Music Technologies Before Recordings (MTM lesson 6) SP2024

Music Technologies before Recordings 1. Musical Instruments 2. Sheet Music (printing & publishing) 3. Mechanical Instruments 4. Player Pianos Activity: 6 groups of 2-3 students Introduce yourselves. What else are you taking? 6 music technologies before recordings 1. Music engraving (plate engraving)...

Music Technologies before Recordings 1. Musical Instruments 2. Sheet Music (printing & publishing) 3. Mechanical Instruments 4. Player Pianos Activity: 6 groups of 2-3 students Introduce yourselves. What else are you taking? 6 music technologies before recordings 1. Music engraving (plate engraving) for publishing sheet music 2. Carillons, including their automatic mechanisms 3. Barrel organ with musical cylinders 4. Music boxes, with musical combs or discs 5. Push-up pianola piano player (not on Wikipedia) 6. Orchestrion Research your technology online or in the readings. Research your technology online or in the readings. Questions for groups: 1. Briefly describe your technology and approximately when it was popularly used. 2. Was your technology for public spaces or private homes? Explain why. 3. How do you think this technology affected the way the general public could access, interact with, or relate to music? 4. Explain a feature of this technology that is similar to a feature in contemporary music-related technologies, despite that it is really old. 5. Something about it you found interesting, intriguing, or amusing? I. Musical Instruments 35,000 year old flute made from vulture bone, another from mammoth ivory, found in Germany https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/science/25flute.html II. Sheet Music Printing Printing is the technology, publishers are the companies who print and sell printed music. 1706 Precursors to Printed Music Oral/Aural transmission including systems Music notation systems around the world, – usually develop after written language – suit the needs of the type of music Manuscripts: hand-written and hand-copied music Music Printing Technologies “Printing is a technique for producing many single sets of copies taken from raised, incised or plane surfaces” Took off after 1450 with moveable type printing. Music printing & publishing boom during the Renaissance (1400-1600) Sources: Boorman, Stanley, Eleanor Selfridge-Field, and Donald W. Krummel. "Printing and publishing of music." Grove Music Online. 2001. Oxford University Press. Date of access 9 Sep. 2020, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e0000040101 Music Printing History, website, https://musicprintinghistory.org Parlor Songs, website, http://parlorsongs.com/insearch/printing/printing.php Major Technological Developments in Sheet Music Printing 1400s, 1500s: woodblock/woodcut prints 1487 1516 Moveable Type, after 1450 Continued into 19th C. with molded casts made from typeset music. 1706 Engraving on metal plates Since at least 17th century Engraving e.g., Beethoven Moonlight Sonata, Lithographs, first on stone then other surfaces, eventually in color Stone lithograph, 1914 Lithograph on paper e.g., Richard Wagner opera, 1845 Color lithography (chromo lithography), Used for covers of sheet music, early 1900s Development of technologies, yet overlaps too “The waxing and waning of different printing processes was not in the lineal order of a successor taking the place of its antecedent: over long periods the processes were in use side by side, the unique qualities of each of which was employed for some particular purpose. At the beginning of the 19th century, for example, [the publisher] Breitkopf & Härtel were printing music from type, from engraved plates and from lithographic stones concurrently. It is only since the late 1960s that music type has all but disappeared from the case rooms of printing offices and hand engraving has been supplanted by computerized production of visual text from which photographic plates are prepared.” Boorman, Stanley, Eleanor Selfridge-Field, and Donald W. Krummel. "Printing and publishing of music." Grove Music Online. 2001. Oxford University Press. Date of access 9 Sep. 2020, Example Tin Pan Alley publication Cover: Lithograph & photo Music: Engraved plates Tin Pan Alley, NYC A NYC neighborhood of sheet music publishers specializing in popular songs around turn of 20th Century. Composers and lyricists wrote catchy songs Publishers printed copies: – Engraved the sheet music on metal plates – Hired artists to make attractive covers, copied as lithographs Promoted the songs using pluggers/plugging Created different versions of songs, printed on different qualities of paper, distributed to different outlets (stores, theaters, traveling troupes, popular ensembles) Photo-reproduction of anything. Stencil & drawing, then photographed. Computers E.g., J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations III. Mechanical Instruments Definition in Grove Music Online: “A musical instrument which is enabled to play music automatically from a predetermined and repeatable mechanical programme. Some mechanical instruments operate without human participation… others require some degree of manual or pedal control (turning the playing mechanism, working bellows or operating expression devices).” Arthur W.J.G. Ord-Hume."Mechanical instrument."Grove Music Online.Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press.Web.11 Oct. 2016.. A long history summarized In ancient Greece, Middle East, Indonesia: Water organs: flowing water pushes air through wooden pipes, flutes, or triggers percussion; Waterfalls in gardens of luxurious estates. 16th Century (1500s) Automated chromatic carillons (set of bronze bells) https://www.campa.com/en/campa-products/carillon-equipment Barrel Organ, operated by crank 14th Century (1300s) Europe: Rotating cylinders (barrels, drums) with nubs/pins. Used in organs, on church bell towers, etc. 18th Century (1700s) “Golden century of mechanical instruments,” organ and flute playing musical clocks https://thelistenersclub.com/2018/03/02/an-18th-century-novelty-music-for-mechanical-organ-clock/ Music Boxes Grove: “A MECHANICAL INSTRUMENT in which tuned steel prongs (lamellae) are made to vibrate by contact with moving parts driven by a clockwork mechanism.” Invented by watch makers, France, Germany, Switzerland H.A.V. Bulleid."Musical box.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.. Morris Museum Organocleide-Cylinder-Musical-Box-Moulinié-Geneva-Switzerland-c.1855 Musical Comb Steel-combed playing music box in luxury goods. Late 18th C., standardized in 1925. 1890 - 1930 “The zenith of popularity of mechanical instruments was from about 1890 to the early 1930s. During this period they could be found in all kinds of public places and also in the home.” (Ord-Hume."Mechanical instrument.”) Steel Disc Music Boxes, 1880s From German to New Jersey 1885: Symphonion Music Box Co. in Gohis, Germany Former staff start rival Polyphon in Leipzig, Germany Exporting music boxes to U.S. was too expensive, so… 1894: Polyphon started Regina Music Box, Co. in Rahway, NJ; bankrupt in 1922. Regina Music Box Co., Rahway, NJ, 1894 Morris Museum Regina Disc Changer c. 1899 Coin-operated, proto-jukebox “Sublima Corona, Style No. 32”, coinoperated disc musical box, c.1899 Fairground Organ, 1870s-1930s “A mechanical organ used to provide music for merry-go-rounds and in amusement parks, circuses and skating rinks in Europe and the USA.” Morris Museum (Ord-Hume, “Mechanical Instrument”) Designed for outdoor use. “Orchestrophone” Fairground Organ, c.1910 Limonaire Frères, Paris, France 2003.18.3a-e Pneumatic power air/gas powered devices; air forced through pipes; it either flows or its blocked Electro-pneumatic action: electric currents control the flow of forced air. Orchestrion Mechanical instruments designed for indoor playing of orchestral repertoire. Example: Seeberg Style H Orchestrion, “Maple Leaf Rag”, 1922 Paper roll Orchestrion’s paper roll “Decline and Revival” “In the 1930s the mechanical instrument industry began a near terminal decline, hit by the increasing availability of radio and gramophone and by the Depression, then by World War II. Most of the old firms closed. Starting in the 1960s, however, there has been a growing revival of interest both in the restoration of old instruments and in building new ones.” (Ord-Hume) Are they back? Pat Metheny’s Orchestrion “"Orchestrionics" is the term that I am using to describe a method of developing ensemble-oriented music using acoustic and acoustoelectric musical instruments that are mechanically controlled in a variety of ways, using solenoids and pneumatics. With a guitar, pen or keyboard I am able to create a detailed compositional environment or a spontaneously developed improvisation, with the pieces on this particular recording leaning toward the compositional side of the spectrum. On top of these layers of acoustic sound, I add my conventional electric guitar playing as an improvised component. At least for me, this takes the term "solo record" into some new and interesting areas, somewhat recontextualizingthe idea of what constitutes a solo performance by a single musician.” Metheny, “About Orchestrion,” 2009, http://www.patmetheny.com/orchestrioninfo/ IV. Player Pianos Player Piano history Developed within the piano industry 1863: Henri Forneaux (France) invented “Pianista” 1887: William Tremaine, Aeolian Piano Co. 1925: 200,000 player pianos sold 1931: 10,000 player pianos sold (Radio and Depression) Lindsey Gruson, “Music Goes Round and Round, the Old Way” The New York Times, February 22, 1993 Edward A. Gargan, “Buffalo Concern Gives Pop Sound to Player Pianos” The New York Times, May 20, 1985 Irv Lichtman, “Hit Gershwin Disc Sparks New Interest In Piano Rolls,” Billboard, March 5, 1994 Types of Player Pianos Push-up “Pianolas” (piano player) Self-playing Pianolas (player piano) Reproducing Player Pianos (more advanced) Advertisements What are the advertisements trying to convey to the potential customers? And how do they draw on mainstream gender and age roles? Music Brings Happiness Note the contrast between these two homes. In one there is a “straight” piano, but none who can play it, -- everyone feels dull and stupid. But in the home downstairs is a Player-Piano. Just note the difference. A PLAYING PIANO IS A PAYING PIANO. Prices for Piano Rolls 1900s: $1.25 each. 1993: $6.95 single, $10.95 medley QRS Music Rolls, Inc. Piano roll company Since 1900 Oldest and largest manufacturer of music rolls in USA From paper rolls to digital downloads QRS Sales of rolls 1920s: 10 million rolls a year 1926: 11 million rolls 1940s: 1 million rolls 1960s: 80,000 rolls 1984: 320,000 rolls 1992: 200,000 rolls Guess why the drops in sales? Are piano rolls recordings? Player Pianos: Where are they now? Digital Player Piano Consoles Computer plays your player piano Player Piano accompanies CD or DVD/TV Watch Elton John live in concert on television while piano plays his part Download MIDI-encoded songs Four companies making player piano consoles QRS Pianomation: $ 5,000 Yamaha Disklavier: $7,195 Baldwin/Wurlitzer ConcertMaster: $8,000 PianoDisc Performing & Recording Gershwin Rolls 1985: Michael Tilson Thomas, the Columbia Jazz Orchestra, and a Gershwin piano roll performance of "Rhapsody In Blue" (1924) 1992: Gershwin's original piano rolls re-recorded using 1911 Pianola and Yamaha Disklavier, which recorded then played back in recording studio – No. 1 on Billboard's Classical chart – Bolstered new interest in player pianos. Irv Lichtman, “Hit Gershwin Disc Sparks New Interest In Piano Rolls,” Billboard, March 5, 1994 QRS Pianamation Marketing Marketing player pianos today: Different than the 1900s? Janet Sloan, “Player pianos go high-tech” The Dallas Morning News, October 23, 1998: "The average Yamaha Disklavier customer has never owned a piano before and does not play" “potential buyers include people who don't play but entertain frequently and want to include a piano as part of their home decor.” "We put player piano systems in upscale grocery stores and malls to give added exposure to our product," Tom Lagomarsino, executive vice president at PianoDisc. "Potential customers are not as likely to go into piano stores," Discuss Worksheet in Pairs David Suisman, Selling Sounds: “Widespread use of the machines made a signal contribution to the transition from a culture rooted in the values of production to one rooted in the values of consumption.” (Suisman, 92) What does he mean? Player pianos and Phonographs/Gramophones: How do they compare? Think big picture. 1. Which industries gave birth to these technologies, and what does that tell us about their differences? 2. How do they compare to live musical performance and original compositions? 3. How did users interact with them? What control did users have? 4. How were the technologies packaged, marketed, and advertised?