Player piano

The player piano is a type of piano that plays music without the need for a human pianist to depress the normal keys or pedals. Instead, these are moved by mechanical, pneumatic or electrical means. One cannot say that this musical instrument was invented by any one person, since its many distinguishing features were developed over a long period of time, principally during the second half of the 19th century. An early example was the Pianista, developed by Henri Fourneaux in 1863, though ultimately the best known was the Pianola, originally created by Edwin Scott Votey in 1895 at his home workshop in Detroit. Player pianos were sometimes built with combinations of string and wind music boxes built into them. This kind of instruments was called an Orchestrion, built since about 1840. One of the leading companies in this business were the German-American company M. Welte & Sons, the later producers of the Welte-Mignon reproducing pianos and the Wurlitzer-Company, founded by German Immigrants from Bavaria. These massive devices were the most complicated mechanical musical instruments ever built, with the exception of a few organs. The player piano was most popular in the first half of the 20th century, roughly at the same time as the acoustic gramophone.

Related Topics:
Piano - Music - Pianist - Musical instrument - 19th century - 1863 - 1895 - Detroit - Music boxes - Orchestrion - M. Welte & Sons - Welte-Mignon - Wurlitzer - Organs - 20th century - Gramophone

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~