Hello, MMD readers,  The Audiographic rolls of this Ravel piece do not
show a Chinese girl, to my recollection, but a rather primitive, historic
painting of a Spanish female in an upscale costume.

I'm running on memory here since I was never wild about the keyboard or
orchestral versions of the "Pavanne" and only played the Duo-Art roll
three times (or less) in the 50 years that it has been in my library.

This is a patched-up roll made from hand playing, so -- like the Cortot
releases -- involved trying to tweak the erratic rhythm into something
listenable.  (The duplicating perforators' stepping reigned over whatever
a pianist did, the reason for the "return" to arranging, called 'The
New System' via in-house Aeolian memos.)

 [ Aeolian's direct-to-perforator recording process sampled and recorded
 [ the key positions too infrequently to accurately preserve the pianist's
 [ timing, thus extensive editing was needed.  -- Robbie

This is quite different than the "arranged from" methods, often involving
W. C. Woods, wherein the artist played, and a roll based in part on
mathematics and notation score standards would be more musically
satisfying.  The Aeolian roll fails in the metronome test, and you
_know_ that Ravel didn't strike the keys, in that fashion.

Beyond the fluttering meter and behind the unstable chords, I found
that the frozen settings for the expression system to be particularly
boring.  The rolls attributed to Schmitz, for Ravel's "Jeux d'Eau" and
Debussy's "Flaxen Hair Girl" -- both no doubt arrangements which
involved Woods or somebody with his talents -- are two French pieces
which I have played many times over the decades, including for the
Candlelight Concerts at The Musical Wonder House.

I don't hear Ravel on this roll.  I experience lackluster dynamic
scoring, since the Duo-Art "could have" introduced subtle 'blips', viz.
pneumatic Pianola lever "nudges", for the chords, as I have done with
Rummel's "Portrait of a Silver Lady" and other pieces that explore the
softer realm of the player action.  The erratic meter is the primary
reason why I never play the Ravel piece, artist (or not) on the box
label.  That's also the reason why I rarely played the Cortot roll of
"Etude in E-Major" (No Other Love), by Chopin: flawed rhythm within
the measures.

Of course, this is all aesthetics, so one can enjoy the perforated
performance on many different levels.

Regards,
Douglas Henderson - Artcraft Music Rolls
Wiscasset, Maine
http://wiscasset.nnei.net/artcraft/