Player Piano Roll
自動ピアノロール / 1896–1930s / Style / Notation Systems
A recording medium of rolled paper on which the punched holes are the performance itself. It marks the turn from scores read by people to codes read by machines, and it is the ancestor of the punch card and the digital sequencer.
At a glance
Visual cues
- Rows of perforations
- The scrolling roll
- Machine-readable music
- Performance physically recorded
Best used for
- Exhibiting performance data as an object a machine visibly reads
- Visualizing the structure of a piece on a scrolling time axis
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Dictionary entry
- Type
- Hole length is duration and lateral position is pitch, never varied
- Composition
- Time runs with the take up, control holes pushed to both margins
- Material
- Paper moves with humidity, so leave reading tolerance between holes
- Caution
- Punching every fine note thins the paper bridges until they tear, and the performance breaks down partway through the roll.
- Further study
- the Welte-Mignon / Gershwin's own rolls / the lineage to MIDI
Related entries
- Graphic Notation (図形楽譜)Same Notation Systems lineage.Compare Player Piano Roll and Graphic Notation
- Ise Katagami (伊勢型紙)Shared effects: Technique.Compare Player Piano Roll and Ise Katagami
More from Notation Systems
Continue through styles in the same Notation Systems family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Tablature (タブラチュア)Shared effects: Technique / Play.
- Knitting Chart (編み図)Shared effects: Technique / Nostalgia.
- Neume Notation (ネウマ譜)Shared effects: Nostalgia.
Browse all Notation Systems entries
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- https://indexstyle.org/styles/player-piano-roll
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