George Gershwin
and the Duo-Art piano roll of “Swanee”
The 92nd Y’s 2007 Gala
opened with a rousing rendition of George Gershwin’s first big hit – “Swanee” –
as played by George Gershwin on an Aeolian Duo-Art piano. George Gershwin’s
musical training began on a player piano: beginning at the age of 10, he taught
himself to play piano by slowly foot-pumping a player piano roll, and then
placing his fingers over the keys depressed by the piano roll as it played.
George began
formal training at age 12, and progressed well enough to quit school at age 15
to “plug” (i.e., perform songs for prospective purchasers) at a Tin Pan Alley
publishing house. George would invariably embellish the performances to help
make the sale, and his talent as a player and arranger soon landed him a job as
a piano roll artist.
Between 1916 and
1927, George made over 130 player piano rolls, including Yiddish language
rolls. He also made several rolls (such as “Swanee”) for use with the Aeolian
Duo-Art reproducing piano.
The Aeolian
Duo-Art reproducing piano represented the highest form of player piano, and
often exceeded the price of a house. It addition to perfectly duplicating the
notes and tempo of the music as played by the roll artist, the rolls also
contained special coding that would cause the Duo-Art mechanism to “reproduce”
all the nuances of a live piano performance, including dynamics and pedaling.“
The Aeolian
Company was the world’s largest manufacturer of player pianos, and is forever
linked in the public mind to George Gershwin by the world premiere in Aeolian
Hall of Rhapsody in Blue in 1924.
We hope you
enjoyed George Gershwin’s performance of “Swanee”, and will visit the rest of the
Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors’ Association web site ("Home" link
above).
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