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MMD > Archives > June 2002 > 2002.06.20 > 03Prev  Next


Stravinsky Piano Rolls
By Thomas Ahearn

On the subject of Stravinsky's piano rolls:  those who may have better
access to such things might do a little more research.  Many years ago
(in the 1960's when I was still in school in Boston) I frequented the
Boston Public Library.  One could actually take a roll,  handle it,
and visually inspect it.  The library had no means of playing rolls,
and I don't recall any way of borrowing a roll.

At that time they had an extensive piano roll collection, including
_many_ Stravinsky rolls (but not many reproducing rolls), mostly
Aeolian Themodist "Library Editions".  I remember seeing, specifically,
the complete "Firebird Suite".  (I believe these were Duo-Art, but the
purple boxes of the library Themodist rolls look similar to the dark
crimson of the Audiographic series of Duo-Art rolls).

A decade later, when I was building my roll collection seriously,
I tried to gain access to the rolls, only to take note of titles,
roll numbers, etc.  By this time (perhaps the mid or late 1970s),
one no longer had access to the rolls.

A somewhat helpful librarian by the name of Dianne Ota, did try to
assist me;  she checked on titles in some back room archive, but told
me that "Firebird" was not among the rolls.  (What happened to these
six rolls, which I knew were there some years before?)  I do not know
if Ms. Ota is even still at the BPL.

I lost interest in ever being able to see or hear the rolls, after many
pages of correspondence directed to various "appropriate parties", and
my offering to make the titles available in a more contemporary medium
(say, record the rolls using my seven foot Steinway Duo-Art which I had
at the time.)  I even used the AMICA name to try to gain an advantage
(my mom and I started the Boston Chapter of AMICA in 1972), but that
kind of worked against me.

Ms. Ota explained that, although they had subscribed to the AMICA
Bulletin, and had been dutifully paying their dues, the Boston
Public Library had not been receiving their copies of the Bulletin.
(I was never able to solve that mystery, either.)  I'd certainly be
interested in having a set, if they're ever recut.

Tom Ahearn, "Player Piano Service",
Haverhill, Mass.


(Message sent Thu 20 Jun 2002, 15:04:44 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Piano, Rolls, Stravinsky

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