The Influence of the Automatic Piano Player.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 2, 13 July 1910, Page 16

The Influence of the Automatic Piano Player.

(By Sydney Grew in “Musical News.”) I am at the present moment in process of conversion to a sure and certain faith in the automatic piano-player. Three months ago I should have scorned it without understanding, for until January of this year, I, like practically all actively engaged English musicians, had a strong prejudice against the pianola. I thought it was a purely a mechanical thing, of no greater artistic value than the gramophone or other reproductive media. I now recognise this, of course, to have been simply the prejudice of ignorance. Circumstances made it convenient in January for me to try to play a pianola. The beautiful results that came about with a little care and thought (and, incidentally, the candid revelation by the instrument of certain flaws in my musicianship), inclined me very rapidly to regard the matter With a feeling as far removed from condescension as inclined to respect. Being a musician who likes to see at once the whole of whatever relates to my art, I immediately made inquiries as to the scope ’of the music obtainable for these instruments. I found with surprise that thousands of the most exclusively classical pieces of piano music, from Scarlatti, Bach, Mozart, and Haydn, to Beethoven and the romantic composers, were already to hand; I found also, with greater surprise, that the most modern of living composers of piano music, both English and foreign, were freely represented. The pieces to hand of Cyril Scott, Paul Corder, Joseph Holbrooke, and the puzzling Max Reger, already are to be counted by the dozen. In a week or so I had made acquaintance with something like fifty of Roger’s compositions: what this means in the case of music that is as impossible to play at sight as it is hard to comprehend visually, is better imagined than described. This circumstance (i.e. of limited supplies of classic and modern music) filled me with high regard for the extent of the activities of the manufacturers, a regard that was further enhanced by the discovery that most of the great orchestral and operatic works of classic and modern times were also accessible. Cesar Franck’s symphony, Elgar’s symphony, huge extracts from the “Ring,” even lengthy extracts from “Pelleas and Melisande,” soon began to appear normal ; but I have not yet got over tire shock of surprise I experienced when I came across a great passage out of “Elektra.” Such determination as this to achieve artistic completeness of supply, combined with the perfection of mechanism found in the instruments, makes it a wise thing for us musicians to look closely into the matter to see how it is going to affect us and our art. In the matter of the public performer, my belief is that the changes will be highly beneficial. The virtuoso pianist, as such, is doomed to extinction. The man whose gifts begin and end with no more than great technical ability, will attract us no longer; for when the power to play with perfection such a work as Liszt’s “Campanella”* is in the hands of every musical person, the novelty of the thing is at an end; and with the passing of the novelty passes also the interest of it. But in the place of this lost virtuoso will arise a finer, more truly musical race of pianists, men and women Who will stand to their instrument as Kreisler does to the violin and Gerhardt to the voice. The worth of the artist at the piano will become great in proportion to the elimination of intrinsically worthless details; and we may rest assured that the solo pianist of the future will be more musician than performer, and that he will be able, by virtue of the depth of the soul, td translate to U.S whatever of the eternal verities lie concealed within that most exquisite instrument, the piano.

♦Played by Carreno (During her present tour of New Zealand.