But let us follow ten year old George to his friend, Max Rosen, at his violin recital in case we can pick up there something authentic and genuine, without a scratchy 78 rmp sound, that will make this Tin Pan Alley-pre-Follies epoc more familiar to us. George seemed to have been enthralled by Max’s playing and the music itself. Perhaps in his neighbor’s house, there was another instrument—a player piano. During the first decade or so it seems that 2.5 million player pianos were sold and sitting in the living rooms of the American people. The player piano was the equivalent to the home theater and karaoke machines in bars and restaurants of today.
George began to teach himself the piano by slowly pumping the foot pedals that pulled the paper roll with holes in it, causing the piano keys to go down. George slowed the roll down and imitated the movements of the keys with his fingers. His very first memory, at the age of 6, of a player piano appears to be in relation to Anton Rubenstein’s composition, Melody in F. Here by the great good fortune of Artis Wodehouse’s deep scholarship, we have George Gershwin’s actual words:
“I stood outside a penny arcade listening to an automatic piano leaping through [Anton] Rubenstein’s Melody in F. The peculiar jumps in the music held me rooted. To this very day, I can’t hear the tune without picturing myself outside the arcade on 125th Street, standing there in barefoot and overalls, drinking it all in avidly.”
Piano rolls were made at this time to help the sale of the booming sheet music industry. Rosters included performances of classical music giants like Anton Rubenstein, Gustav Mahler, Edvard Grieg, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Claude Debussy, Sergei Prokofieff, Paderewski, Josef Lhevinne, Josef Hoffman and Vladimir Horowitz as well as the vaudeville-Tin Pan Alley-composers: Scott Joplin, Richard Rogers, Cole Porter, Eubie Blake. Because, too, the newly arrived eastern European immigration population was so large, special “world music” collections were produced of Hungarian, Polish and Yiddish melodies.
Artis Wodehouse not only gave us some of George’s actual words but she first hand re-created for the digital recording age George Gershwin’s actual playing recorded on the piano rolls called Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls. Below is a video from YouTube of George Gershwin’s song, “Kickin’ the Clouds Away” from Wodehouse’s amazing work.
“Kickin’ the clouds Away” on Weber Duo- Art Pianola
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June 24, 2008 at 7:33 am
Fernanda G.
I just loved the comparison between the piano players being like the karaoke of that time. Also it is interesting to observe how sensorial is the experience of learning an instrument and how he used the piano player tool to teach himself. This blogging process is very reach to the extent that allowed me to follow this research process. Keep i t up!
June 24, 2008 at 8:05 am
Liz Hamill
@Fernanda G. It seems he taught himself this way! I found another article (after I posted of course!) that quoted his brother Ira saying that George was so good at learning on his friend’s player piano this way that when their parents hoisted the new piano up into their home, George simply sat down and played! His parents were dumbfounded. Then, he was sent to formal lessons.
It’s something like a window in time that was open to be able to learn this way. We have computers that can slow the music down but the slow-motion moving the hands over the keys as they moved…I don’t know…maybe there is a software now that would replicate the player piano.
June 24, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Thomas FL.
Yes, the player piano was the home-entertainment center of the teens and 20’s. The Weber Duo-Art Pianola featured in the Youtube video was one of the best of the player pianos available. The Duo-Art was known as a reproducing system as it can “reproduce” (depending on the condition of the Duo-Art piano) a portrait of the expression and dynamics of the pianist who recorded the roll. I’m also a George Gershwin fan. I loved his music and style of piano playing since I was a kid growing up in the 1960’s. (not many kids in the 60’s and 70’s cared for the music of the 20/30’s). The CD you mentioned above (Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls) actually inspired me to hunt down (via internet) and buy a restored player piano - a 1924 Weber Duo-Art reproducing grand. I even found some of Gershwin’s Duo-Art rolls he cut at Aeolian studios in the 20’s. You can slow the roll down and try to follow the keys the way Gershwin did as a child. I’m afaid it doesn’t work for me. I’m trying to learn how to play but it takes hours of practice and a patient instructor. I found a couple of CD’s featuring Gershwin’s 78 rpm records he recorded in the mid-late 20’s and early 30’s -including some with the singing of Fred Astaire and his sister Adele. These were great recordings and it’s a shame he didn’t make more of them later in his short life as recording technology was improving during the early-mid-30’s. Nor did Hollywood make any quality films of him playing. His 78 rpm recordings and his piano rolls prove how brilliant a pianist he was. Gershwin was making far fewer piano rolls by the late 20’s. The introduction of electrically-processed 78 RPM records and radio caused the demand for player pianos to drastically fall off by 1930. Best, Thomas FL.
June 25, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Liz Hamill
@Thomas FL I think you can learn to play like the boy George Gershwin did. It sounds like you’ve gathered many primary sources in recordings and you have the actual piano or one very close to it. I taught for many years and really learned that no matter what experience people had, they could deepen their love for the instrument and the music.
If I may, slow the player to its slowest speed and section off just 10 seconds or 4 bars and no more. Separate how your hands: strongest hand
first and follow the movements, close your eyes, open your eyes– no sheet music! Then the other hand do the same way. Then both hands even more slowly. Then add another 10 second section. Even mastering small sections is very satisfying. Little by little. I had a wonderful teacher who was a student of the great Russian pianist, Rudolf Ganz. Work until frustration begins and then stop. Do something else. Keep your joy as high as possible for the work.
I learned a lot by reading your post, especially about the rolls themselves. I am really working up to writing about an arrangement I did of Vernon Duke’s (and Ira Gershwin’s) “I Can’t Get Started.” But as I began to look into Vernon Duke, I saw their would not have been this song without George Gershwin presence in Vernon Duke’s life so here we are.
All the best to you too…L.
November 20, 2008 at 10:30 am
Thomas FL.
Dear Liz,
Thank you for your helpful comments. Rudolf Ganz was another pianist who recorded many reproducing piano rolls for Aeolian Duo-Art in the very late teens and 20’s. Vernon Duke was a wonderful song-writer. The hit song “I Can’t Get Started” of course was recorded by Bunny Berrigan - I think in the late 30’s and again in the 40’s. Great song. Gershwin was certainly a big influence in Vernon Duke’s career. I think Gershwin had something to do with Duke’s adopted name - Vernon Duke - which wasn’t his real name. Gershwin thought his real name was too ethnic-sounding. Duke is the same name as Doris Duke - the tobacco heiress. I’m going to try your suggestiion on learning a piece from a slow piano roll. When I teach myself a piece from sheet music - I go one hand at a time. All the best, Thomas FL.
November 25, 2008 at 6:19 am
Liz Hamill
@Thomas FL If you find any videos of the Rudolf Ganz piano rolls, could you post them here? I never heard a recording of his playing! What a great things to know. Thank you!