Vincent Morgan asks about transcribing piano rolls to sheet music.
As one who has hand-cut several piano rolls using a grid, transcribed
other piano rolls to sheet music and learned them for concert use,
and studied piano rolls against disc recordings by the same artist,
I believe this is more complicated than it first appears.  These points
need to be understood:

- Note attacks on a piano roll are determined by where the hole starts,
and the roll moves slowly enough that critical inflections in rhythm
are determined by very tiny differences in hole placement -- much too
tiny to pick out by eye, even using a grid.  A grid can help you create
a new mechanically-arranged roll, but not to efficiently read an old
hand-played one.  The music on a roll is best ascertained by playing
it back.

- The easiest way to examine a piano-roll performance for the purposes
of transcribing it is through a recording, which can either be captured
by playing the roll on a player piano, or by scanning it into a MIDI
file and playing it back by computer.  There are plenty of music-lovers
who do both of these activities regularly, and some who receive this
digest.  The recording can then be examined closely at any speed one
chooses, using commonly available software.

- Capturing the sound recording is the easy part.  It then takes lengthy
effort by an accomplished musician to notate the rhythm accurately, no
matter what tools or automation that musician chooses to help in the
the task.

- A score that accurately captures the notes and rhythms on a roll is
still not ready for a pianist to play.  Each roll manufacturer strove
for superiority over the competition, within the confines of the
technology.  First in importance was how the roll sounded when played
by the target audience.  Today's knowledgeable pianist studying a roll
will almost always find lengthened notes and reinforced harmonies
(blatant or subtle), to compensate for the average pumper's neglect
of the sustaining pedal.  Any useful score will involve "arranging"
decisions.  Study Gershwin's rolls versus Warner Brothers' scores of
them, some of which actually came out for piano duet, if you want a
vivid example.

Any way you slice it, trying to write down and hand-play the music on
a roll is not for the faint-hearted.  Its age and difficulty keeps most
of it out of publication, so it must be done by individuals.  Those of
us who finish a few paltry scores may feel insignificant, but what if
we pooled our resources?  (As long as the copyright status can be made
clear.  We sure don't have a profit motive.)  Success stories, anyone?

I have Charles Davenport's "Cow Cow Blues" if folks are interested.
My piano students like it.  Lucky Roberts' "MoLasses" is coming along.
Does $3.00 a copy make sense?  (It takes me a couple months per song.)
What other finished scores of difficult rolls are out there?  I bet a
lot of us would like to know.

James Neher

 [ 25 years ago I transcribed the James P. Johnson piece, "You've Got
 [ To Be Modernistic", prior to cutting a piano roll of it.  I spent
 [ probably 20 hours on just the transcription, and even more cutting
 [ the piano roll to match the sound of the classic phono recording.
 [ Yes, it's a lot of work!  -- Robbie