be the final authority on authentic
performance.

Bob Taylor
Missouri
rtaylor@socket.net.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

 [ In 1912 Bossi recorded 15 rolls for the Welte Philharmonic player
 [ residence organ.  Perhaps these salon performances also display
 [ faster tempi.  Students seldom get to hear pipe organ performances
 [ in an intimate venue like a residence salon, where the reverbration
 [ time is small and so the organist can play faster.  -- Robbie