THE STORY OF THE PIANO

Mechanical

instruments

such as music boxes had been popular in Europe since the

14th century, and Mozart even wrote music specifically for them. The earliest system
was the barrel mechanism;
a lever

a cylinder turned, and nails inserted into it would trigger

that

themselves
cylinder

then

meant

beginning

to sound

on strings).

the music

then

started

The

(or the
circular

automatically

again.

In the

of the street

piano,

nails

would

shape

of the

returned
19th

began to fit barrel mechanisms

the exception

commercial

a note

notes
that

and

manufacturers
with

caused

pluck

to the

century,

barrel

pianos

This sort of solid barrel had many limitations.

For an auromatic

to gain wide appeal a more sophisticated

music was required.

way of storing

The solution was to use a cylinder with punched

holes instead of raised nails, and the first successful automatic

based on this idea was produced

by Giovanni

or 'Pianista'

- a freestanding

Minx Miniature piano

the piano

Around the time of World \1I7arII the Minx

'player piano' refers to an instrument

Minature piano was a great success in Britain.

fitted

Manufactured by Kemble from 1935, it was aimed

so that its mechanical

automatic

at rhe domesric market by virtue of its small size-

information

although as the picture above shows, it was also

it. The advent

piano

viable,

Fourneaux,
machine

'fingers'

played

developed

the keys. By contrast

a compact

made

and efficient

continued in production until 1966.

and pedalling

could

Consequently,
performance

by a performer.

be adjusted

This possibility

including

invented

in a crude

way of storing

but tempo, volume

way by an operator.

really reproduce

an actual

became available with the development

a system

for encoding

tempo changes, dynamics,

an electric motor to drive the mechanism

The

types of

pianos' in the early 20th century. Moreover, in 1904 Edwin Welte of

in Germany

performance,

sometimes

piano players and player pianos couldn't

of 'reproducing
Freiburg

already

both

about the pieces of music ro be played.

Most early piano rolls were lacking in expression or dynamics,

successful in ensembles. Remarkably, the Minx

the term

player mechanism

roll in the 1870s

since it offered

for storage.
a 'piano player'

that could be wheeled up to

with an automatic

of the piano

piano

Racca. In the 1880s he

a Piano Melodico that used folded cardboard

In the 1860s a Frenchman,

inside

but

had little

success.

instrument

patented

some

to their pianos,

automated

piano

every nuance

and pedalling.

of a pianist's

He also introduced

instead of pedalled bellows.

was the jukebox

of its day.

gramophone,

to its inevitable
creative

use

American

later,

by individuals
Conlon

as anticipating

computer

the arrival

the jukebox

of the

itself, led

and swift decline. Nevertheless,

composer

regarded

But

and eventually

sequencing

Automated

such

Nancarrow,
the

use

its

as the
can

be

of modern

techniques.

pianos were popular in cinemas,

and this was part of a broader drive to exploit

Tomasso street piano

Italian immigrants to England in rhe late
19rh century brought with them the idea of
"barrel" pianos. These were often wheeled
around the srreers on carts, like the one
shown here. Each "pinned" barrel contained
ten tunes and each tune lasted about 45
seconds. This street piano was made in
London in about 1885.

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