Hello, folks, I need your help!  I'm trying to learn something about an
obscure American reproducing (expression?) roll, called a Virtuolo Solo
Roll, issued by Hallet & Davis Piano Co. in Boston.  It looks at first
glance like a variation on Recordo: an 11-3/4" standard 88-note format
with a conventional sustain channel on the left margin, plus 8 or 12
(!) channels of expression data on each margin.  There are absolutely
no markings on the roll other than the label and some patent
information.  Both the label & patent info. plus the roll tab look like
std. Aeolian Themodist-Metrostyle stuff, so I'm confident it was
perforated by Aeolian.  I have just 1 roll of this format, but it's an
important one - I'll tell you about it below.

On close inspection it looks to me like the expression coding on the
right margin might be broken into 3 groups of 4 holes, each controlling
1 octave or so from middle C up.  Similarly the 8 expression channels
on the left margin appear to be broken into 2 groups of 4 holes.  Many
of the 4 holes hit at once when there is obviously a call for an accent
in that octave, sort of like the binary coding in Duo-Art expression
data.  I'm basing my octave theory on the activity of the note field
vs. that in the expression field.  There are also several instances
where the same single expression channel is on and 3 off for
(apparently) each group of 4 expression holes.  It definitely does NOT
look like a lock-and-cancel affair, but who knows.  The rewind control
is a 1/4" diameter hole which seems to cover roughly the 2 right-most
expression channels.

Now here's why I'm interested in this roll - and if you're not a
ragtime fan, you can skip to the next topic in this digest!  As you all
probably know by now, I have been recutting blues & ragtime rolls for a
while now.  I've always had a thing for composer-played rag rolls, and
I have a dozen or so favorite composers who made a fair number of
rolls, such as James P. Johnson, Egbert VanAlstyne, Zez Confrey, Roy
Bargy, Eubie Blake, Max Kortlander, Charley Straight, and one of my
favorites, Les Copeland.  Les made a series of neat, eccentric rags for
Universal / Metro-Art around 1914: Bees and Honey Rag, French Pastry
Rag, Race Track Blues, Rocky Mountain Fox, 38th Street Rag, and Twist &
Twirl.  Last year I had the good fortune to track down and recut one of
the last 2 previously-undiscovered Copeland composer-played rags,
Dockstader Rag - we knew it existed from a catalog entry, but no copies
had turned up.  The last one "at large" was Invitation Rag.

I've been in touch with a customer / friend who offered a few original
rag rolls from his collection for me to recut, and it included
Invitation Rag written by Les Copeland.  This was on the Virtuolo
label, and the roll label made no mention of a pianist.  There are
already 2 different arranged rolls of this tune on recuts, but I
figured one more would still be worth recutting if it were a good
roll.  My friend sent me the roll to audition, and lo and behold I find
a roll with the expression coding described here, and a roll label
using the same fonts as the Copeland-played Metro-Art roll.  What's
more, it's clearly a hand-played roll, and the style is EXACTLY the
same as Les's hand-played rag rolls.  I've just found the last Les
Copeland composer-played rag roll!!

I'll be recutting this roll for my next list early next year (probably
with the expression holes edited out, since they'd only be a nuisance
on regular players), but I'm still curious about this Virtuoso roll
expression system.  I found no mention of Virtuolo in Bowers'
Encyclopedia, or in Reblitz' player piano rebuilding or Treasures of
Mech. Music books.  There are 2 ads for the label in Roehl's Player
Piano Treasury (pgs. 18 and 38) but no clue that it's even an
expression piano, much less what's unique about it.

Sorry to ramble on for so long about one stinking piano roll, but I
couldn't help myself.  I guess I need to get out more often ...  I
certainly don't need another hobby!    ;-)     Thanks in advance for
any help anyone can give on this expression system.  And if anyone
finds another Les Copeland rag roll that I haven't mentioned, let me
know!

Cheers,¶
Rob DeLand¶
(deland_robert@macmail1.csg.mot.com)