The Autograph Metrostyle
by Julian Dyer
The Metrostyle was a means by which a suggested interpretation was printed onto piano rolls to aid the pianolist. A red line was printed or inked onto the roll, and the Pianola was equipped with a pointer connected to its tempo control. By following the red line with the pointer, a performance with appropriate musical timing (rubato, pauses between phrases, etc) could be obtained. The pianolist was under no obligation to follow this particular interpretation, but it provided a good starting point when learning a new roll.
Most Metrostyle lines were created by roll editors at the Aeolian factory. 'Autograph' Metrostyle rolls took the idea further by having the Metrostyle line created by a prominent artist, whose signature and endorsement appears in facsimile at the start of the roll. By following the Metrostyle line with the Pianola's Metrostyle pointer, the resulting performance was supposed to represent the intentions of the artist perhaps more like taking a master class with the artist than listening to a recording. The majority of these rolls were only issued in 65-note form, and were superseded by the arrival of the hand-played roll. Some were issued in standard 88-note form or in the “Pianolists' Library” series of rolls.
The creation of these rolls was described in “The appreciation of music by means of the Pianola and Duo-Art” by Percy Scholes, published in 1925 by Oxford University Press. It was taken from a series of lectures given at Aeolian Hall to show owners and prospective buyers the capabilities of the instrument.
The basic idea behind these rolls has at times been questioned, in particular the idea that a composer or pianist would be sufficiently skilful on the Pianola to produce a meaningful Metrostyle line. As the following description shows, this was not actually what happened. (Although Aeolian was a large and highly commercial company, it is not reasonable to assume – as some vociferous commentators do – that all its employees were idiots or charlatans!) The following account of Mr. Reed visiting Grieg in Norway gives an interesting picture of the investment of time and effort in these rolls, which were meant for artistic use rather than purely casual entertainment. The extract comes as Scholes is introducing a performance of Percy Grainger's Duo-Art roll of Grieg's piano concerto.
Grieg's Autograph Metrostyle rolls
I think it will be of interest just to tell you that Mr. Reed, who comes onto this platform sometimes before and after my lectures, persuaded Grieg to have his pieces recorded for the 'Pianola'. Twenty years ago [1905] many people had the idea that the 'Pianola' was a quite mechanical instrument. Even nowadays people who have not heard Mr. Reynolds or any one of the numerous good players upon the instrument think that the 'Pianola' is a very mechanical instrument that you just sit down and pedal away, so many yards of paper pass over the roll, and the music is ground out. Some people do play the 'Pianola' this way, but they are people with no musical soul and who have not had put before them a model of 'Pianola' playing as we have (there will be no excuse for us henceforth). Grieg had this idea. Mr. Reed says:
'Having a personal introduction to Grieg, I went to Bergen, taking with me one of the latest “Pianolas”, equipped with the Metrostyle. After a little difficulty I succeeded in persuading him to listen to it, at the same time explaining the function of the Metrostyle, and how by its means his own interpretations of his compositions could be marked on the music rolls, and thus enable thousands of music lovers, and possible future “Pianola” owners, all over the world in the years to come, to play these compositions according to his exact interpretation.
'The thought that his own ideas could thus be preserved for posterity appealed to him, as it has to many other composers who at the beginning were equally prejudiced against the “Pianola”, and he agreed to assist me in marking the following rolls:
Album Leaf.
In Spring.
The Wedding Day.
Humoresques.
The Butterfly.
“Peer Gynt” Suite.
From the Carnival.
Norwegian Bridal March
Lonely Traveller.
March of the Dwarfs (Troldtog).
'I remained in Bergen for a week, working with Grieg several hours a day, until the marking was complete, and the line on each roll was to his absolute satisfaction. As the work progressed, and he commenced to realise what the invention of the “Pianola” really meant to the music lover, he became very enthusiastic, so much so that during the few remaining years of his life, Grieg was numbered amongst the staunchest supporters of the instrument.
'I shall never forget my delightful visit to his villa “Troldhaugen”, a few miles from Bergen, situated on one of the many beautiful fjords which abound on this coast. Here, in his home, surrounded by his family and friends, he played piece after piece and chatted about the many quaint sources by which they had been inspired; old Norwegian legends of the dwarfs, giants, etc., who in his imagination peopled many of his pieces. My friend, Johannes Wolff, the violinist, himself an old friend of Grieg, was there also, and together they played several Movements from the Violin Sonatas. Then, after a simple Norwegian supper, we sat in the music room with the wonderful glow of the Norwegian twilight coming in through the windows, while Madame Grieg sang a number of her husband's songs.'
List of Autograph Metrostyle artists in the 1914 Aeolian UK catalogue
Some of these names (such as Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov) never made any form of recording so these rolls provide the sole remaining indication about how they felt their music should be phrased.
Composers (marking their own music, and sometimes others').
Rafael De Acévés – also Albeniz and other Spanish composers
Isaac Albeniz
Louis Aubert
Mily Balakirev
John Francis Barnett
Homer Bartlett
Karl Bohm
Charles Auguste De Beriot – who died in 1870!
Teresa Carreño – also Gottschalk, Schubert, Schumann
Cecile Chaminade
Chevillard
Frederic Cowen
Claude Debussy
Louis Diemer – Beethoven, Liszt
Felix Dreyschock
François Dubois
Auguste Dupont – died 1890
Sir Edward Elgar
Elinescu
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel-Marie
Ossip Gabrilovitsch
L. G. Ganne
Ernest Gillet
Alexander Glazounov
Wilhelm Goldner
Edvard Grieg
Josef Holbrooke
Alberto Jonas – also Beethoven, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann
Karbach
Henri Kowalski
Théodore Lack
Joaquin Larregla
Zd. Lubicz
Hamish MacCunn
Juan Manén
Léon Moreau
Moszkowski – who marked just about every piece of his in the catalogue!
Ernesto Narice
John Orth
Paderewski – Chopin, Mozart
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger
Isidor Edmond Phillip
Carl Reinecke – Mozart
Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov
Moritz Rosenthal
Saint-Saëns
Almah Salmon
J. De Santesteban
Franz Xaver Scharwenka
Ludwig Philipp Scharwenka
Giovanni Sgambati
Martinus Sieveking
Christian Sinding
Emil Sjögren
John Philip Sousa
Bruce Steane
Richard Strauss
Imre Szekely
François Thomé
F. Toledo
Paul Wachs
Charles Marie Widor
Josef Wieniawski – Henri Wieniawski
Non-composers and some of the composers they marked.
Harold Bauer – Balakirev, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann
Edouard Bernard – Balakirev, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Schubert
Ferrucio Busoni – Brahms, Chopin, Liszt
A. Bustini – Chopin
Maria Avani Carreras – Chopin, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns
Edouarde Colonne – Berlioz, Liszt, Tchaikowsky
Sylvain Dupuis – Wagner
Arthur Friedheim – Liszt
Madeleine Godard – Benjamin Godard (composer's sister)
Leopold Godowsky – Chopin
Elsa Von Grave – Schumann
Alfred Hertz – Humperdinck
Rachael Hoffmann – Chopin, Schumann
Natalie Janotha – Chopin, Schumann
Wanda Landowska – Bach, Chopin
Lazare Levy – Chopin, Liszt, Schumann
Luigi Manchinelli – Liszt
Countess Hélène Morsztyn – Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn
J. J. Nin – Bach
Marie Panthes – Chopin
Emil Paur – Beethoven
François Planté – Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schubert
Landon Ronald – Tchaikowsky
J. Strauss – Johann Strauss (composer's nephew)
Adela Verne – Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Scarlatti, Schumann
Siegfried Wagner – Wagner
Josef Weiss – Brahms
Sir Henry Wood – Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Sibelius, Tchaikowsky