"Rolls of Pianola"

25/04/2019

The Humanities Library in collaboration with the Working Group "The Technological Reproduction Music" of the UAB Department of Art and Musicology present the exhibition on "Rolls of Pianola".

A pianola is a musical instrument that incorporates the piano mechanism to which a series of mechanical and pneumatic elements are added that allow the automatic reproduction of perforated music, recorded in a roll of paper (Piano Roll).

The first pianoles were external systems (small closet type) that were placed in front of a commercial piano (Piano player) while the later ones were already incorporated into the resonance box of the piano and the roll at the height of the eyes of the pianist (Player piano).

A pianola, in fact, allows both the manual execution of a pianist (recording of music, roll of perforated paper recorded) and its automatic (semi) execution by music lovers or beginer pianists by rolling paper perforated transcripts that sound metronomically and which include lines drawn on the paper indicating the pianolist (pianola interpreter) the tempo and dynamics of the piece, with two different systems, the so-called themodist and metrostyle, which allowed various interpretations.

In the hall of the Humanities Library, you can see a pianola made by the company Aeolian, rolls of pianoles, as well as different bibliographical materials, advertising of different newspapers and catalogs promoting models of pianola and photographs of "La Solfa ", the workshop of the Catalan company Victoria de la Garriga, pioneer in the manufacture of musical rolls. The images are a small sample of the processes of transcription of original roll matrices, revision of the result of perforations with interpretatory indications, and packaging of boxes for international export.

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