A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Recording Music Played Extemporaneously

RECORDING MUSIC PLAYED EXTEMPORANEOUSLY. Many efforts have been made to obtain a permanent record of music played impromptu on the pianoforte or organ.

In the year 1747 the Rev. J. Creed proposed to make a machine 'to write down extempore voluntaries as fast as any master shall play them,' but the apparatus does not seem to have been constructed. In vol. i. p. 499 of this work will be found a brief account of some early attempts to construct such machines. Hohlfeld's apparatus, made in 1752, is simplicity itself, and has been the parent of many such schemes put forth as novel from that time down to our own day. The plan of attaching a pencil or some form of stylus underneath the far end of each pianoforte key, so that when it is depressed it shall make a mark (more or less long according to the time value of the note held down) upon a slowly moving band of paper unwound from a roll, is an obvious idea. But there are material difficulties connected with such a plan, the chief being the ready translation of its product into the ordinary notation. Some inventors proposed to substitute for the friable pencil a metal stylus and black carbonized paper. But no attempt was made to indicate the bars on the paper, and so the streaks more or less long, the hazy accidentals and the rests on the paper presented a hopeless puzzle to the transcriber. In 1827 M. Carreyre exhibited before the French Institute a 'Melographic piano,' in which the music played was represented by certain signs impressed on a thin plate of lead. A committee was appointed to examine the apparatus, but inasmuch as they never reported, the machine was doubtless not a success. M. Boudouin afterwards read before the same body a paper concerning another scheme of this kind, but nothing is known of his plan. In 1836 an English patent was taken out on behalf of M. Eisenmenger of Paris for an apparatus of the depressed stylus and carbonized paper type, and it is notable as showing the first attempt made to measure off the bars. The inventor suggested that this could be accomplished by the performer's beating time with his foot on a pedal; mechanism connected with this punctured the moving band of paper, dividing it into regulated spaces. It is uncertain whether a machine was ever made on this plan. Towards the close of 1840, M. Duprat de Tressog patented at Paris an apparatus of this kind, but no description of the plan has been published. In 1856 I. Merzolo, an Italian engineer, applied for a provisional patent for an apparatus to give an 'identical repetition with types like those used in ordinary printing.' The specification is very brief, and too vague to indicate how the desired object could be accomplished. In 1863 electricity is first mentioned in connection with this subject, a patent being taken out by Mr. F. B. Fenby of Worcester, for 'The Electro-Magnetic Phonograph' (the same word which Edison employed some sixteen years later). The main principle of Fenby's instrument was identical with that which underlies all telegraphic operations, viz. the making a bent piece of soft iron into a temporary magnet by passing an electric current round it; by the motion so obtained from its armature a small inked wheel was pressed against a band of moving paper. The scheme seems to be complicated, and there is no evidence that such a machine was ever made. In 1864 Mr. E. S. Endres applied for a patent, but it was refused him. His chimerical proposal was to have as many type-wheels as there were pianoforte keys; on the periphery of these wheels there were cut notes of various values, from a semibreve to a demisemiquaver. Upon the finger rising- from a note struck, the intention was, that the revolving wheel should print on paper an ordinaiy note of the exact time-value of the sound played. Pedals had to be depressed when accidentals were used. An examination of the mechanism drawn shows that the idea was quite impracticable. As late as 1880 Schwetz a German, Hoyer a Frenchman, in 1884 Allen an Englishman, and in 1885 Greiner of New York, amongst others, took out patents for apparatuses of the depressed pencil order. At the Paris Exhibition of 1881, M. J. Charpentier exhibited 'La Mélographie Répétiteur,' attached to a small harmonium. Its inventor stated that it was to write down ordinary music played extemporaneously on the instrument dans le langage de Jacquard. The process was to be effected by means of electro-magnets connected with the keys putting into action a series of cutters which cut slits in a band of moving paper, the slits corresponding to the length and position of the notes. By an after arrangement the perforated paper allows the wind to pass through its slits, and thus reproduces the music previously played. M. Charpentier was enthusiastic enough to believe he could also make his machine print the music executed in the ordinary notation, but avowed that this was only a project. The apparatus shown did not appear to have been in working order. In 1887 M. Charpentier took out another patent, in which metal styles attached to the under part of the keys acted on the balanced ribs of a revolving cylinder; these were kept inked, and marked the paper as it gradually unwound. He also provided for depressing by electro-magnets or pneumatic agency. In 1880 Mr. H. J. Dickenson proposed to apply the principle of the Casselli electro-chemical telegraph to recording music played on the piano; from the meagre account of his plan printed in the specification it is impossible to describe its mechanism. In 1881, M. A. P. Hodgson, an engineer of Paris, took out a patent (No. 573) for an 'Apparatus for correctly transcribing musical compositions.' The instrument is termed by the inventor the 'Pianograph Metronome.' To judge from the specification and drawings attached to the patent, this apparatus was of the most complicated description. The machine was furnished with a metronome for governing the rate of motion at which a cylinder should revolve, and so regulating the time; this had to be mathematically exact, otherwise the mechanism would not synchronise with the player. If all went right, the machine was supposed to print on a huge band of paper about four feet broad, lines representing in their length the duration of the notes held down. As no provision was made for indicating any variation of the time-measure, or for accelerandos, ritardandos, etc., M. Hodgson's machine would not have proved of much utility, even if it could have been constructed; he had so little idea of music that he directed the player 'to end his composition by a perfect chord in the key of F, and not by the tonic a third or a fifth.'

In 1881 Herr J. Föhr showed at the Stuttgart Exhibition of that year an excellent contrivance which accomplishes the object aimed at in a more complete way than before. The apparatus was exhibited in action in London, and a paper was read upon the subject by the present writer at the June meeting 1882, of the Musical Association; it is described at length in the 1881–2 volume of the society's proceedings. The machine was also shown in operation before the members of the College of Organists. The mechanism of this Eleotro-chemischer Notenschreibapparat is simple. The apparatus is contained in a small pedestal which may be placed at the side of a piano, and connection is made with the instrument through a cable of wires attached to a long frame resting on the keyboard of the instrument. This is furnished with a series of studs each one touching the back of the ivories and ebonies just in front of the usual name board; these studs, by means of insulated wires, are in connection with platinum points which press on a band of paper, five inches broad, unwound from a drum by means of clockwork. The paper, as it passes through the mechanism, is saturated with a solution of ferrocyanide of potassium, ammonia, sulphuric acid and water; it is afterwards ruled by means of an aniline inking roller with the five lines of the stave, and some dotted ledger lines are added above and below. On the pianoforte key being depressed, the circuit is completed and the current runs from a Leclanché battery, passing through the saturated paper by the particular style or styles in connection with the keys struck, and staining it a bluish colour; the electric current decomposing the salts with which the paper is charged. The length of the stain depends upon the time the key is held down; a semibreve, for instance, appearing as a long streak, while a quaver would be but a dash, and a demisemiquaver a mere dot. The blank spaces on the paper represent the periods of silence; thus, marks are formed by the passing current, and rests are indicated by its absence. The stains representing the white notes (Music characters) are twice as broad as those standing for the black ones (Music characters). A pedal serves to indicate the bar lines. On depressing this (as in the ordinary mode of beating time) the position of the first beat in the bar is indicated by short double lines (Music characters) stained at the moment of depression on the top and bottom of the stave. The rate of motion of the paper is governed by a sliding lever, which also serves to start and stop the clock-work arrangement. Herr Föhr's apparatus is simple in design, and the musical shorthand it produces is translateable without much difficulty. It is worked upon much the same plan as that of the electro-chemical telegraph of Bain. In 1872 Mr. Alexander A. Rossignol took out a patent (No. 990) for an 'Apparatus for tracing music,' and his scheme is substantially the same as that of Herr Föhr. The only modification would seem to be that M. Rossignol employed styles made of two different metals which severally stain the saturated paper red and blue, representing the black and white keys of the piano. There is no record of this instrument having been constructed. As it is stated that Herr Föhr's design dates from several years ago, since which time he has been working it out, the question as to priority of invention is uncertain. The following illustration is a reduced representation of the first section of 'God Save the Queen,' as produced by Herr Föhr's contrivance; it is in the key of A and in four parts, 3-4 time.

The following represents bar 16 from Chopin's Nocturne in E♭, Op. 9, No. 2 (12–8 time). In this example the paper has been set to run slower, and so the bars occupy a larger space.

In 1886 Mr. H. H. Muir took out a patent for recording music, the principle of which was practically the same as that of Herr Föhr.

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