Blog topic: Music

Beyond perforations: Welte-Mignon piano roll text and illustrations

October 2, 2015
Music
Sound recordings

“So, it’s the original karaoke machine?”

A recent visitor on a tour to the Archive of Recorded Sound made this comment to me as I showed off the roll I was cataloging. On plain beige paper, at first it looked like a regular piano roll. A label at the beginning. Expression and performance data perforations appeared as I unrolled the roll. Then, at the side: words! You can imagine gathering around the piano to sing along with a group of friends at a party, just as Stanford undergrads may have done at the Stanford Student Union in 1915 or Encina Commons in 1926.

Chopin's signature, from MLM 217 (detail)

Chopin comes of age

October 2, 2015
by Ray Heigemeir
Manuscripts
Music

View or download:

Piosnka litewska (Lithuanian song), op. 74, no. 16 [1830?]

Drei Ecossaises, op. 72, no. 3 (sketches) [1830?]

A song and piano sketches by Chopin share two sides of a single leaf, once belonging to Polish ethnologist and composer Oskar Kolberg (1814- 1890), and now residing in Stanford's Memorial Library of Music.  The Kolberg and Chopin families were neighbors, and Oskar followed Chopin at the Warsaw Lyceum, studying piano with one of Chopin’s teachers. Kolberg was a lifelong collector of music manuscripts, specifically Polish folk and national music, which he used in his scholarly endeavors.

Score notes (detail)

New music scores and facsimiles, September 2015

September 25, 2015
by Ray Heigemeir
Music
New acquisitions

For your browsing pleasure, we present the following list of new scores added to composer complete editions, historical sets, and facsimiles:

Modern editions

Bach, JS. Kammermusik mit Violine / Johann Sebastian Bach ; herausgegeben von Peter Wollny. Bd.3.

Eisler. Film music to Nuit et brouillard. Gesamtausgabe = Complete edition / Hanns Eisler. Ser.VI, Bd.23.

Gluck. L'Arbre enchanté, ou, Le Tuteur dupé. Sämtliche Werke / Christoph Willibald Gluck. Ser.4, Vol.10.

Rite of Spring, facsimile (detail)

New music scores and facsimiles, Summer 2015

August 31, 2015
by Ray Heigemeir
Music
New acquisitions

For your browsing pleasure, we present the following list of new scores added to composer complete editions, historical sets, and facsimiles: 

Modern editions:

Rossini. Sei Sonate a Quattro per Violini, violoncello e contrabbasso. Edizione critica delle opere di Gioachino Rossini / comitato di redazione, Bruno Cagli, Philip Gossett, Alberto Zedda (ser.6/4)

Schönberg. Serenade, op. 24. Sämtliche Werke / Arnold Schönberg ; herausgegeben von Josef Rufer (Abt. VI: Kammermusik, Reihe B, Bd. 23/1)

Recording date on a Welte-Mignon roll label

Dating Welte-Mignon piano rolls

August 26, 2015
Music
Sound recordings

How do you know a publication date? For most books, simply look for the copyright or edition information at the beginning. For mass produced modern CDs, check the edge of the disc surface for the “p date”, or maybe it will be in the booklet inserted into the container. But what about piano rolls for reproducing and player pianos? Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound’s Player Piano Project faces this question. The publication date certainly isn’t stamped on the label, yet we need it.

Theremin demonstrating his instrument, Stanford University, 1991

Missing footage of Theremin at Stanford found

August 17, 2015
Digitization
Music
News
Sound recordings
Stanford Digital Repository

Earlier this year, I reported on recent work the Archive of Recorded Sound (ARS) had undertaken to preserve video footage of Leon Theremin's visit to Stanford in 1991. In addition to participating in a symposium during his visit, hosted by the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Theremin was also the guest of honor at a concert held in Frost Amphitheater on September 27, 1991 during the Stanford Centennial Finale Weekend. The video footage preserved by the ARS earlier in the year unfortunately only included part of this notable concert. It was found to be missing some key performances, including an arrangement of Rachmaninov's Vocalise, featuring Theremin's daughter Natasha Theremin playing the vocal parts on her father's instrument, accompanied by Max Mathews conducting the orchestral parts with his radio batons. This footage was presumed lost...until now. 

New shipment for Condon Collection arrives

August 10, 2015
Music
Sound recordings

Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound just received its latest shipment of important material for the processing of the Player Piano Project: new boxes. To provide the best security and archival conditions (like temperature control!) for our piano rolls, they will be stored at SAL3, a high-density preservation facility in Livermore, California. Patrons interested in researching particular rolls will still have access, simply contact the Archive of Recorded Sound and we will request the rolls be shipped here for you to use.

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