Misplaced Pages

#266733

25-615: The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company , a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was later dropped from the label's name. In late 1924, the label was acquired by Brunswick Records . During the 1920s, Vocalion also began the 1000 race series, records recorded by and marketed to African Americans . Jim Jackson recorded " Jim Jackson's Kansas City Blues " for Vocalion in 1927. It sold exceptionally well, and

50-491: A category that included piano rolls . The player piano deeply troubled popular music composers such as John Philip Sousa . Sousa worried that the pianos would kill the public's demand for sheet music, and sheet music was the source of composers’ copyright royalties. To make matters worse, the player piano companies refused to pay royalties to composers for the songs they put on player piano rolls. These rolls were scrolls of paper with holes punched out in patterns that instructed

75-492: A certain number of Steinway units each year, regardless of whether or not they could sell them. This contract eventually became a huge financial burden after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 . In 1925, its peak year, Aeolian produced more than 190,000 instruments, but the crash, the electric phonograph and the "talkies" all combined to drive the business into a terminal decline. Several Duo-Art pianos may be seen and heard at

100-585: A competitor. Other patent lawsuits were not always successful. As the pianola, in its turn, was supplanted by the newer Aeolian's " Duo Art " reproducing piano (1913), which could reproduce the sound of a famous artist playing without manual intervention, the Aeolian, Weber Piano & Pianola Co. became the world's leading manufacturer of such roll-operated instruments. In 1915 the Aeolian Co. started making Vocalion phonographs and in 1917/8 started Vocalion Records ,

125-479: A comprehensive database of British and Australian Vocalion records, including Broadcast, World Records and other labels used by the company in the 1920s and 1930s. The name Vocalion was resurrected in the late 1950s by American Decca as a budget label for back-catalog reissues. This incarnation of Vocalion ceased operations in 1973; however, its replacement as MCA's budget imprint, Coral Records , kept many Vocalion titles in print. In 1975, MCA reissued five albums on

150-505: A director's room in the upper stories. The Aeolian Company (as Aeolian American Corp.) remained in the Aeolian Building until 1938, after which it leased half of Chickering Hall on West 57th St. It was Congressional suspicion of the market power of the Aeolian company during the early 20th century that prompted adoption of the first compulsory license system in U.S. copyright law, for the mechanical reproduction of musical compositions,

175-482: A joint effort by the recording technician and the actual pianist, who approved the final product. Thus, these recordings do represent the overall style of these great artists and are a good representation of their live performances. The Aeolian Company introduced the Duo-Art mechanism in 1913. It was most commonly installed in piano brands manufactured by Aeolian such as Weber, Steck, Wheelock, and Stroud. Most notably, it

200-425: A legacy of 19th-century and early 20th-century aesthetic and musical practice. The recording process – using a piano wired to a perforating machine – was unable to capture the pianist's dynamics automatically. These were added by a recording technician, who manipulated hand controls to notate the dynamics onto the recording 'master'. Thus, post-recording editing was required to produce the finished performance – usually

225-467: A maker of high-quality discs which in December 1924 was sold to Brunswick Records . The phonograph was one of the main factors in the demise of the player piano, although Starr made players and records as well as pianos. An attempt of the company to engage in the production of church and concert organs resulted in important installations at Duke University Chapel and Longwood Gardens . It was undermined by

250-399: A specified fee to the original songwriter. Anticipating that Congress was about to overturn White-Smith, Aeolian Company moved swiftly to buy up song rights from musicians and publishing companies so it could copy them onto player piano rolls. Aeolian's competitors quickly complained to Congress about Aeolian's attempt to corner the music market. Congress responded with the invention of

275-595: The Great Depression , during which the organ division was merged with the E.M. Skinner Organ Co. to become the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Co., a leading builder until the 1970s. On January 27, 1917, R. J. Reynolds placed an order with the Aeolian Company for a pipe organ with four keyboards and a pedal footboard. Today, the organ has about 250 organ rolls and is played in the afternoon for visitors. As

SECTION 10

#1732858824267

300-679: The cover song rule. Duo-Art Duo-Art was one of the leading reproducing piano technologies of the early 20th century, the others being American Piano Company (Ampico) , introduced in 1913 too, and Welte-Mignon in 1905. These technologies flourished at that time because of the poor quality of the early Phonograph (Gramophone in Britain). Between 1913 and 1925 a number of distinguished classical and popular pianists, such as Ignace Paderewski , Josef Hofmann , Percy Grainger , Teresa Carreño , Aurelio Giorni , Robert Armbruster and Vladimir Horowitz , recorded for Duo-Art, and their rolls are

325-660: The Vocalion label. Aeolian Company The Aeolian Company was a musical-instrument making firm whose products included player organs , pianos , sheet music , records and phonographs . Founded in 1887, it was at one point the world's largest such firm. During the mid 20th century, it surpassed Kimball to become the largest supplier of pianos in the United States, having contracts with Steinway & Sons to provide its Duo-Art system for installation in Steinway pianos. It went out of business in 1985. The Aeolian Company

350-550: The basement through grilles or tone chutes. The company also made organettes and player pump organs for the "Working Man" to buy. The pianola , a pneumatic player piano, soon after became extremely popular. It had been invented in 1895 by Edwin S. Votey , president of the Farrand & Votey Organ Company in Detroit. In 1897, Votey joined Aeolian, and in 1900 the firm obtained the patent for such instruments. In 1899, Aeolian took over

375-508: The former Winter and Co. , and it was renamed simply the Aeolian Corporation. William G. Heller, who had worked for Aeolian and its predecessor companies since 1904, served as a company president from 1924 until his death in 1974. In 1974, Aeolian sold pianos under the brand names of Mason & Hamlin , Chickering, Knabe, Hardman & Peck , Winter, Cable , and Ivers & Pond. In 1983, two years before declaring bankruptcy, it

400-401: The mansions of millionaires was an extremely profitable undertaking, and Aeolian virtually cornered the market in this trade, freeing them from the tight competition of church-organ building with its narrow profit margins. Elaborate cases and consoles were often featured in residence organs. In other installations, the pipes were hidden behind tapestries , under or above staircases, or spoke from

425-486: The musical compositions they encoded. The result in White-Smith lasted but a year before Congressional action. The Copyright Act of 1909 mandated that all musical compositions would be subject to a compulsory license . In short, since 1909 the copyright law has allowed musicians to copy others’ songs by mechanical means (e.g., via piano roll or phonorecord /sound recording) without asking permission, so long as they paid

450-501: The piano how to play a particular song. The rolls, argued the player piano companies, did not “copy” the composers’ musical compositions. As a result, they were perfectly legal. The Supreme Court, in its 1908 opinion in White-Smith Music Publishing Company v. Apollo Company , sided with the player piano companies. The Court held that because humans could not read player piano rolls, they were not in fact copies of

475-598: The popularity of the player piano faded with the rise of the phonograph and radio, the company merged in 1932 with the American Piano Company (itself a 1908 consolidation of Chickering & Sons , Knabe & Co. , and other manufacturers). The combined company, known as the Aeolian-American Corporation, went through several ownership changes. In 1959, ownership passed to the Heller family, owners of

500-682: The property and business of the Vocalian Company of Worcester, Mass. and ran it together with the Meriden plant. In 1903, Tremaine absorbed a number of companies making self-playing instruments, including the [Albert] Weber Co. , a New York piano maker since 1852, into the Aeolian, Weber Piano & Pianola Co. In 1904 Aeolian sued the Los Angeles Art Organ Company for patent infringement of its player mechanism, leading to court victories that, with other factors, effectively shut down

525-575: The song became a blues standard for musicians from Memphis and Mississippi. The label issued Robert Johnson 's " Cross Road Blues " Vocalion was one of the most popular labels in the late 1930s. However, Columbia Broadcasting System ( CBS ) bought American Record Corporation (which operated the Vocalion label) in 1938, and in July 1940 they discontinued Vocalion, replacing it with the Okeh label. The City of London Phonograph & Gramophone Society CLPGS published

SECTION 20

#1732858824267

550-507: Was also available in Steinway pianos under an exclusive agreement. Aeolian had been under pressure to make the mechanism available in Steinway pianos, but Steinway had no interest in pursuing a relationship with a company they saw as a competitor. To appease Steinway, Aeolian agreed to stop promoting its Weber brand as a premium brand, and stop sponsoring concerts by Paderewski and other pianists. The agreement also stipulated that Aeolian purchase

575-673: Was founded by New York City piano maker William B. Tremaine as the Aeolian Organ & Music Co. (1887) to make automatic organs and, after 1895, as the Aeolian Co. automatic pianos as well. The factory was initially located in Meriden, Connecticut . Tremaine had previously founded the Mechanical Orguinette Co. in 1878 to manufacture automated reed organs . The manufacture of residence or "chamber" organs to provide entertainment in

600-413: Was sold to former Steinway president Peter Perez. Aeolian was first located at 841 Broadway , in the heart (and soul) of the piano district; the company later moved to 23rd Street, and then to 360 Fifth Avenue . Aeolian Hall (1912–13), 33 West 42nd Street , housed the firm's general offices and demonstration rooms as a recital hall on the 43rd Street side, where many noted musicians performed, and

625-488: Was where the first Vocalions were made. The building was sold by Aeolian in 1924. The firm's pipe-organ factory was in Garwood, N.J. , until the merger with the E.M. Skinner Co. The firm returned to Fifth Avenue in 1925, this time moving to 689 Fifth Avenue . The firm's facilities in the new Aeolian Building included a 150-seat recital hall, recording studios for Duo Art piano rolls , offices, design studios, drafting rooms, and

#266733