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MMD > Archives > September 2013 > 2013.09.08 > 02Prev  Next


Wurlitzer A.P.P. Rollography
By Mikey Mills

There is rollography for all of Wurlitzer's band organ rolls,
(except the very early rolls, where each model had a different roll)
PianOrchestra rolls, Paganini rolls, and Wurlitzer harp rolls, but none
for Wurlitzer A.P.P. rolls.

Curiously enough, Wurlitzer A.P.P. rolls were produced until 'the end'
of Wurlitzer's automatic musical instrument production in 1945, unlike
the PianOrchestra and Paganini rolls, which were discontinued in the
mid-1920s.  Unlike the band organ rolls, all the A.P.P. long frame
rolls still had 10 songs.

Wurlitzer producing these rolls until "the end" is most likely the
reason why so many Wurlitzer nickelodeons still exist, sadly not being
the case with the PianOrchestra and Paganini orchestrions as they
were discontinued so early on.  Also, near "the end" of Wurlitzer's
mechanical music era, the quality of the A.P.P. rolls remained about
the same, not declining like the band organ rolls did.  That to me
is interesting, as songs were no more repeated as they were before the
mid-1930s when the band organ rolls still had 10 tunes.

People have noted, myself included, that Wurlitzer PianOrchestra music
is basically the same as the A.P.P. music, minus the QRS arrangements
that the A.P.P. rolls had, and the extra instrumentation on the
PianOrchestras.  Some people even argue that the masters were the same,
with holes specifically for each individual instrument, but to me
that's a bit of a stretch, and I don't think Wurlitzer's perforators
had that capability to cut two different rolls with one master.
Back to the rollography, though.

I would like to start a rollography project, and host it on my
mechanical music web site at http://www.mechanicalmusic.org/  This
is definitely a big project, as many rollography projects are still
ongoing, all the rolls not having been found yet, but I would like to
do this, and in the future if this goes well, do more rollography
projects, such as the Pianino and Mandolin Quartette rolls.

Mikey Mills


(Message sent Mon 9 Sep 2013, 00:46:05 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  A.P.P, Rollography, Wurlitzer

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