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Before radios and record players increased music access to every corner of the country, the player piano brought professional music to consumers for a steeper price ($250 in 1905, equivalent to about $7,300 in 2019).
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It was live music - technically - but the “pianist” needn’t know the first thing about how to play.
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In reality, the operator did little more than power the musical device, adjusting its speed, as it rendered tunes from piano rolls in full splendor on the piano. At once, companies like Wilcox & White or The Cable Company insisted that there was “no musical talent on the part of the performer required” and yet “it enables you to play with the interpretation of the composer.” The promise was that even the least practiced musical amateur could turn out perfect tunes with their new technology. In 1901, piano manufacturers began advertising a contradictory claim in this magazine to anyone who ever longed for marches and ragtime music in their very own abode. Piano rolls, the perforated “code” of the player piano, also remain as unique historical record of the stylings of iconic pianists of the period. Though the player piano is understood now as an obsolete oddity - a short-lived steampunk quirk of simpler times - the instrument was a revolutionary step forward for bringing music into new places at the dawn of the 20th century. “Yes, my daughter has a great foot for music.” The Saturday Evening Post, February 24, 1923
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Your dinner guests have a grand time and the party is saved, thanks to pneumatic technology. With a steady pump of the foot pedals, or treadles, your piano could play itself, the black and white keys moving as if fingered by a poltergeist. For the first time in history, attractive music filled homes without the need for a learned (human) player. They need music, a group sing-along of “Sweet Adeline” or “Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie,” but there isn’t a pianist in the bunch.Įnter the player piano. You’d planned to keep them entertained with some trendy parlor games, but charades isn’t going to cut it for this crowd.
![black and white rag player piano roll black and white rag player piano roll](https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-KkCrdBknlzhIWFb3-5Eo4Lg-t500x500.jpg)
Your dinner guests have finished their mutton pies and cream pudding and they’re bouncing off the papered walls from the café noir. You’re an ambitious hostess in a turn-of-the-century, middle-class home.