Topics of this Prelude had been:

Hans Schmitz/Sebastian Bausch (Bern)

Hupfeld DEA: Secrets of reproducing roll expression

The impressive catalogue of Hupfeld artist rolls (discussed by Birgit Heise in the first GPRM Prelude) up to this day remains largely unknown to performance practice scholars. And while the rolls are widely known among collectors and restorers in their later versions as 88-note “Animatic” player piano rolls, their original issues as reproducing rolls for Hupfeld’s DEA system are exceedingly rare. Since it is this system that delivers the original version of these valuable recordings and that was designed to compete with the Welte-Mignon, this presentation will examine the technical and artistic potential of the system, especially with regards to its expression modeling. Hans Schmitz and Sebastian Bausch will discuss their research on the DEA and compare cases in which pianists recorded the same piece for both Welte-Mignon and DEA.

Sergio Ospina Romero (Bogotà)

Musicality and Posthumanism in the Performance of Aeolian’s Pianola

The pianola was an intricate musical instrument that challenged common conceptions about and fostered new possibilities for music making at the turn of the 20th century. While some people embraced it enthusiastically, taking advantage of its potential for musical expressivity, others rejected it on the basis of its defiance to conventional approaches to keyboard performance. This presentation examines the mechanical design of the pianola, the challenges and opportunities for the short-lived performance practice around it, and its transcendence for the music industry and other realms of musical practice in the 20th century. By discussing “what happens when the playing of the pianola happens” the presentation offers also an interpretation of the pianola’s performative dimension and of the extent to which it helped redefine the boundaries of what was humanly or musically possible. Along with this, the presentation will include some ideas pertaining to the production of piano rolls by local industries in South America in the early twentieth century.