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Frank Milne, Duo-Art Piano Roll Artist
By Bruce Grimes

Frank Milne came to Aeolian Corp. in 1918 and throughout the 1920s
he was Aeolian's head of Artist and Repertoire, meaning he chose the
artists and music titles to be recorded.  After the American Piano
Company (Ampico) went bankrupt and sold their "flagship", Mason and
Hamlin, to Aeolian to scrounge up needed cash, Ampico was forced by
the banks to merge with Aeolian and then Milne became responsible for
Ampico recordings.

Milne made the first several of his much-loved Medley series first as
Duo-Art rolls, then transcribed them for the Ampico.  At the time of
the merger he opposed it because he felt the non-adjustable automatic
crescendo was too sloppy and varied too much with the variable speed
of the wind motor; even with the electric motor drive on the "B", if
the roll Tempo were not carefully set the auto crescendo would not have
the desired result of reproducing an artist's performance.

Bruce Grimes


(Message sent Sat 1 Oct 2011, 15:40:35 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Artist, Duo-Art, Frank, Milne, Piano, Roll

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