Blog topic: Music

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.

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.

Cavalleria rusticana, original manuscript by Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945); libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci after a play and story by Giovanni Verga. Memorial Library of Music, MLM 651.

Cavalleria rusticana premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, one of three winners of a one-act opera competition sponsored by the publisher Sonzogno (the other two winners were Labilia by Nicola Spinelli and Rudello by Vincenzo Ferroni).  The young Mascagni was hesitant to enter; his wife Lina ended up sending the manuscript without his knowledge. This manuscript now resides in Stanford's Memorial Library of Music.