Date:          4 Jun 1996 17:01:00 GMT
From:          e9426050@stud2.tuwien.ac.at (e9426050)
Organization:  Vienna University of Technology, Austria
Newsgroups:    rec.music.makers.piano

•A few weeks ago I bought a CD  called "Vladimir Horowitz 1926 - Welte
Mignon".  When I heard the CD for the first time I wondered how clear
the sound was.  Then I read the booklet which told me that this
recording was made with a so called Welte-Mignon device.  This was a
machine invented at the turn of the century which could register a
pianists playing on a "piano roll", which contained the information on
perforated paper strips, much like the punch tapes of early computers.
After recording the roll was mounted on a playing device, which was
placed in front of a normal piano and played the music piece with
felt-lined wooden fingers.  It is quite hard to believe that there was
such a machine and the quality of the playing is quite incredible (I
can recommend anyone to buy the CD ) First I thought that this might be
some kind of bad joke or a hoax but it seems real.  There are some more
CDs played by this device and (if it is true what the booklet says)
most pieces are played by Mahler, Debussy, Reger and Saint-Seans
themselves.  It sound quite unbelievable so I just wanted to know what
this WelteMignon Device really is, how it functions and how much the
playing from the machine differs from the original playing.  I live in
Vienna and I am playing the piano myself (for 12 years now) and first
bought the CD because there was a recording of Chopins Etude 10/8 and
10/5 which I am playing.  So I have some of experience with classic.  In
my opinion there just cannot be a mechanical device playing so fine
(the etudes are quite good and there is a recording of the  Bach/Busoni
Adagio in A minor from the Toccata in c-major, which shows real
sensitivity: I just wondered how a machine with wooden Fingers could
play really sensitive).  I would be very (very!) happy to hear some
other opinions about this.  The CD was recorded by a label called
INTERCORD-Klassik Auslese with the number CD INT 860.864, it was
released 1988 by Intercord/Germany.  the Horowitz was recorded 1986/87
in Sindelfingen\germany.  the Welte mignon rolls seem to have been
supplied by various music-museums.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

•Terry Smythe                       (204) 832-3982 (voice/fax)
55 Rowand Avenue                   smythe@mts.net
Winnipeg, MB, Canada  R3J 2N6      smythe@freenet.mb.ca
Home Page:   http://www.mts.net/~smythe