A music roll is a storage medium used to operate a mechanical musical instrument. They are used for the

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 im ...

mechanical organ A mechanical organ is an organ that is self-playing, rather than played by a musician. For example, the barrel organ is activated either by a person turning a crank, or by clockwork driven by weights or springs. Usually, mechanical organs are pip ...

, electronic carillon and various types of orchestrion. The vast majority of music rolls are made of paper. Other materials that have been utilized include thin card (Imhof-system), thin sheet brass (Telektra-system), composite multi-layered electro-conductive aluminium and paper roll (Triste-system) and, in the modern era, thin plastic or PET film. The music data is stored by means of perforations. The mechanism of the instrument reads these as the roll unwinds, using a pneumatic, mechanical or electrical sensing device called a

tracker bar Tracker may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Tracker (''G.I. Joe''), in the ''G.I. Joe'' universe * Tracker (''PAW Patrol''), in the animated television series ''PAW Patrol'' * Tracker Cameron, in the television series ' ...

, and the mechanism subsequently plays the instrument. After a roll is played, it is necessary for it to be rewound before it can be played again. This necessitates a break in a musical performance. To overcome this problem, some instruments were built with two player mechanisms (referred to as a duplex roll mechanism) allowing one roll to play while the other rewinds. A piano roll is a specific type of music roll, and is designed to operate an automatic piano like the

or the

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 ...

. Image:DrehorgelRollen.jpg, Selecting a paper roll of music. Image:DrehorgelLochkarte.jpg, Music roll in place showing a pattern of holes representing notes. Image:DrehorgelVentile.jpg, Tracker bar, which reads the punched music roll. Image:DrehorgelnPfeifen.jpg, Each hole is connected to a valve in the interior of the organ which operates the

organ pipe An organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonates at a specific pitch when pressurized air (commonly referred to as ''wind'') is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a specific note of the musical scale. A set o ...

s such as these wooden ones. File:Wurlitzer 153 Duplex.jpg, Duplex roll mechanism of a

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

153 band organ

References

* Barbara Bryner: ''The piano roll: a valuable recording medium of the twentieth century''. Dept. of Music, University of Utah, 2002. * Karl Koenig ''Jazz in Print (1859-1929)'' Pendragon Press, 2002 pg. 180 Mechanical musical instruments {{Technology-stub

See also

References