Magical mechanics : the player piano in the age of digital reproduction

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dc.contributor.advisorBuhler, James, 1964-
dc.contributor.committeeMemberAlmén, Byron
dc.contributor.committeeMemberCarson, Charles D.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMiller, Karl
dc.contributor.committeeMemberPearsall, Edward
dc.contributor.committeeMemberDrott, Eric
dc.creatorWente, Allison Rebecca
dc.creator.orcid0000-0002-0659-1345
dc.date.accessioned2016-09-22T20:54:59Z
dc.date.accessioned2018-01-22T22:30:38Z
dc.date.available2016-09-22T20:54:59Z
dc.date.available2018-01-22T22:30:38Z
dc.date.issued2016-05
dc.date.submittedMay 2016
dc.date.updated2016-09-22T20:54:59Z
dc.description.abstractBy the early twentieth century the machine aesthetic was a well-established and dominant interest that fundamentally transformed musical performance and listening practices. While numerous scholars have examined this aesthetic in art and literature, musical compositions representing industrialized labor practices and the role of the machine in music remain largely unexplored. Moreover, in recounting the history of machines in musical recording and reproduction, scholars often tend to emphasize the phonograph, rather than player piano, despite the latter’s prominence within the newly-established musical marketplace. Although the player piano failed to maintain a stronghold in the recorded music marketplace after 1930, the widespread acceptance of recording technologies as media for storing and enjoying music indicates a much more fundamental societal shift. This dissertation is an exploration into that shift, examining the rise and fall of the player piano in early twentieth-century society. As consumers accepted mechanical replacements for what previously required an active human laborer, ghostly, mechanical performers labored tirelessly in parlors, businesses, and even concert halls. Through eighteenth- and nineteenth-century examples of mechanical sounds in music, and of music imitating or scoring machines, along with a cultural historical overview of the player piano and its environment, Chapter 1 explores the background information necessary for an analysis of mechanical music. Chapter 2 organizes mechanical music into three categories: (1) music written to sound like or imitate the machine; (2) music written to record and reproduce the skills of virtuoso performers; and (3) music written specifically for machines. This chapter addresses a diverse variety of audiences and spaces to make clear the widespread influence of the machine on musical culture. Chapter 3 includes a sonic analysis of two 1919 recordings Rachmaninoff made of his C# Minor Prelude, one roll one record, framed within a broader theory of memory based on Henri Bergson’s Matter and Memory (1896). Chapter 4 steps away from the notes on the page and instead includes several examples of player piano advertisements from 1900-1930, organized into categories based on themes like labor, gender, and education. Finally, chapter 5 touches on the ways in which machine music converges with or diverges from theories of absolute music.
dc.description.departmentMusic
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifierdoi:10.15781/T25M6280H
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/40979
dc.language.isoen
dc.subjectPlayer piano
dc.subjectMechanical music
dc.subjectMachines
dc.subjectMachine age
dc.subjectPiano roll
dc.subjectAntheil
dc.subjectNancarrow
dc.subjectStravinsky
dc.subjectChaplin
dc.subjectMetropolis
dc.subjectModern times
dc.subjectA nous la liberte
dc.subjectRene Clair
dc.subjectFritz Lang
dc.subjectPhonograph
dc.subjectLabor
dc.subjectTaylorism
dc.subjectF. W. Taylor
dc.subjectMarx
dc.subjectScientific Management
dc.subjectChandler
dc.subjectAbsolute music
dc.subjectBergson
dc.subjectRachmaninoff
dc.titleMagical mechanics : the player piano in the age of digital reproduction
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.materialtext

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