Duo-Art Roll "Negro Heaven"
By Craig Brougher
I don't know what else to tell Spencer about the roll, except that it is very Gershwin-esque, with a little Copeland thrown in. It uses the modern chord structures and progressions, and sounds as though it was hoped to be a concerto with orchestra, since it is a piano orchestration.
I have that roll and use it as a test roll on Duo-Art pianos. It has handfuls of light, staccato chords that very few Duo-Arts can even play, if they are zero-adjusted and fine-tuned for the majority of rolls. I once wondered if the roll needed to be "bumped up" a little since it was so marginal in those places, but decided instead, about twenty years or so ago, to see if I couldn't restore every Duo-Art to play it, instead, _after_ I had adjusted the expression.
I think I can say that few factory Duo-Arts would be able to do it at what is generally minimum zero, until the zero intensity is raised a little more -- just for that roll. They will play just fine when you detail the piano, note for note, at minimum zero. That is what I've discovered, at any rate. That's why a detailed restoration is _better_ than a factory job could ever be.
Craig Brougher
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(Message sent Sat 29 Mar 1997, 14:50:44 GMT, from time zone GMT.) |
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