It's like a ghost is getting a hundred percent on piano hero. I love this, How much do player pianos cost? I need one, I want to buy every piano roll i find and play it.
@kmish213 Start scavaging antique and thrift stores. A friend of mine picked up a "starter" player piano for $100. Sometimes they play sometimes not. There are plenty of good resources out there on how to restore a player. The piano you heard in this video did not cost me anything. Was given to me--it had already been rebuilt but the tubing had rotted. A couple hundred feet of correct rubber tubing and instant player piano!
We had a Aeolian that was a lot of fun. As a kid, I was probably the only one with enough energy to play more than two or three songs. Beer Barrel Polka, Autumn Leaves, The Sabre Dance... We even toured the QRS factory around 1980. Awesome!
@ligerstotle Our next door neighbor in Monterey, CA had an old Cable player piano. That was what hooked me--coupled with an alchoholic uncle who used to baby-sit me in a local bar that had a Seeburg cabinet piano in what had once been a speakeasy. A bowl of pretzels and a cup of nickels and I was set, until my mother eventually found out about it.
@MichaelMorbius4ever Nope not haunted--this was the family entertainment in many homes in the 1920s. Every key plays as a regular piano would as well as every key playing from the pneumatic system of the roll player. The piano dates from about 1917 and is, other than various cloth and leather parts, 100% original.
@Yaledmot Oh, I didn't know they made these pianos for family home entertainment, I thought these pianos were a speacial and very expensive thing to make and were only sold to places of buisiness like restaurants, bars or ball gatherings.
Would you know how much a playing piano cost back in that time? I'm just a little curious, I've always wanted to see a playing piano in person but have yet to meet anyone who owns one lol.
In my research, and my collection, there actually was a company called the 88 note music company. I believe it to be a generic form of roll company ( like walmarts great value) but maybe someone sees otherwise. They made great rolls.
@sdummer96 That is interesting. I do not have a great number of this company's rolls, but the few I have are not bad. I have had fun hunting down and collecting the Supertone and Challenge rolls which I guess was from Sears Roebuck. They seemed to use a great deal of local talent, often theatre organists, from the Chicago and Milwaukee area.
@CatoWhereAreYou Actually the tempo is presented exactly as posted on the roll --70-- Normally this piece is played lickety-split to show off a pianist's technique.
@zooeyhall In Steerage, perhaps, but not in First Class. The only ragtime that the White Star Orchestra would do were songs like "Oh, You Beautiful Doll". There's a great album of tunes from the White Star book in the actual arrangements used, along with more raucous, spontaneous-sounding stuff that likely were popular among Steerage passengers. The album is called "Titanic: Music as Heard on the Fateful Voyage" and was put together by Ian Whitcomb.
Glad you shared this piece. This song did win a ragtime competition a long while back - I may have read that tidbit in "They All Played Ragtime". The date on my sheet music copy is 1912 (Payne and Roberts Music Company). No, it is not the original printing.
Normally this composition, "Entertainer's Rag" is taken at breakneck speed. This roll called for a Tempo of 70 which is even slower than what is posted here.
Perhaps some day I will re-record this at the tempo we are most familiar with. It is amazing.
Jay Roberts was a vaudeville pianist who wrote this rag as a show-off piece. It is supposed to be played very fast and I have never heard it played this slow before.
I find the tempo suggestion on this roll very interesting in light of this.
Jay Roberts was one of several ragtime pianists that Paul Lingle heard at the San Francisco World's Fair in 1915 and who presumably influenced his style.
Some of Roberts' other rags are melodically nicer and less show-offy than this.
Musical stunts like this were commonplace with the better theatre organists of the 1920s as well. Dessa Byrd of Indianapolis played The World is Waiting for the Sunrise against (I think...) Dancing Tambourine. George Wright pitted Stranger in Paradise against Far Away Places.
I quite agree on the matter of tempo. I need to find and post the websites that had a MIDI version played at this tempo. The whole idea of this rag is to dazzle, "show 'offy,'" with speed pitting melody against melody.
Another nice video. Your roll was made by the US Music company of Chicago. Mary E. "Mae" Brown arranged a lot of the ragtime rolls and she later became the head of the arranging department, so it's quite possible this is her work. At this time none of the US rolls were handplayed, they were all manually arranged.
It's like a ghost is getting a hundred percent on piano hero. I love this, How much do player pianos cost? I need one, I want to buy every piano roll i find and play it.
kmish213 3 weeks ago
@kmish213 Start scavaging antique and thrift stores. A friend of mine picked up a "starter" player piano for $100. Sometimes they play sometimes not. There are plenty of good resources out there on how to restore a player. The piano you heard in this video did not cost me anything. Was given to me--it had already been rebuilt but the tubing had rotted. A couple hundred feet of correct rubber tubing and instant player piano!
Yaledmot 3 weeks ago
What is this black magic???
nuclearthreat545 1 month ago
@nuclearthreat545 Yes, via black pneumatic cloth.
Yaledmot 1 month ago
i find it creepy that an old piano can just.... play by itself :|
rnrnrnaa 4 months ago
@rnrnrnaa There is a pneumatic ghost inside.
Yaledmot 1 month ago
Great music!!! and a real piano sound in this too! :)
VwErik88 6 months ago
A touch of Dixie land
nathantech77 6 months ago
I love the player piano. Thanks for posting these videos. This is in excellent condition f its not a replica.
miket1m 8 months ago
@miket1m Not a replica. Original from 1917. Thanks for watching.
Yaledmot 8 months ago
@Yaledmot Its beautiful.
miket1m 8 months ago
that is mother FREAKIN AWESOME!!
npisvaj 8 months ago
We had a Aeolian that was a lot of fun. As a kid, I was probably the only one with enough energy to play more than two or three songs. Beer Barrel Polka, Autumn Leaves, The Sabre Dance... We even toured the QRS factory around 1980. Awesome!
ligerstotle 8 months ago
@ligerstotle Our next door neighbor in Monterey, CA had an old Cable player piano. That was what hooked me--coupled with an alchoholic uncle who used to baby-sit me in a local bar that had a Seeburg cabinet piano in what had once been a speakeasy. A bowl of pretzels and a cup of nickels and I was set, until my mother eventually found out about it.
Yaledmot 8 months ago
@Yaledmot which was rather sad for you - you didn't get to keep feeding the nickelodeon :(
er10b 6 months ago
@FBfan477 Not at all. Consider it another level of learning about the incredible variety of player piano music!
Yaledmot 8 months ago
@FBfan477 Never said it was. This is THE ENTERTAINER'S RAG not The Entertainer.
Yaledmot 8 months ago
Oh my GOD! its a haunted piano!!!
Do the keys that are being played the only working keys or do all the keys work like any other piano would?
MichaelMorbius4ever 8 months ago
@MichaelMorbius4ever Nope not haunted--this was the family entertainment in many homes in the 1920s. Every key plays as a regular piano would as well as every key playing from the pneumatic system of the roll player. The piano dates from about 1917 and is, other than various cloth and leather parts, 100% original.
Yaledmot 8 months ago
@Yaledmot Oh, I didn't know they made these pianos for family home entertainment, I thought these pianos were a speacial and very expensive thing to make and were only sold to places of buisiness like restaurants, bars or ball gatherings.
Would you know how much a playing piano cost back in that time? I'm just a little curious, I've always wanted to see a playing piano in person but have yet to meet anyone who owns one lol.
MichaelMorbius4ever 8 months ago
In my research, and my collection, there actually was a company called the 88 note music company. I believe it to be a generic form of roll company ( like walmarts great value) but maybe someone sees otherwise. They made great rolls.
sdummer96 9 months ago
@sdummer96 That is interesting. I do not have a great number of this company's rolls, but the few I have are not bad. I have had fun hunting down and collecting the Supertone and Challenge rolls which I guess was from Sears Roebuck. They seemed to use a great deal of local talent, often theatre organists, from the Chicago and Milwaukee area.
Yaledmot 9 months ago
Is it arranged, or hand-played?
wurlitzer165 1 year ago
@wurlitzer165 As I understand it, arranged. I posted some info under the information banner on this.
Yaledmot 1 year ago
great song!!!!!!!! good speed:-)
CatoWhereAreYou 1 year ago
@CatoWhereAreYou Actually the tempo is presented exactly as posted on the roll --70-- Normally this piece is played lickety-split to show off a pianist's technique.
Yaledmot 8 months ago
@vleon1012 And thankfully so.
Yaledmot 1 year ago
the golden times of music
MrBenlus 1 year ago
I wish my 1928 (or earlier) Adam Schaaf's internals still worked. That mahogany has a gorgeous warmth and tone.
ORUPRANKSTAZ 1 year ago
can you play a player piano yourself?
hoochis 1 year ago
@hoochis Sure. Everything about it is like a regular piano except for the player.
Yaledmot 1 year ago
lolllllll the piano player thing is sooooo coollllll^^
but i rather play myself lollllPP=
Ohadlevi8000 1 year ago
One super rag, and a great roll too !! Thanks
Pianosyncrazy 1 year ago
when I was young, I saw a piano player roll in a hotel, and I tought there was a ghost who was playing! O_O
FASHIONadrianaGIRL 1 year ago 5
this Rag is unique! some months ago I taught it myself on the piano and I hope I post a video of me playing it
ElproFi111 1 year ago
This is music you would have heard on the Titanic.
zooeyhall 1 year ago 4
@zooeyhall It is old enough, but I have certainly never heard of it being used as such.
Yaledmot 1 year ago
@zooeyhall In Steerage, perhaps, but not in First Class. The only ragtime that the White Star Orchestra would do were songs like "Oh, You Beautiful Doll". There's a great album of tunes from the White Star book in the actual arrangements used, along with more raucous, spontaneous-sounding stuff that likely were popular among Steerage passengers. The album is called "Titanic: Music as Heard on the Fateful Voyage" and was put together by Ian Whitcomb.
Keeper1st 1 year ago
Glad you shared this piece. This song did win a ragtime competition a long while back - I may have read that tidbit in "They All Played Ragtime". The date on my sheet music copy is 1912 (Payne and Roberts Music Company). No, it is not the original printing.
KPO6859 2 years ago
One of these days I may put up another posting of the roll played at the usual break-neck speed as expected.
Yaledmot 2 years ago
one of the best players i've seen! and the wood grain is so awesome!
southernboirj76 2 years ago
Tiger oak. It is an amazing case.
Normally this composition, "Entertainer's Rag" is taken at breakneck speed. This roll called for a Tempo of 70 which is even slower than what is posted here.
Perhaps some day I will re-record this at the tempo we are most familiar with. It is amazing.
Yaledmot 2 years ago
It's fun to watch the holes in the roll go by, they're so mathematical
scorekeepn 2 years ago
Jay Roberts was a vaudeville pianist who wrote this rag as a show-off piece. It is supposed to be played very fast and I have never heard it played this slow before.
I find the tempo suggestion on this roll very interesting in light of this.
Jay Roberts was one of several ragtime pianists that Paul Lingle heard at the San Francisco World's Fair in 1915 and who presumably influenced his style.
Some of Roberts' other rags are melodically nicer and less show-offy than this.
KawhackitaRag 2 years ago
I always found the juxtaposition of "Dixie" in the right hand and "Yankee Doodle" in the left to be impressive.
KawhackitaRag 2 years ago
Musical stunts like this were commonplace with the better theatre organists of the 1920s as well. Dessa Byrd of Indianapolis played The World is Waiting for the Sunrise against (I think...) Dancing Tambourine. George Wright pitted Stranger in Paradise against Far Away Places.
Yaledmot 2 years ago
I quite agree on the matter of tempo. I need to find and post the websites that had a MIDI version played at this tempo. The whole idea of this rag is to dazzle, "show 'offy,'" with speed pitting melody against melody.
Yaledmot 2 years ago
Another comment - US was one of the very early music roll companies, and stuck around until about 1925 (from memory), when they were acquired by QRS.
autopiano 3 years ago
Thanks much on both replies.
Yaledmot 3 years ago
Another nice video. Your roll was made by the US Music company of Chicago. Mary E. "Mae" Brown arranged a lot of the ragtime rolls and she later became the head of the arranging department, so it's quite possible this is her work. At this time none of the US rolls were handplayed, they were all manually arranged.
autopiano 3 years ago