The extroversion of this arrangement matches the extroversion of Ohman, the man. This is quite a showy, complex arrangement. He really pulls out all the stops and goes hell-for-leather here with the 8-to-the-bar groove, totally modern (for the time) harmonies, and extremely virtuosic, showy tricks. Having heard many of his recordings, I have no doubt that Ohman actually played probably 80% of what is on this roll arrangement. Added notes probably include the bass notes at measures 33-36 (and their equivalents when that theme is again cut-and-pasted into the master later on), The film footage of Ohman and Arden playing in duet, shows Ohman having large hands, enough to stretch a tenth, but almost certainly not large enough to reach the twelfths spanned at 33-36, nor the FOURTEENTH at measure 42! He certainly also didn't play the tripled melody in the tenor line (overlapping the accompaniment chords) at 37, 39-40, 45-50, which was a characteristic QRS roll-arranging technique used by many of their arrangers including Arden, Cook, and probably others (it also shows up in the Pete Wendling transcriptions you've done here), and I am pretty sure it was done to strengthen the melody in Word rolls, so as to be more clearly audible in the texture for sing-along purposes (after all, the lyrics were printed on the roll and visible while it was playing). There is also a contra-melody at measure 42 which could be played with the sostenuto pedal were the stretches not so wide and hit 'right on' (instead of broken as in other passages). More typical and characteristic Ohman left hand patterns are found in most of the rest of the (not melody-tripled) parts of the roll, especially at 57-59 where he makes good use of the sostenuto pedal to hold the tenor lines. This is one of Ohman's very few fox trot or one step arrangements for QRS (most of his QRS work was ballads and waltzes, many of which are frequently found today; he made many more fox trots for Aeolian on their Mel-O-Dee and Duo-Art labels). The only one I've seen turn up regularly of these QRS fox trot arrangements is "Indian Love Call" of which I personally have two copies. Thanks for posting this great transcription of this very rare roll!

Amazing! Thank you so much!

This is one of a relatively few piano rolls I have ever heard (and I've now heard thousands) that I would term in the TRUE 'novelty piano' style. Although the stereotype among writers on ragtime and jazz piano of the 1970s-present has been to call mainstream piano roll arrangements (at least, those not by James P. Johnson or Fats Waller) "novelty piano" style, that is fairly incorrect. At least as originally defined by Zez Confrey, or rather, his publisher Jack Mills, the 'Novelty Piano' style included forms and styles taken from the recent fox-trot rags then popular, as well as older salon and other dance forms such as novelettes, intermezzos, waltzes and perpetuum mobiles. The "novel" thing these Mills publications of 1921-1924 (and later) mainly shared in common (there were a few truly old-time pieces with NO real modernity ALSO published under this 'novelty piano solo' label, to sell them!), were the cubistic/modern/impressionistic/avant-garde HARMONIES, TWO-HANDED BREAKS and PIANO TEXTURES not found (at least, not common at all) in the pre-1921 published ragtime music. There were a few harbingers of the style like "Cubist" by Thomas Griselle (from 1918) which some people consider the first ever true "novelty piano solo", and Confrey's own "My Pet" (same year, piano roll) which wouldn't be published until 1921. But for the most part, before 1921, the only way to see or hear some of these then-new 'tricks' was to either hear one of these cutting-edge musicians live in person, solo or with a dance orchestra, behind a singer etc, OR buy a piano roll. Most of this music was not NOTATED until the early 20s as it was considered 'too strange' or 'too difficult' for the average home musician. When Confrey's method book instructing about "Modern Novelty Piano Playing" came out in 1923, there was a ready market for it, and Ohman and most of the other prolific QRS pop artists were enthusiastic endorsees. To me, what 'makes' this otherwise normal (but hot!) 8-to-the-bar QRS arrangement a 'novelty' arrangement, are the harmonies and figurations in measures 1-4 (the intro); 27-28 (63-64) (in the first theme); 36 (72) (chromatic left hand motion); 43-44 (79-80) (this modulating riff was extensively used by Confrey in his early QRS rolls); 51; 55-56 (87-88); etc. The triplet figure at 33-35 I consider "classical piano" and not "novelty" as I have yet to see or hear it re-used in any actual labeled 'novelty solo' or other pop piano solo. It seems to be a one-off that Ohman used here to show off.

I swear that's a Zez Confrey figure that Ohman employs at 43-44. Not surprising, since the main QRS artists knew each other and sometimes borrowed from each other.

@Maxime_Grisé

6 жыл бұрын

Andrew Barrett You might be interested to compare this with the Wurlitzer arrangement (a recording of it on a CX orchestrion exists on the Roadhouse Razzmatazz album).

@KawhackitaRag

3 жыл бұрын

@@Maxime_Grisé Yes here is that recording. After Wurlitzer bought the Melville Clark Piano Co. of DeKalb, Illinois, in 1919, and immediately ramped up production of home "straight" pianos and player pianos, Wurlitzer also entered into a deal with the company (who was the parent company of the QRS music roll co) allowing them free (licensed?) use of whatever QRS masters they wanted for their own coin piano and orchestrion roll arrangements. Consequently, at least half of the 1920s-era Wurlitzer APP roll arrangements are derived from QRS originals (the other half or so appear to be the work of at least two different in-house Wurlitzer arrangers). It seems that this arrangement was adapted directly from the Ohman QRS roll, with drum tracks and registers added: kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZWybtbuoetrMZZM.html

いつも拝見しています！ 楽譜もあるので最高です！

As a neat comparison with Phil Ohman's QRS roll here, check out Ernest Stevens' Artempo roll of the same tune: kzread.info/dash/bejne/hoBrts-xetuzqJc.html

Hi ;) which program do you use for the midi/synthesia componing/transcriptions?