Möller Master Rolls
Музыка
The massive collection of Möller Master Organ Player Rolls, circa 1920, under the care and preservation of the American Organ Institute Archives and Library in the OU School of Music, is one of Oklahoma’s top 10 endangered artifacts, as identified by a subcommittee of the Oklahoma Cultural Heritage Trust, from nominations made by 25 organizations from across the state.
The Oklahoma Cultural Heritage Trust’s Top 10 Most Endangered Artifacts program was created to raise awareness and support for proper collections care and preservation for historical items within Oklahoma’s archives, libraries and museums.
Weighing in at nearly 12 tons, each roll was created by the M.P. Möller Organ Company in the early 20th century as part of an extremely sophisticated and lucrative system that allowed pipe organs to be played automatically via perforated paper rolls, much like player pianos that operated on the same principle. The complete collection includes more than 700 rolls, containing music of every genre.
Often, the rolls recorded live performances by famed musicians of the era. With the advent of high-fidelity recordings, the demand for player organs subsided, and the rolls, as well as the equipment used to create copies, ended up in a barn in northern Michigan for many years. In extremely fragile condition, they must be examined closely by conservators and a plan to stabilize and preserve them must be developed, as well as a method of recording the data they contain so that if their physical condition makes them unusable, they can be recreated.
“When we play these rolls for the public, as we expect to in the near future, we will hear a perfect reproduction of the original performance, given some 90 years ago,” said John Schwandt, director of the American Organ Institute. “The music will be performed as though the long-dead artist was actually sitting at the instrument.”
He added, “This collection is particularly important because there are no audio recordings of organs from the early days of recorded sound, when the technology could not cope with the extreme sonic range and power of the instrument. These rolls tell us how people played and heard music nearly a century ago.”
The American Organ Institute
Official Website - aoi.ou.edu/
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The mission of the University of Oklahoma’s American Organ Institute is to invigorate and reinvent the time-honored and deeply-linked studies of pipe organ building, playing, and improvisation, through preparing and equipping students for successful careers as performers, teachers, organ builders, scholars, and technicians. We seek to inspire students and audiences with learning and exposure to this ancient and ever-evolving instrument by offering innovative and informed approaches to the pipe organ and its music.
Our students cultivate excellence and mastery of performance in both the traditional classical and sacred repertoire, focusing on historical performance practice as well as playing for today's audiences and congregations. The AOI also offers students the singular opportunity to undertake focused study of the American traditions of improvisation, scoring, and accompaniment of silent films and theatrical pipe organ performance. This cultivates opportunities for insight as well as the preservation of a unique aspect of the United States’ rich musical heritage. It likewise opens the doors to musical skills and techniques which have great relevance to the wider aspects of today’s organ profession, where all musicians are called upon to be broadly based in many disciplines as well as entrepreneurial in their visions of the organist's role in an ever-changing culture.
“This Institute… will be of great benefit to organ builders in the United States by providing a stable source of young people dedicated to organ building and with enough training to get a good start on a career.” - Jack M. Bethards, President and Tonal Director, Schoenstein & Co. Organ Builders
AOI Faculty and Staff:
Mary Margaret Holt - Interim Dean, College of Fine Arts
Dr. Lawrence R. Mallett - Director, School of Music
Dr. John Schwandt - Director, American Organ Institute
Jeremy Wance Associate Director, American Organ Institute
Dr. Damin Spritzer - Assistant Professor of Organ
Dr. Adam Pajan - Instructor of Organ/AOI Shop Technician
Dr. Clark Kelly - Professor of Music, Emeritus
John M. Riester - AOI Projects Manager
Daniel Sliger - AOI Shop Manager
Mayu Hashigaya Allen - AOI Shop Technician
Student Shop Assistants:
Nathan Rau
Cristiano Rizzotto
Samantha Koch
Kaitlynn Eaton
Jesse Oddis
Stephen Wurst
AOI Archive and Library:
Stephanie Barth
Catherine Dean
Video production: Cristiano Rizzotto | DMA Student & AOI Shop Assistant
Пікірлер: 22
Very nicely done, great to see. Kudos to all here, and to Jim Weisenborne who saved all of this from the Moller works (which is why it ended up in Michigan - see Amica Bulletin, Aug 1992). It's good also that there is growing interest in roll repertoire, organ piano or whatever - not just the well-known Stanford piano roll project but also national libraries in Europe and a growing number of academic institutions. And software that nowadays allows us to 'reconstruct the master roll' from production rolls and hence replicate them accurately.
My late grandfather finished his career with Moller's as a Vice President. His name was Harold D. Ocker and started working as an installer upon his high school graduation in 1924. He was working part-time until his death in 1991. He was a relative of Peter Mathias Moller and fortunately passed away before the demise of the company.
@DavidSmith-sb2ix
4 жыл бұрын
I'm from Hagerstown and I've heard your grandfather's name mentioned. There are still some former employees living in the Hagerstown area. Two of them meet for lunch frequently. My father worked there during the early 50s. My great grandfather Robert L. Witmer worked for the automotive branch of the company as a salesman during the 20s. I can understand what you mean when you mention his passing before they folded. I play, played thanks to the virus, a 1943 Moller locally.
It's wonderful to see the dedication of the university of all parts of the fabulous Moller organ. Thank you for preserving and maintaining such an important part of musical history.
I live in Hagerstown Maryland, home of the Möller Organs. I e played Möller Organs for many years. I wasn't aware of this technology. The old factory is being repurposed into condos.
Very interesting and informative video. Great to see the preservation of such a rare machine. Well done to all involved!
Most interesting subject. There was also a system developed for piano by Ampico. Rachmaninov had made a number of recordings, based on this techique. (CD: Rachmaninov, The Ampico Recordings.) The disadvantage, which also applies to the Möller system, is the absense of a way of influencing the "expression", say volume. Correct me ,if I'm wrong. One remark about the pronunciation of the letter ö. It is commonly used in German. It must sound like the letter U in the word fundamental. Most kindly from a viewer in Belgium.
Loved watching this.
Fantastic!!!
I'd happily pay for high-res recordings, living as I do in a part of the world where I'm never likely to hear these things live. Perhaps that could be an ongoing source of revenue? Thank you very much for sharing.
And all this has come to an end and Kegg has rescued the roll perforator from a closed program. Farewell AOI.
@kevingalie
Жыл бұрын
Terrible
Thanks for this interesting upload. John Schwandt's comment, “The music will be performed as though the long-dead artist was actually sitting at the instrument," reminds me of the identical claim made for reproducing piano rolls at the time of their production and use. In the case of these rolls, this was found not to be so, partly because of the limitations of the reproducing pianos used, but also because the 'recordings' made by the famous pianists of the day were 'corrected' by 'editors,' who removed wrong notes and smoothed out other imperfections. Presumably the same (quite understandable) practice will apply to the organ rolls. Having said this, it is remarkable that no academic institution seems to have grasped the importance of piano rolls, especially those which remain in which the 'corrections' can be seen to have been made. They give a unique insight into the playing practices of the day and of those particular performers. (See Harry W. Stephenson's book, "In Search of Hoffman" or "Fair Play for the Reproducer.") This may be because piano rolls are not academically 'cool.' Perhaps the same considerations, both positive and negative, might apply to the organ rolls? The AOI is to be commended for its attempt to bring together the artistic and practical sides of both the organ player and the organ-builder.
Love this
Extremely interesting
It is my hope that this great musical heritage will be preserved for all time, and the optical reading device for the Perforator is a tremendous success. It is also an equal hope of mine to obtain, if possible in time, a library of Moller rolls reproduced by AOI for my Moller as well.
I vaguely remember the number of Moller players sold to be 149. Many player units in the Depression sold with small mortuary organs, so a fair number of later rolls were quiet background music. The roll masters didn't have registrations punched, every roll required the stop changes to be put in by a technician. The technician would pull the spec sheet of the organ he was coding for. Then he would pull the folder for the roll, which contained an instruction sheet for every stop change. He might need to synthesize stops that the organ didn't have, but the four-rank mortuary organs didn't allow many choices. Some of the overtures had a hundred or more stop changes. Moller should have standardized the registration coding on the rolls, and rewired each player to the capability of the organ. Hand coding each roll made them extremely expensive. How did the masters find their way from the Moller factory in Maryland to a barn in northern Michigan? Do the stop change sheets still exist?
@keggpipeorganbuilders3619
3 жыл бұрын
I have all the stop registration files in my possession.
Open the cabinet doors so we can see interior while operating.
Will the "data" stored on the rolls in the form of punched holes+and registration info., be provided to the public, in the form of MIDI files? So we can play them on our pipe organs (or computer simulations of) at home, and on the larger municipal/church pipe organs that have the capability to play midi files?
Is it possible to purchase rolls? A few are fortunate to have moller roll player organs. Is it possible to purchase rolls?