Player piano and piano roll

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Technology

Player piano and piano roll · In 1895 in Detroit, Edwin Votey built a device that made a piano play by itself. A roll of paper with holes in it ran past a row of openings; wherever air could pass through a hole, a key went down. The Aeolian Company put the Pianola on the market in 1898. Anyone who could not play the piano could now still hear the latest ragtime at home. In the 1920s, the player piano was an ordinary piece of furniture in America, and Scott Joplin and George Gershwin played rolls themselves. Later, Conlon Nancarrow wrote music so fast and complicated that only a player piano can play it.

Listening

• 
  Maple Leaf Rag · Scott Joplin, 1916
• 
  Swanee · George Gershwin, 1920
• 
  Study No. 3a · Conlon Nancarrow, 1977

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Genre Map · Technology^NL Map

See also

• Tin Pan Alley