Dear Jody,

   Thanks for your 'e-mail' message, generated from my response to the
Website.

   As far as I know, I've been using Leabarjan perforators longer than
anybody, since the early 1950's ... and on an almost daily basis.
Beyond running ARTCRAFT Music Rolls since 1982, I've made countless
rolls for concerts and performances at The Musical Wonder House (museum)
around the corner, co-founded by Lois and Danilo Konvalinka and myself
back in 1962.  {Am still a co-owner of the collection but have been
running The ARTCRAFT Studio on Lee St.  since the Summer of 1986 ...
someday we'll 'work-out' the partnership dissolution!)

   My original machine is the 4-roll #5 ... and in later years I added
the 16-roll #8-B, so have 2 running in the Studio, along with 2 Steinway
& Sons grands: 7' AR Duo-Art elec. "reproducing" and a pedal 6'6" O.
Having 2 Leabarjans gives me the opportunity to cut a "TEST STRIP" in
the middle of a complex arranging problem, and see how it sounds,
without disturbing the Master Roll.

   I believe that only ARTCRAFT and Eric Bernhoft in San Fransisco.
(dba UPRIGHT & GRAND Rolls) are frequent users of the Leabarjan
equipment today, built from 1911-1927 ... and from 'parts' by a local
former factory worker in Hamilton, Ohio up to the early 1950's.  Eric,
by the way, had been cutting with a pen-knife/graph paper style of a
system he'd devised, then visited the Studio in 1986 and had me locate a
#5 for him.  [The AMICA club magazine display ad that appeared after his
visit was my doing, at his request.]

   If you - and your readers - are interested in Leabarjans, you have
come to the right source.  I have been in touch with the family that
built them - now deceased - and have had visits from their relatives in
recent times. One, who lives in Maine and whose occupation is a
newspaper writer, did a comprehensive article on me for the Brunwick
TIMES-RECORD [reprinted in the MBSI club magazine shortly thereafter].
I have letters and all sorts of information about The Leabarjan
Manufacturing Company here, and demonstrate the machinery "in use"
to the Studio visitors and customers.

   The Leabarjan -- using my "Interpretive Arranging" methods --
transcends the electronic graph paper results from computer/MIDI
arranging, which are really a return to the Turn of the Century methods,
musically speaking.  Being a hands-on machine, once learned, it's easy
cut down to graduated "overlaps" that, in the ARTCRAFT case, allow for
128th of a note control, and the simulation of a specific KEYBOARD
ATTACK.  { That isn't possible with commercial roll methods. If one
believes they are hearing Lhevinne on an Ampico, there are only two
possibilities: a) they never heard his Columbia 78's made after the
short Ampico period and/or b) they aren't astute musical listeners!  The
Ampico is pleasant, but "Lhevinne" isn't there.  I couldn't achieve the
same results with MIDI, graph paper, drafting boards ... and am probably
the only person on-record to tell Max Kortlander at Imperial Industrial/
QRS in New York City that I wouldn't "learn" their "recording" piano,
often photographed with J. L. Cook and other staffers.  It put one back
into the graph paper methods again, in spite of piano keys being attached
to the perforator! }

   An article I did in the 1980's - when The ARTCRAFT Studio opened -
appeared in the AMICA club magazine, entitled "LEABARJAN LIVES!", in
two parts.  This featured some sharp photographs of the equipment when
it was located at The Musical Wonder House.

   The biggest article on the subject of Leabarjan history - complete
with much material previously unpublished - appeared in Vol. I (4
issues) of my publication, THE PIANOLA QUARTERLY ... now in-progress
with Vol. II.  This is a permanent, or 'subscription series' type of
publication, so can be ordered by YEAR @ 8.50 postpaid. (USA) - same
price plus postage, abroad - and contains "more than you'd want to know"
about the subject and history of these unusual machines, going into what
they CAN DO and what they CAN'T ACCOMPLISH, due to their designs - and
also in relation to the attributes & limitations of the Pianola action
as well.  I have colour pictures of the #5 and #5-8 in the illustrations
that accompany this article, plus a number of "in-house" Leabarjan texts
and reprints of advertising brochure tests.

   THE PIANOLA QUARTERLY is the 'alternative' journal for those involved
in mechanical music, and musical performances per se.  (Just got a call
from a VP of Steinway & Sons the other day about some information
regarding the 9'6" Duo-Art demonstration "reproducing" Steinway grands
... so must be doing something right! Henry Z.  Steinway, retired, was
an early subscriber to the PQ and contributes information on a
continuing basis.)  By publishing "content" for the history & music
field, and avoiding the 'mythology rehash' about "artists on rolls"
being "authentic", the PQ is really finding an intelligent international
audience.  These are the people who LISTEN to music, those not wrapped
up in social activities.  The absence of "dated material" and costumed
'clubbies' puts the focus on the rolls, player actions, and the MUSIC
itself.  My articles often include FULL-PAGE pictures of rolls,
annotated to show elements for the Pianolist to recognize during
performance.

   You might check out my article entitled "OVERDUBBING", which appeared
in the Nov.-Dec. issue of the MBSI club magazine.  This was originally
written for the AMICA club, but got rejected.  (One of the statements at
the time was "too much Henderson" because I'd just completed a 6-part
series in 1993 on operating a Player-Piano, also illustrated.  Strange,
there's never too much of that clique in AMICA, getting written up again
and again, with the 'low' being a recent article called "The Case of The
Missing Apostrophe" ... now ...  what does that have to do with MUSIC or
players??????)  Anyway, "OVERDUBBING" has some things in it about the
Leabarjan perforators as well.

   It's impossible to 'divorce myself' from HOW I USE these machines
from COMPANY HISTORY, really.  My life has been spend studying rolls,
playing them, and cutting Master Rolls.

   Last night we attended a concert at Dover-Foxcroft, Maine (Arcady
Festival - I appeared with Wm.  Albright on their series last year,
playing ARTCRAFT "Interpretive Arrangements" only).  Among the
highlights was Masanobu Ikemiya [simulated on my roll of PICKLES &
PEPPERS RAG, interpretively] at the keyboard on a Steinway Model 'M' and
his 10-piece NYC 'Ragtime Orchestra'.  He has a player upright and
purchased one of the 44 Aeolian demonstration rolls (PRIMO) I released -
see the AMICA '93 club series about that roll, article #5 of 6 - and
armed with my 'limited edition' roll and the early Harms score, came up
with a version of RHAPSODY IN BLUE that sounded as if the acoustic Blue
Label Gershwin 78 had "come to life".  His technique on staccato
repetition and accenting was 'beyond Gershwin' at the keyboard, if one
knows the early Victor recording.  This was a case where a one-of-a-kind
Duo-Art roll (never released to the public) was used to create a 1996
performance that not only equaled the Gershwin original, but surpassed
it musically.  We'll be talking about this performance for years to
come!  [Don't confuse the roll with the FAKE-Gershwin/"Armbruster" one
that Aeolian dumped upon the naive public, which has the composer's name
on it.  The PRIMO roll was used with a 2nd piano - or orchestra - at
Aeolian Hall, and no serial number exists for this arrangement.  I
"sold out" of the PRIMO roll immediately, but you can hear the stellar
version on my AR via the Cassette: "Niantic Ragtime Festival" @ 2.00
plus 1.50 shipping ... or get in touch with one of the other 43 ARTCRAFT
Duo-Art roll customers.]

   The above should give you some material about Leabarjan perforators.
I even have some rolls that were made by a short-lived Maine company,
called "Pine Tree Rolls", in the 1920's.  Some were cut on a Leabarjan
directly, and others were farmed out to the 'duplicating service' that
the Ohio manufacturer offered for quantity production runs. {A PQ
article will be forthcoming about this cottage industry for music rolls.}

   Guess that best thing is to subscribe to the PQ and "learn it all".
Having 45 years of daily experience in this field - and giving museum
tours for 23 years also - gave me an opportunity to meet and deal with
people long gone today.  My player activities began BEFORE the clubs
started up, for players, and are based upon experience you can't get
from a book.  One of the reasons for publishing the PQ is to reach
another generation, especially since there's so much baloney about
'artists' on rolls these days.  [One of my Editorials in the PQ which
really went over with musicians was called "Jelly Roll Morton was
A White Woman?" - an antidote to the fraudulent history that the
Disklavier P.R. is spilling out today.  You can't "discover" Morton if
he weren't there, can you? - ha-ha!]

   Hope to hear from you again soon,  and do visit the Studio if you
come to Wiscasset, Maine.

Regards in haste (signed), Douglas

L. Douglas Henderson¶
dba ARTCRAFT Music Rolls
    The PIANOLA Quarterly