Thomas Larsen recently posted a note about a "Privately Issued
Recording for Mrs. Forbes" [170721 MMDigest].  I would imagine that
Mrs. Forbes may have been a resident in the Rochester, New York,
area who had some musical talent, or knew of someone who knew how
to play the piano.  She contracted with American Piano Company to
make a recording of certain pieces of music that were of her liking.
Most of these pieces are

  1. Spring Song; 2. Unknown; 3. La Paloma; 4. Juanita;
  5. Estudiantina; 6. Serenade; 7. Unknown; 8. The Blue Danube.

If anyone knows #2 and #7, please post them on the MMD to fill in
blanks for other owners of this interesting roll.

This practice was not an unusual event.  American Piano did go around
the country looking for musically talented individuals to record a
selection or two to "fill in" their catalog with interesting musical
pieces of merit and/or generate income from individuals with some
musical talent by recording their work.

I have a "Special Cutting" of an Accompaniment Recording of Schubert's
"The Trout", played by Carl Lamson and probably recorded in the early
20s, as would be imagined by the box label on the leader.  Certainly
not a best seller, but may have been considered for Ampico's
Accompaniment series of rolls.

Best wishes,
Mike Walter