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New 2010 Reliance music rolls available
played by
James P. Johnson & Les Copeland! Click here
Lost roll played by
Scott Joplin discovered! Click here
Welcome to pianola.co.nz! Here you can listen to the performances of the
great pianists and arrangers of the past, converted from the original
player piano rolls to modern MIDI format!
The player piano had its heyday between 1900 and 1930, when it brought music
to the home prior to recorded music becoming widely available (and of
acceptable sound quality). During this time, literally hundreds of thousands of piano rolls,
recorded and arranged by some of the most famous pianists of the era, were
produced by dozens of music roll companies. Music to suit every taste was
available, from classical to ragtime to the popular hits of the day.
Now, over 100 years after the player piano was invented, time has taken its
toll on the paper music rolls. Thanks to the dedication of enthusiasts
worldwide, the technology now exists to preserve this wonderful music for
all time, using custom-built optical scanners and software. What you hear on
your computer is exactly what was recorded or arranged onto roll, in many
cases over 90 years ago.
I've made these scanned piano rolls available for all to download and listen to,
free of charge. All I request in return is that, if you enjoy the music, you
sign my guestbook and let me know.
To start listening, click the 'Piano Roll MIDI scans' link on the menu at
the top of the page. Other interesting parts of the site include the
Piano Roll Artists page, where you can read
biographical details about some of the pianists who made the rolls. Want to
watch the piano keys move on your screen as the music plays, just like a
real player piano, while viewing the full details of each rollscan?
Click here
to download the best MIDI player in the world - and it's free!
Enjoy the music!
SITE NEWS/ADDITIONS:
06 January 2013:
90 more rollscans added and a Happy New Year to you all!
Again, if you enjoy the scans please do me a favour and click one of the
banner ads. You'll earn me a couple of cents!
12 July 2012:
103 new scans added.
15 December 2011:
150 more rollscans added, and a Merry Christmas to all!
26 October 2011:
Biography of early QRS artist Harold Ivers
added.
30 September 2011:
100 more rollscans added - as always, see lower on this page for the
listing.
29 September 2011: The
Gordon Raspin scan
zip is updated to fix corrupt files - please re-download.
05 June 2011:
Biography added of Columbia/Supertone artist
Gladys Bagwill
04 June 2011:
110 new rollscans added (see below), plus over a thousand scans from
Gordon Raspin available
for download
(11Mb ZIP file)
06 March 2011:
Zip file containing all 2010 scans now
available for download!
04 February 2011:
100 more rollscans added!
01 December 2010:
100 more rollscans added!
30 October 2010:
Biographies added of Emil Seidel,
Alfred R. Gillham, and
William Vanderhaak.
01 October 2010:
40 more rollscans added, plus biography of US artist
Chet Gordon.
08 July 2010:
60 more rollscans to take the total to 1072!
06 May 2010:
Biography of Standard artist Bert Hallan
added.
28 April 2010:
Over 70 more rollscans!
18 March 2010:
49 more rollscans!
21 February 2010:
New biographies of Imperial artist Jack
Clyde and Ideal/Jewel artist Ed.
Sheppard ("L. Bradley") added.
07 February 2010: First zipfile from the
Erik
York collection available for
download - the files within will be progressively added to the main
database.
To search or listen to the complete
archive of over 1070 scanned piano rolls, visit the
Piano Roll MIDI Scans page.
Below, you'll find a small selection of my
latest
scans.
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