Hello there,

We just noted your posting in the MMD about 'Ballet Mecanique' rolls -
it's a 3-Roll Set (250 ft.) and we offer it at ARTCRAFT Rolls, not the
botched, sloppy original French Pleyel series - with many passages
missing - but a 1991 reconstruction of the work with "interpretive
striking" ... and which also comes with a Pianolist's Guide.

See our Website for complete details about the music:

    http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/

        (Go to the 88-Note Roll section, in the first half of the
        descriptions.)

Antheil ORIGINALLY ran 'Ballet Mecanique' as a work for SOLO Player-
Piano and a movie projector in a French SALON setting, for a select
group of people.  This contained nude scenes (straight and gay, the
latter with Man Ray and his lover) which were cut out by the time
the work was expanded [and destroyed, in my opinion] to the 'Spike
Jones' orchestra and multiple piano format.  (The composer said so in
his many writings, complaining about the lack of synchronization, which
- of course - this would introduce.  The Pianola was reduced to an
intermittent sound effects machine in these later arrangements.)

My rolls were created from the composer's handwritten manuscript for
the Pleyel Co., a gift of the Antheil Estate - so this copyrighted
version is the only one so authorized.

Antheil never synchronized multiple mechanical pianos, as revisionist
rumor later stated.  When he "overblew" the work - originally for a
film - he had MANY live pianists and ONE Pianola.  Later, as the film
got shorter, he revised it again and again ... eventually dropping the
motion picture and in the 'Fifties even added jet engine tapes to
replace the visual (phony) aeroplane propeller props, which - in turn -
were PERFECTLY SIMULATED on the Player-Piano, as part of the work came
from his earlier "Aeroplane Sonata".

Hope this explain everything.  Check out our Website and you'll get
full descriptions of this exciting roll set, which has chords up to
31-Notes, so 'taxes' player actions which aren't in top condition!

        Regards from Maine,
                        (signed) Douglas Henderson

ARTRCRAFT Music Rolls
PO Box 295
Wiscasset, ME 04578
(207) 882-7420
http://www.wiscasset.net