Debunking Piano Roll Mythology: An Interview with L. Douglas Henderson, Owner of ARTCRAFT piano rolls

Preface to the 2022 Republication of this Interview1 For those who are not familiar with how player piano rolls are made, a quick explanation is in order. Before 1912, rolls were “punched” manually into the paper, a few notes at a time, by a person operating a perforator. However, in 1912, Melville Clark invented a device called the QRS Marking Piano, and according to asme.org, it was in use until 1931.i In short, a pianist (instead of a perforator) would sit down and play their piece. As they played, a stylus would "paint" lines on a blank roll inside the piano. These marks or lines correspond to the keys on the piano which the human pianist was depressing. According to L. Douglas Henderson (the subject of this 1997 interview), the problem with this system is that the markings were, more often than not, inaccurate as to length of time and sometimes pitch, so an editor had to go through it, making corrections. And after a certain point with corrections, the question arises as to whether it is a "performance" or, in fact, an "arrangement." Douglas has always maintained that piano roll production is strictly an arranged medium. Douglas told me once that Vladimir Horowitz denied to his last dying breath that he ever made a piano roll. Also, according to Douglas, Pauline Alpert kept a slew of piano rolls in her closet which had purportedly been “recorded” by her when in fact