Putting the music back into history

Putting the music back into history

13 May 2015

COLIN Lloyd has devoted 13 years of his life to painstakingly restoring a groundbreaking self-playing piano.

Known as a pianola, these highly expensive instruments can normally only be viewed in museums, but in a world first, one from 1898 will be bringing the music of the 19th century masters to life this weekend in Downpatrick.

The musical device has been adapted to play special ‘rolls’ made by musical masters such Rachmaninoff and Gershwin, and the the Down Arts Centre audience able to hear just how the famous composers intended their pieces to be played.

The keys appear to magically move themselves courtesy of these rolls — essentially perforated paper made up of different shaped holes, which are fed into the pianola. The roll is linked 

to a vacuum system — a pneumatic motor which in turn moves the piano keys from inside the instrument.

They are the novelty self-playing instruments you may have seen in old black and white movies and a craze for them swept Europe and America before they died out by the end of the 1920s. 

They were particularly popular in speakeasies and brothels — basically anywhere where 24 hour entertainment was required.

With the rise of the gramophone taking over, however, it is often forgotten just how groundbreaking such instruments were. It was the first chance to listen to ‘recorded’ music and people were astounded at the technology involved, Colin explained.

“This particular type of one wheels up to any piano and is called a push-up,” he said. “It came out around 1898 and this one is one of the very first ever produced in 1899.

“They were very expensive but they caught on, especially among the rich and they sold plenty of them.”

Colin is a retired and highly skilled pneumatic engineer but admits to not having a musical bone in his body. Nevertheless he has spent the past 25 years fascinated by these machines. 

His workshop at his home in Kilmore is a treasure chest of tools, pianolas and rolls, and all because he made the decision to call into an auction one day in Belfast.

A pianola was up for sale and the rest was history.

“The price came right down to £40,” said Colin. “The auctioneer said ‘somebody give me £40 for this’ and I said ‘I will’, to my surprise and my wife’s surprise, and that’s what started it off. I took it home that Saturday, took the covers off and I never looked back. I was working on it up to 18 hours a day sometimes.”

He has since bought several more pianolas from dealers including the 100 kilo mahogany pianola that will be in Down Arts Centre on Saturday.

Colin even has an ‘orchestrion’ in his workshop — an all-singing all-dancing version of a pianola, with various instruments inside the piano such as an accordion, bells and tambourine coming to life when played.

“People at the time couldn’t understand how the instruments were being played, they thought there were little men inside it,” he said.

Colin explained that by the time of the First World War many wanted the pianola rolls playing exactly as a concert pianist would, to give a truly realistic experience, and it this is the type of experience he wants to bring to Down Arts Centre.

“In 1914 the Aeolian Company of America patented this particular type of what’s called a duo-art, reproducing piano,” said Colin. “For the first time ever they were able to have a 

concert pianist like Rachmaninoff or George Gershwin come into the studios.

“They would sit down and play a piano and immediately it would punch a roll out. They had been able to do that for a number of years but the difference was this roll was able to record the dynamics — how hard he was playing each note and each chord and how he was doing crescendos and operating the two pedals, the soft and the loud.”

These details were recorded onto the roll using binary notation which are associated with computers today. For the first time ever, you were able to buy a roll and take Rachmaninoff home with you.

Colin admits it’s not the average hobby and his family have had to endure his obsession, but for him every minute spent after work and at weekends has been worth it.

“I was told ‘It’s an impossible task, you can’t do it and don’t waste your time’ but I did it and it took 13 years,” he said. 

“I was down here at 1am in the mornings sometimes thinking about working something out. It really was an obsession.

“Some days I just wanted to wheel it outside and set fire to it.”

“But now for the first time ever, I can take this out to any piano and it will play these special rolls. You’ll actually be able to hear Rachmaninoff and Gershwin, among others, play their own works in front of you on a grand piano.

“There was a Last Night of the Proms event 12 years ago featuring pianolas but there has definitely never been a pianola in concert in Ireland. This is a first.”

‘Last of the Romantics: A World First’, a piano recital of famous composers’ works, will be performed in Down Arts Centre on Saturday. For more information and tickets (£7) contact Down Arts Centre on 4461 3711, or Colin Lloyd on 4483 1272, or email colinlloydyllas@btinternet.com