1. Neal Peres Da Costa, Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing. Illustrated Edition (New York: Oxford University Press Inc, 2012), 10.
2. Ibid.30.
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A piano roll from the collection of the Reinecke Museum in Leipzig.
I took the photo during a three-day internship there in May 2022.
Reproducing piano rolls was a technology for preserving the
performance of pianists that appeared in the very early 20th century. The
technology enabled accurate information about notes (pitch), rhythm,
tempo, dynamic and pedalling by making perforations onto a paper roll.
The perforated roll could then be played back on a specially adapted piano
that used suction created by a pneumatic pump to operate the mechanism.
The Welte Mignon, patented in 1904 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, by
Edwin Welte (1876-1958) and his brother-in-law Carl Bockisch (1874-1952),
was the first such system. Its recording method was and probably always
will be a closely guarded secret, since the Welte company stored crucial
information on the recording process and the recording equipment in its
factory in Freiburg, which was severely bombed in 1944.1
In addition, how and what the performer played at the time of
recording, how much and how it was then edited, and how complete the
reproduction is when played on different pianos or in different rooms, are
all factors that effect how close the recording is to that of the initial
performance.
On the piano rolls, note pitches, positions, durations, subtle speed
variations, and pedalling are recorded automatically. Correcting mistakes
on the rolls was easy (but could be laborious), as one only has to cover
over incorrect holes and punch new holes in the correct position. However,
Welte Mignon did apparently very little such editing in its early years.22
Therefore, it is fair to assume that Reinecke's recording of K. 537 in 1905 for
Welte, one of the earliest, did not contain much editing.
Next:Chapter 1.4 Changes to performance practice causes by recording technology
