The Aeolian Company was a musical-instrument making firm whose products included player organs,

pianos The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

and

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

s. Founded in 1887, it was at one point the world's largest such firm. During the mid 20th century, it surpassed

Kimball Kimball may refer to: People *Kimball (surname) * Kimball (given name) Places Canada * Kimball, Alberta United States * Kellogg, Iowa, formerly known as Kimball * Kimball, Kansas * Kimball, Minnesota * Kimball, Nebraska, a city * Kimball, South ...

to become the largest supplier of pianos in the United States, having contracts with

Steinway & Sons Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to ...

due to its

Duo-Art Duo-Art was one of the leading reproducing piano technologies of the early 20th century, the others being American Piano Company (Ampico), introduced in 1913 too, and Welte-Mignon in 1905. These technologies flourished at that time because of th ...

system of

player piano A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern i ...

s. It went out of business in 1985.

History

The Aeolian Company was founded by

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

piano maker William B. Tremaine as the ''Aeolian Organ & Music Co.'' (1887) to make automatic

organs In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a fu ...

and, after 1895, as the ''Aeolian Co.'' automatic

as well. The factory was initially located in

Meriden, Connecticut Meriden is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located halfway between the regional cities of New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 2020, the population of the city was 60,850.reed organs. The manufacture of residence or "chamber" organs to provide entertainment in the mansions of millionaires was an extremely profitable undertaking, and Aeolian virtually cornered the market in this trade, freeing them from the tight competition of church-organ building with its narrow profit margins. Elaborate cases and consoles were often featured in residence organs. In other installations, the pipes were hidden behind

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

, under or above staircases, or spoke from the basement through grilles or tone chutes. The company also made organettes and player pump organs for the "Working Man" to buy. Pianolist 1912

The pianola, a pneumatic player piano, soon after became extremely popular. It had been invented in 1895 by

Edwin S. Votey Edwin Scott Votey (June 8, 1856 – January 21, 1931) was an American businessman, inventor, industrial designer, and manufacturer of pianos and organs. He worked in the organ field all his adult life and had over twenty patents. He invented or ...

, president of the

Farrand & Votey Organ Company Farrand & Votey Organ Company was a nineteenth-century manufacturer of pianos, reed and pipe organs, and player pianos located in Detroit, Michigan. It evolved from William R. Farrand and Edwin S. Votey, hence the name of Farrand & Votey. The co ...

in Detroit. In 1897, Votey joined Aeolian,(December 21, 1899). Aeolian Organ Company’s purchase f Votey Organ Company ''Hartford Courant'', p. 3. Retrieved April 13, 2020 and in 1900 the firm obtained the patent for such instruments. In 1899, Aeolian took over the property and business of the Vocalian Company of Worcester, Mass. and ran it together with the Meriden plant. In 1903, Tremaine absorbed a number of companies making self-playing instruments, including the lbertWeber Co., a New York piano maker since 1852, into the Aeolian, Weber Piano & Pianola Co. In 1904 Aeolian sued the

Los Angeles Art Organ Company {{More footnotes, date=April 2009 The Los Angeles Art Organ Company was based, as its name suggests, in Los Angeles, California. The firm built instruments of unusually high quality and was the successor to the Murray M. Harris Organ Co., which wa ...

for patent infringement of its player mechanism, leading to court victories that, with other factors, effectively shut down a competitor. Other patent lawsuits were not always successful. As the pianola, in its turn, was supplanted by the newer Aeolian's " Duo Art"

reproducing piano A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern im ...

(1913), which could reproduce the sound of a famous artist playing without manual intervention, the Aeolian, Weber Piano & Pianola Co. became the world's leading manufacturer of such roll-operated instruments. In 1915 the Aeolian Co. started making Vocalion phonographs and in 1917/8 started

Vocalion Records Vocalion Records is an American record company and label. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...

, a maker of high-quality discs which in December 1924 was sold to

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History From 1916 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing produ ...

. The phonograph was one of the main factors in the demise of the player piano, although

Starr Starr may refer to: People and fictional characters * Starr (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Starr (given name), a list of people and fictional characters Places United States * Starr, Ohio, an unincorporated comm ...

made players and records as well as pianos. An attempt of the company to engage in the production of church and concert organs resulted in important installations at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

Chapel and

Longwood Gardens Longwood Gardens is a botanical garden that consists of over 1,077 acres (436 hectares; 4.36 km2) of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States in the Brandywine Creek Valley. It is one of the premier h ...

. It was undermined by the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, during which the organ division was merged with the E.M. Skinner Organ Co. to become the

Aeolian-Skinner Æolian-Skinner Organ Company, Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts was an American builder of a large number of pipe organs from its inception as the Skinner Organ Company in 1901 until its closure in 1972. Key figures were Ernest M. Skinner (1866– ...

Organ Co., a leading builder until the 1970s. On January 27, 1917,

R. J. Reynolds Richard Joshua Reynolds (July 20, 1850 – July 29, 1918) was an American businessman and founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The son of a tobacco farmer, he worked for his father and attended Emory & Henry College from 1868 to 1870 ...

placed an order with the Aeolian Company for a pipe organ with four keyboards and a pedal footboard. Today, the organ has about 250 organ rolls and is played in the afternoon for visitors. As the popularity of the player piano faded with the rise of the phonograph and radio, the company merged in 1932 with the

American Piano Company American Piano Company (Ampico) was an American piano manufacturer formed in 1908 through the merger of Wm. Knabe & Co., Chickering & Sons, and Foster-Armstrong. They later purchased the Mason & Hamlin piano company as their flagship piano. The ...

(itself a 1908 consolidation of

Chickering & Sons Chickering & Sons was an American piano manufacturer located in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1823 by Jonas Chickering and James Stewart, but the partnership dissolved four years later. By 1830 Jonas Chickering became partners ...

, Knabe & Co., and other manufacturers). The combined company, known as the Aeolian-American Corporation, went through several ownership changes. In 1959, ownership passed to the Heller family, owners of the former Winter and Co., and it was renamed simply the Aeolian Corporation. William G. Heller, who had worked for Aeolian and its predecessor companies since 1904, served as a company president from 1924 until his death in 1974. In 1974, Aeolian sold pianos under the brand names of

Mason & Hamlin Mason & Hamlin is a piano manufacturer based in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1854, they also manufactured a large number of pump organs during the 19th century. History 19th century Mason & Hamlin was founded in Boston, Massachusett ...

, Chickering, Knabe, Hardman & Peck, Winter,

Cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

, and Ivers & Pond. In 1983, two years before declaring bankruptcy, it was sold to former

Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...

president Peter Perez. The organettes and the player pump organs are sought after by collectors, and recuts of the original music are still sold.

Location

Aeolian was first located at 841

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

, in the heart (and soul) of the piano district; the company later moved to 23rd Street, and then to 360

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

. Aeolian Hall (1912–13), 33

West 42nd Street 42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, spanning the entire breadth of Midtown Manhattan, from Turtle Bay at the East River, to Hell's Kitchen at the Hudson River on the West Side. The street h ...

, housed the firm's general offices and demonstration rooms as a recital hall on the 43rd Street side, where many noted musicians performed, and was where the first Vocalions were made. The building was sold by Aeolian in 1924. The firm's pipe-organ factory was in Garwood, N.J., until the merger with the E.M. Skinner Co. The firm returned to Fifth Avenue in 1925, this time moving to

689 Fifth Avenue 689 Fifth Avenue (originally the Aeolian Building and later the Elizabeth Arden Building) is a commercial building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 54th Street (Manhattan), 54t ...

. The firm's facilities in the new Aeolian Building included a 150-seat recital hall, recording studios for Duo Art piano rolls, offices, design studios, drafting rooms, and a director's room in the upper stories. The Aeolian Company (as Aeolian American Corp.) remained in the Aeolian Building until 1938, after which it leased half of Chickering Hall on West 57th St.

Copyright law

It was Congressional suspicion of the market power of the Aeolian company during the early 20th century that prompted adoption of the first

compulsory license A compulsory license provides that the owner of a patent or copyright licenses the use of their rights against payment either set by law or determined through some form of adjudication or arbitration. In essence, under a compulsory license, an i ...

system in U.S. copyright law, for the mechanical reproduction of musical compositions, a category that included piano rolls.Cohen, Julie E. et al. (2006). ''Copyright in a Global Information Economy'', (p. 447). Aspen Publishers. The player piano deeply troubled popular music composers such as

John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dist ...

. Sousa worried that the pianos would kill the public's demand for sheet music, and sheet music was the source of composers’ copyright royalties. To make matters worse, the player piano companies refused to pay royalties to composers for the songs they put on player piano rolls. These rolls were scrolls of paper with holes punched out in patterns that instructed the piano how to play a particular song. The rolls, argued the player piano companies, did not “copy” the composers’ musical compositions. As a result, they were perfectly legal. The Supreme Court, in its 1908 opinion in ''

White-Smith Music Publishing Company v. Apollo Company ''White-Smith Music Publishing Company v. Apollo Company'', 209 U.S. 1 (1908), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that manufacturers of music rolls for player pianos did not have to pay royalties to the composer ...

'', sided with the player piano companies. The Court held that because humans could not read player piano rolls, they were not in fact copies of the musical compositions they encoded. The result in White-Smith lasted but a year before Congressional action. The

Copyright Act of 1909 The Copyright Act of 1909 () was a landmark statute in United States statutory copyright law. It went into effect on July 1, 1909. The 1909 Act was repealed and superseded by the Copyright Act of 1976, which went into effect on January 1, 1978; b ...

mandated that all musical compositions would be subject to a

. In short, since 1909 the copyright law has allowed musicians to copy others’ songs by mechanical means (e.g., via piano roll or

phonorecord A phonorecord is defined by the United States Copyright Act of 1976 to be a material object that embodies sounds (other than those accompanying audio-visual recordings such as movies). From the Copyright Act: “Phonorecords” are material objec ...

/sound recording) without asking permission, so long as they paid a specified fee to the original songwriter. Anticipating that Congress was about to overturn White-Smith, Aeolian Company moved swiftly to buy up song rights from musicians and publishing companies so it could copy them onto player piano rolls. Aeolian's competitors quickly complained to Congress about Aeolian's attempt to corner the music market. Congress responded with the invention of the

cover song In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song released ...

rule.

References

{{Authority control Musical instrument manufacturing companies based in New York City Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York City Manufacturing companies established in 1887 Piano manufacturing companies of the United States Pipe organ building companies 1887 establishments in New York (state) Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1932 1932 disestablishments in New York (state) 1932 mergers and acquisitions American companies disestablished in 1932 American companies established in 1887