In the late 1800's, early devices called "push-ups" or vorsetzers were invented which, when rolled into place in front of most any piano, would "play" the piano by means of a row of felt-covered fingers hanging out its back side. The device was vacuum operated and depended upon rolls of paper punched with holes to provide the music.

In the early 1900's, the vacuum operated mechanism was sufficiently miniaturized to be shoehorned into the case of upright pianos with deepened cases. These early version for the most part, with full 88 note scale for human playing, "played" only 65 of the 88 notes. About 1912, the full scale 88 note player mechanism emerged as a general industry standard.

In the mid 1910, a few player pianos emerged, most in grand form, capable of reproducing the expression and intent of the original recording artist. Many of the legendard masters of the piano recorded for this instrument. At the time, it was simply a normal business transaction. However, these early recording have had the effect of preserving for all time the artistry of these unique people.

In all cases, these pianos depended upon the presence of paper music rolls punched with holes. These rolls were the records of the day, later replaced by disks, later replaced by wire recordings, later replaced by disks in variety of evolutionary formats, later replaced by tape recordings in a variety of evolutionary formats, and eventually replaced by CD's and DVD's in today's market.

Only the paper music rolls make it possible today to hear a real piano played by the legendary masters. All other subsequent recordings were fundamentally simulations of the real performance. Unfortunately, the real player piano is still dependent upon the original paper music rolls. While the piano itself can be repeatedly restored into perpetuity, the original rolls cannot be restored. Time is their fatal enemy. All of the original paper music rolls will eventually become unuseable as they deteriorate over time as the picture examples (see the example in the picture).

One format that is at least going to survive for as long as we can predict is the midi-format. Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is an industry-standard electronic communications protocol that defines each musical note or event in an electronic musical instrument or show device such as a synthesizer, precisely and concisely, allowing electronic musical instruments, computers and other show equipment to exchange data in real time. MIDI does not transmit audio—it simply transmits real time digital data providing information such as the type and intensity of the musical notes and technical cues played during a performance.

Not only makes this technique it possible to reproduce the piano roll recordings by the old masters, it also makes it possible to listen the old masters with perfect sound quality!

The recordings reproduced at Piano Society are sampled in 48.1 kHz uncompressed WAV-format and compressed to 128 kbps mp3-format with a Yamaha CFIII S played in the size of a 150 x 50 meters large concert hall.

As this reproduction is not a part of the original idea of Piano Society, we have decided to charge $10 to get download access to these recordings. When the payment is received, an account will be created manually. Please allow up to three days for the creation of the account.

List of recordings


Arthur Rubinstein

Liszt

Hungarian Rhapsody no.12

12:25

1927

Josef Hofmann

Beethoven	Rondo a capriccio in G "Rage of the lost penny"	5:29	1925
Liszt	Hungarian Rhapsody no.12	8:56	1925

Ignac Paderewski

Beethoven	Sonata Op.27 No.2, Movement I & II	7:51	1914
Liszt	Hungarian Rhapsody no.2	10:27	1914
Liszt	Hungarian Rhapsody no.10	7:41	1914

Vilhelm Backhaus

Chopin

Waltz Op.34 No.1

6:03

1931

Leopold Godowski

Chopin	Waltz Op.64.no2	3:08	1924
Chopin	Waltz Posth. in E minor (Waltz no.14)	3:29	1924
Chopin	Ballade Op.47	5:51	1924
Chopin	Scherzo Op.39	8:32	1924
Chopin	Polonaise Op.53	6:03	1924
Liszt	Concerto Etude no.2	4:29	1924

The list of recordings above is reproduced from Terry Smythe's piano roll scanners and you can read more about Terry and his project at: http://members.shaw.ca/smythe/rebirth.htm