| The piano was the entertainment center in the respectable 19th century home. Owning a piano meant several things: that one had the means to afford such a costly instrument; and that a woman in the household was sophisticated enough to play the piano. There was no radio, no television, and no phonograph. Entertainment was live entertainment; music had to played by a musician and appreciated at that moment. The new century with its new ideas and new inventions would change everthing. |  |
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The player piano was the one of the
first of many inventions to change music as a commodity.
Today, we are inundated by music. It blasts from
automobiles, oozes from elevators, aggravates from
telephones, and feigns to soothe us in our dentist's
waiting room. Music is everywhere. Beginning around 1900 and continuing for the next three decades, for the first time in history, music could be heard on demand. The player piano was like a jukebox; its "discs" were the paper piano rolls. The unique player, however, did not use speakers or electricity; it actually played itself using air pressure-- hammers struck the strings, strings vibrated and wood resonated. |
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The performances were studio-perfect
and many of the performers were the greatest artists of
the day signed exclusively to a particular company. New
concepts of editing, arranging, over-dubbing, recording,
and marketing were introduced to the rapidly evolving
world of music. Before this invention, no one could ever
imagine hearing Edvard Grieg or Jelly Roll Morton playing
piano in their own parlor or at the corner bar. Encores
could be heard by simply re-rolling and starting again. The music recorded on the player piano roll reflected the changing social fabric of the day--the end of Victorian convention and the beginning of the uninhibited modern thinking and free-spending practices of the twentieth century. |
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As the economy flourished, the rising
new middle-class could afford a player piano and a
collection of rolls. The Great Depression coupled with new technological advances in the entertainment field such as radio, the phonographs, and the talking movie signaled the demise of the player piano era. Strapped to make ends meet, most Americans could barely afford a radio, let alone the purchase and upkeep of such a complicated instrument. There was no longer a demand for the player piano when prosperity finally returned after the Second World War. |
| Many of the new fangled
contraptions from before the world wars would drastically
alter our landscape--like the horseless carriage--or the
aeroplane. Others, for one reason or another, would never
get off the ground, or like dinosaurs, would roam the
earth for a time and disappear. Although not extinct, one
of these now rare creatures is the player piano. Mark Hellenberg is a producer and hosts the afternoon classical music program and "Audiosyncrasies" on Ohio University Public Radio. |
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