Chris B.
The golden age of the player piano stretched from 1895 until the stock market crash of 1929. The first automated piano player was known as the Pianola. The device was pushed up to or installed over an existing piano keyboard and actually pressed or played the existing piano’s keys. Eventually, these devices were integrated into the pianos themselves, and the “player piano” was born.
Most player pianos utilized pedals which when pumped created a pneumatic suction to activate the piano keys. Paper music rolls signaled to the piano which note to play along with note duration. A step up from the player piano was the “reproducing piano”. These pianos introduced dynamics and musical expression into the piano player mechanism. Entertainers from that era often created copies of their performances in the form of player piano rolls.
The advent of the radio and radio broadcasts began to erode the popularity of the player piano, and very few of the companies that produced player pianos were able to survive the Great Depression. Surprisingly, there is still a company that manufactures piano rolls, QRS Music. Check out the above video and enjoy a blast from the past.
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We have a player piano in our living room. It doesn’t work and it weighs a ton. It can be played manually but, because of its age, it can’t be properly tuned any longer. My wife is the one who played it but, because of an injury, can no longer do so. We’d give it away but we can’t find any takers.
I’ve seen pianos like that at Auckland’s ministry of transport and technology
It’s great that player pianos are still an interesting novelty!
Nice video! Nice post!
Very cool I love these pianos Chris.
Really great! Thank you for sharing