John Phillips mentioned his Animatic 88n roll 51757 "Akademische
Festouverture, op.80." played by Weiss and Stefaniai, as being
suspiciously similar to the 73n roll mentioned earlier.

"Animatic" was a Hupfeld trade name adopted before WW1 to
internationalize its products - I have several Animatic rolls made
before 1914. Hupfeld 88n theme rolls began to be marketed in Europe in
1909 as a direct result of the freeing of the Melville Clark standards
for international use in the two famous Buffalo standardizing
conventions of 1908 and 1909. In London they were handled by Bluthner,
whose pianos employed Hupfeld player actions. These were marketed as
"Solophonola" and I understand that the reason this name wasn't used
for the rolls as well was to prevent the public thinking they would
only play on those pianos. (This would have benefited Bluthner, of
course, but not Hupfeld !)

As far as I am aware, all the early 88n titles were straight (and very
accurate) transcriptions of existing 73n Phonola issues. These in turn
were largely but not wholly "hand-played" versions of recordings taken
for the DEA system. Harold Bauer in the 1920s, though, recalled that he
had made recordings for Phonola in the 1910s which, it had been made
clear to him, was a semi-expression and not a reproducing system (in
other words, something similar to Aeolian's "Themodist" system).
Before 1912 or so, these 88n rolls sometimes bore halftone photo
reproductions of the pianist concerned, in the same way as DEA and some
Phonola rolls had done. In the way that in the UK 65n production
continued long after it stopped in the USA, 73n rolls continued to be
made at Leipzig until the slump of 1929-30 (though I'm pretty sure
Hupfeld also made 65n rolls, as there were other German machines to
this standard !).

With competition from Duo-Art in particular, thought was given during
the war to an 88n improvement on the DEA system and this appeared as
the Triphonola in (I think) 1919. Technically it's very like two
Ampicos going at once - one for theme and one for accompaniment - and
like the Green Welte, was designed to provide all 88 notes. This meant
cramming all the dynamic perforation tracks into dangerously close
positions on the edges of the rolls where you really need them spaced
wider - a thing only possible with Hupfeld's high quality of
manufacture. Triphonola only sold well in France and Germany but there
are some good surviving collections in Italy and there is a project
there to transcribe some of the performances to Duo-Art. The rolls work
the same as Animatics when pedalled on "theme"-equipped pianos.

Since on all Hupfeld's 88n rolls including the semi-reproducing
Clavitist rolls for cafe pianos, tempo "50" is equivalent to
American/British tempo 70-75, I suggest the tempo marking on 73n rolls
needs to be scrutinised closely before marking up any transfers to and
from 88n !

By 1940 sales of Hupfeld rolls in England had dropped to zero and when
the temperature also did so that winter, the firm of Maxwell, Whelpdale
& Codd who had taken over the Bluthner business (making the very fine
Welmar "Bluthner-clone" piano) ran its boilers for two days on the
remaining stock of Animatic rolls, the janitor tossing them in without
taking them out of the boxes ! Those employees who still possessed
player-pianos were first permitted to take as many away as they wished
and it is believed that many of the very late Animatic rolls still in
circulation here originate from this source.

The general history of Hupfeld, possibly the finest single player-piano
maker ever, is very little known in the English-speaking world and I
for one would welcome some posts on the subject from Germany.

Dan Wilson