I've just spent a very enjoyable four weeks in Spain, doing almost
nothing but lie in the sun and read.  But automatic pianos will come and
find you out ... in a bar by the beach at Torre Guardiaro I suddenly
became aware I was sitting back to back with a very large and gloomy
barrel piano, being used as a plant stand.  It was missing its crank
handle but everything else was in place, including the tune selector
and tune sheet, which was rather surprisingly typed.  The fretwork was
fairly simple and suggested a late date of around 1910.  The maker's
plate was missing.

When I expressed interest, the bar girl led me to a second piano, which
she said worked, although the regular customers rather preferred it not
working.  This was one of the classic undersized type of around 1890 of
which a few were still playing in the streets of London during and just
after WW2.  In this case the tune sheet was not only typed but on a
Madrid piano-tuner's headed notepaper, printed in classical late 1930s
or 40s style with a six-digit phone number.  There was a maker's plate
"LUIS CASALI Torres Amat 1 Barcelona" and a smaller repairer's plate "J
DE BERNARDI (unreadable address) SALAMANCA".

The tunes were as follows:

Anonymous "1910" piano              Luis Casali piano
----------------------              -----------------
Nota de las Piezas (Cilindro)
1 Vals, Fandanguillo de Almeria     1 Vals  Peteneras
2 Paso-doble, El Gallo              2 Pasodoble  El Fallero
3 ld - Las Cosarias                 3  "  Las Leandras
4 ld - Valencia                     4  "  El Gato montes
5 ld - El Gato Montes               5  "  Vaya torerazo
6 Schotis, Rosa de Madrid           6 Schotis  La Violetera
7 Mazurca, La Verbena de la Paloma  7 Habanera  La Paloma
8 Habanera, El Ven y Ven            8 Mazurka, Santa Lucia
9 Tango, A media Luz                9 Rok, Ahora te puedes marchar
10 Jota, T R E M P S               10 Jota  Aragonesa

Can anyone tell me an absolute earliest date for either of these lists
? Spanish belle-epoque pop is not my strong point.  I later met a piano
repairman who spoke some English and according to him, coin-operated
roll-playing pianos were very rare in Spain, being German and confined
to the Madrid area.  But barrel pianos were common in bars in the bigger
centres where there were piano workshops to maintain them right up to
1939.  Unlike in England, where traditional pubs prefer quiet and barrel
pianos were mostly hired out by the day for street use, Spanish
examples were (he said) all used in bars.

Dan Wilson