Later developments of the reproducing piano include the use of magnetic tape and floppy disks, rather than piano rolls, to record and play back the music and, in the case of one instrument made by Bösendorfer, computer assisted playback.Īlmost all modern player pianos use MIDI to interface with computer equipment. Synthesizer control unit of Yamaha Disklavier Mark III They were eventually replaced by jukeboxes in the early 20th century, though restored or replicated Nickelodeons and Orchestrions are sometimes found today in public establishments as novelty items. Much more elaborate coin-operated versions include additional sound-effects like the Orchestrion. Nickelodeons are coin-operated player pianos which were normally located in public establishments. These massive devices were some of the most complicated mechanical musical instruments ever built, with the exception of a few organs. Welte & Sons, the later producers of the Welte-Mignon reproducing pianos, and the Wurlitzer Company, founded by German immigrants from Bavaria.
One of the leading companies in this business were the German-American company M. This kind of instrument was called an Orchestrion, built since about 1840. Player pianos were sometimes manufactured with additional combinations of organ pipes and percussion instruments built into them. These mechanisms were retro-fitted into many different piano brands (Steinway, Marshall and Wendall, Kimball, etc.) Each uses a different encoding method for the paper music roll and different internal systems to control the piano during playback. From around 1908, the roll mechanisms were also built into grand pianos.Īmpico (American Piano Company), Welte-Mignon, and Duo-Art (Aeolian Company) are a few of the popular brands of (now antique) reproducing piano mechanisms. These early instruments came to be known as cabinet players or vorsetzers.
This unit was positioned in such a way that a series of felt-covered wooden or metal "fingers" were located above each key of the piano and struck the corresponding note as indicated by the perforations in the music roll most include one or more moving "feet" to control the piano's pedals as well. However, the original pneumatic players were constructed in a separate cabinet, which was placed in front of the keyboard of an ordinary piano. The most familiar type of pneumatic player piano looks like a normal upright piano, but has a mechanism controlled by a paper music roll contained within the cabinet of the piano itself. Many companies marketed the player piano with different names, most commonly with the suffix OLA or with the word TONE incorporated into it, but Pianola was the name that stuck.
Originally, the Pianola (with a capital 'P') was a registered tradename of the Aeolian Company, but became a generic name associated with the player piano.
Nowadays, these are usually known as the reproducing piano and the pianola respectively, though there are also instruments that cross this exact division. There are two main types: one fully automatic which faithfully reproduces a pianist's interpretation of the music, and one which lacks the nuance of live performance. The most commonly found older player pianos are pneumatic, powered by a vacuum which is created via foot-powered bellows or electric motors. Steinway Welte-Mignon reproducing piano (1919) John McTammany, an American Civil War veteran, also claimed much credit in the invention and development of the instrument, having patented several devices that were important to the development of the player piano from 1881 onwards. It was Votey's invention that initiated mass production of the instrument. An early example was the Pianista, developed by Henri Fourneaux in 1863, though ultimately the best known was the Pianola, originally created by Edwin Scott Votey in 1895 at his home workshop in Detroit, Michigan. History of the This musical instrument was not invented by any one person, since its many distinguishing features were developed over a long period of time, principally during the second half of the 19th century. The player piano was most popular in the first half of the 20th century, roughly at the same time as the acoustic phonograph. Instead, the keys are struck by mechanical, pneumatic or electrical means. The player piano is a type of piano that plays music automatically without the need for a human pianist.