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MMD > Archives > March 2012 > 2012.03.16 > 02Prev  Next


Music Rolls with Chinese Tunes
By Adam G. Ramet

Wolfgang Brommer asks if there are any piano rolls of Chinese music
[120310 MMDigest].  The answer is 'yes'.  In the 1914 Aeolian catalogue
there are three listed; all are 65-note issues, made and issued only
in London.

  L1398 Chow Liang Kwan
  L1399 Sia hoo dio
  L1400 Shanghai mody

I also have another L-series 65-note Chinese traditional title that was
not ever listed in the catalogue, so the answer is there are at least
four.  Aeolian, and also Imperial in the UK, issued an extremely wide
range of music in the 1905-1915 era.

These songs are not titles that people would rush to purchase, but they
are part of the wider catalogue that was intended to fill and enlighten
the shelves of many music roll lending libraries that were very much an
integral part of the player piano scene here in the UK.

In my current music auction list there is another example of this sort
of roll to be seen in lot 1055, a UK Imperial 65er of "Repertoire of
Arabian & Moorish Music: No. 13 Tchenebar Sika (Ouverture des Neklabat)".
These were all offered for sale in the catalogue but essentially they
were aimed at the academic music school market and roll libraries.

As to finding any more Chinese original old rolls today, I think it's
going to be very hard -- even I have only one.  Of course, we can cut
new rolls of traditional Chinese music today without any difficulty.
All we need is a music score using conventional Western notation.

Sincerely,
Adam Ramet
http://www.undergroundpianola.com/ 


(Message sent Fri 16 Mar 2012, 16:38:29 GMT, from time zone GMT.)

Key Words in Subject:  Chinese, Music, Rolls, Tunes

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