Julian Dyer said [050207 MMDigest]:


>> There are very few reference books covering British pianos, ...
>> However, there are two books worth looking out for. ...
>> The other book is "The Piano - a history," by Cyril Ehrlich
>> (Oxford University Press, 1990), ...


Humph.  While his treatment of the industry in the 1920s is accurate,
Ehrlich stumbles on page 135 when it comes to the pianola (foot-blown
player).  After quoting some purple sales prose about its artistic
potential, he says:-

 "In truth the pianola required no operative skill save a steady foot
  on the bellows and even this was soon usurped by an electric motor,
  but it conveyed, like elaborate 'High-Fi' equipment in a later age,
  a spurious sense of artistic achievement.

This is like saying the violin requires no operative skill other than
sawing the bow to and fro on the strings.

There were plenty of player enthusiasts around in 1990, from Ehrlich
could have learnt that 90% of pianola owners did indeed play with no
skill whatever, but these were not the people claiming it was capable
of respectable playing, because they were just having fun and that was
a different activity.

The people saying the pianola was potentially a true musical instrument
were those who knew from experience that it was, like the musicologist
Percy Scholes.  His views would not have been difficult for Ehrlich to
turn up, since they were contained in Scholes's entry for player-pianos
in the "Oxford Companion to Music".

The quote is a typical remark of a researcher with no direct knowledge
which casts doubt on a lot of the rest of the book.  "High-Fi", indeed?!

Dan Wilson, London