Name of Instrument: Pianola

Maker / Brand: The Aeolian Co.

Stearns Catalog #: 1884

Country of Origin: New York, USA

Region of Origin: North America

Instrument Category: Aerophone

Date of Fabrication:

Location: CHO X 3

Description: The heyday of the Pianola was 1897 to World War I. As a machine that works in tandem with an ordinary piano, the Pianola is a complex design that employs piano rolls, multiple wooden fingers, bellows, and a metal rod for a foot pedal. To operate, the Pianola is wheeled up to an ordinary piano, so that the wooden fingers are aligned with their corresponding piano keys; then as the pedal is pumped, it moves the bellows that spin the piano roll, which in turn activates the wooden fingers to press down the individual piano keys. The result is a self-playing piano that had a sound quality far superior to the phonographs of the day. This Pianola was donated to the collection in 1976 and was restored in 1990. This device only has sixty-five fingers which leaves the extreme ranges on a typical piano unused. The popularity of the Pianola began to decline as piano roll players were incorporated into the pianos themselves, thus eliminating the need for this cumbersome attachment. Yet memories of the Pianola lived on such that the word Pianola has become a generic term for music producing items that may or may not be associated with the original. This Pianola is a "Metro Style" with the serial numbers 839, 23899.

Research: Christopher Dempsey