•It is not possible to use the Yamaha on-line broadcast facility to control anything other than a Disklavier Mark 4, Disklavier E3 and, lately, the DKV850, which is a retrofit controller for some earlier Disklavier ranges. The server links the specific instrument to a customer's account, which is no...

•As I understand the "Silver Swan Rag" story, in the late 1960s, it came to the attention of roll collectors (Mike Montgomery, among them) that, among the pieces listed in QRS catalogs from 1914 and forward, TWO pieces were found that that listed Scott Joplin as composer but were not among Joplin's ...

•For sale: (1) Catalog listing rolls for the Angelus Styles 64, 65, 66 & 16, also for the Knabe-Angelus, Emerson-Angelus and the Angelus Piano. Paperback, 282 pages, 5" X 7", very good condition. Dated October 1905. (2) Duo-Art Piano Music by the Aeolian Co. 1927. Hard cover, 9" X 12", 484 pages. In...

•I have recently acquired, in a lot of 88-note rolls, the following unusual roll with this typed label: BODY AND SOUL by Johnny Green Transcribed for Two Pianos -- Four Hands by Gregory Stone Recorded for Player Piano by Ed Grigsby It is a hand cut roll with some expression holes and both right and ...

•Hi Keith, We too have recently purchased a 9" Britannia. Ours is the "Alexandra" model "Smoking Cabinet". Reg. No. 370.254 marked on the inside wall of the cabinet. We have just begun to research this and found the most information in "The Music Box Makers", "The History of Music Box in Sainte-Croi...

•This explanation of "bird whistle" is from the book, "The Golden Age of Automatic Musical Instruments," by MBSI member Arthur A. Reblitz, published by the Mechanical Music Press, Woodsville, New Hampshire; copyright 2001, posted at the web site of Musical Box Society International: http://www.mbsi...

•It seems to me the 88-note push-up players would be more rare and more practical for music that more people can relate to. However, I have a 65-noter I rebuilt and am adding MIDI-controlled valves to, and a Yamaha MIDI keyboard for it to play. The Yamaha YTP-310 I got records MIDI files that are up...

•The last two Wurlitzer Style 150 rolls issued by T.R.T. Manufacturing Co., roll numbers 13313 and 13314, have always mystified me because the tune titles are so weird and are nothing anybody has ever heard of, titles like "Peeping Tom," "Hot Sauce," and "Popcorn." The composers are unknowns like Cy...

•For those who enjoy completeness, I have found one of the QRS rolls missing from the Billings Rollography. It is QRS 3567, "Be A Friend To Man", a ballad played by the composer Karl C. Robertson. This is undoubtedly the same Karl C. Robertson who wrote "Wounded Lion Rag" in 1911. Both compositions ...

•Hello everyone, my mechanical music web site I've been working on, http://www.mechanicalmusic.org/ is pretty much done for the time being, but I am not certain of this. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have a folding cardboard fairground organ book as the background and a Gavioli band organ near...

•I was searching the Internet for a MIDI file of a piano roll that has long evaded me when I found... Success! Maybe some will remember me requesting this roll (Artempo 1898, "The Ragtime Oriole"), but now I have a different scheme in mind. I have also long aspired to start my own roll label, and I ...

•Gary Watkins asks a good question here. I have often wished that the publishers of the tunes on early Wurlitzer rolls had been given, because I suspect that having that information would show a close relationship between Wurlitzer and the Vandersloot Music Publishing Company in Williamsport, Pennsy...

•While I have no doubt that the causes for the demise of the roll industry that Mr. Jon Hall pointed out were indeed significant, most likely more so than the demise of cheap, "pirated" rolls, I cannot help but wonder if the changes to copyright added fuel to the fire. Mr. Hall points out quite corr...

•I am trying to put together a list of blues or hot rolls issued on MeloArt. Does anyone have information or possibly catalogs issued MeloArt? Does anyone have information about "Woody" Frisino who apparently arranged all these rolls? There were many good blues tunes issued that don't appear on any ...

•Regarding musical box custom tunes, I have been getting a lot of inquiries about simple custom tune one-off movements. Although I prefer to put custom tunes on my own six-octave historic reproduction boxes, it seems that many people are really only interested in a simple 20-second melody. In that c...

•I have a roll that looks almost recut but the label (what's left of it) says "The Teddy Bears' Picnic - Number 03854". I seek as much detail as possible: what company did this roll come from, played by, words by, copyright, etc. Duaine Hechler http://www.hechlerpianoandorgan.com/ [ The music of "Th...

•Hi Folks, I hope you've all had a great holiday. I have a roll marked on the leader, "8689 The Teddy Bear's Picnic" Tempo 70-80, in a rectangular box around the text composed of small, dark blue diamonds. The song is copyright M. Witmark & Sons 1947 (?? -- hard to read) and there's a seller's stamp...

•Hello everyone, I'm looking for MIDI files of the music on piano rolls of Dr. Richard Haasz. One special piece is his "Grande Valse de Concert". If anyone has his rolls on MIDI, please email them to me at sovrenty@bellsouth.net.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]. Thank you. Regards, Ben Roth ...

•[ Marshall Jose wrote in 130614 MMDigest -- > Imagine my surprise to discover that the roll was musically identical > to my QRS roll ... Is this normal? I can find [nothing] on the Web > suggesting that MelODee and QRS shared content. If, as Robbie said in the 130614 MMD, MelODee Party Rolls were p...

•There have been some recent inquiries about Pianocorder Vorsetzers. Does anyone know if any have changed hands and at what price? I also see many albums of original Pianocorder cassette tapes offered for sale on eBay in the $50-$60 range but very few realized sales. Is the demand for these that low...