Oakdale Volunteer Blog: Alexa vs the Pianola Experience
, 19 September 2019
Move over Alexa, Ada the pianola’s back!
‘Alexa, play me a song by the Beatles! Alexa what about something by One Direction! Alexa, play something classical! Beethoven or Mozart. Alexa, Alexa, Alexa you are the must have gadget of the 21st century - but Alexa you don't always get it right?!
This is where I Ada, the Pianola comes in. Let’s travel back over a hundred years in time from 2019 to 1919 when I was in my heyday and see how I performed. I am the first truly musical piano-playing device in the world. Listen to my specifications. They are quite impressive if I say so myself. I was designed and first made by Edwin Scott Votey in his workshop in Detroit in 1895. So even one hundred years ago I had already been around for nearly twenty five years.
‘What can you do?’ I hear you ask.
Well I can play any number of tunes you request…. Music hall songs, Christmas carols, nocturnes by Chopin to name but a few, and I make no mistakes! I do need a human to work the pedals and load the music scrolls. My sound is generated by the pianolist's feet, and controlled in pitch by a perforated music roll. When my pedals are pressed, I send air up through holes in a roll of paper to press my keys and hey presto I am in action. Sit back and enjoy my performance. With my help, anyone can make music.
‘So you don’t operate alone? ‘you ask.
Well neither do you Alexa, as far as I can see. You need wi-fi, monthly fees, speakers and human instructors.
I was around throughout the 20th century. But will you still be operating in 2119? Who remembers music cassettes and floppy disks now?
Who can tell? Who knows? But I think I am ageless. I can go on for ever.
Want to check me out for yourself?
If so, you will find me in the Oakdale Workmen’s Institute on the top floor in the grand ballroom. Pop in on a Wednesday morning and my volunteers Cheryl and Marie will show you the works. Before too long you too will be singing my praises.
Comments - (3)
You are indeed ageless, as long as you have kind people to look after you and to believe in you, just like Tinkerbell. I'm very pleased that Marie and Cheryl mentioned Edwin Votey, who conceived you, but if they would like to get in touch with me, I can probably tell them a bit more about the year of your birth. You certainly started out at the Aeolian Company factory in Hayes, Middlesex, next to the Great Western Railway running towards Wales and the West Country. Your Pianola works were most likely installed on the top floor of a building that is still there, in Silverdale Road. Hayes. That's more or less where your music roll of Grieg's "Morning" came from too, manufactured by the Universal Music Company in a building just at the side, though that part of the overall factory was demolished in 1977.
Somewhere you will have a serial number, most probably stamped in at the top right-hand edge of your case (hope it didn't hurt too much!), which Marie and Cheryl can find if they lift your lid. Your number is a bit like a birth certificate, and there are still people around who compile lists of which year each piano was made (though they should spend more time in the open air, in my opinion). My mummy and daddy and I are probably going to Scotland for our holiday this year, but the next time we are down in Cymru we'll come and visit you. By the way, we don't allow Alexa into our house at all, because she is such a busybody, prying into everything, whereas you selflessly provide music and happiness, and you don't even need WiFi or plugging into the mains. And you are very good for leg exercise, whereas she only exercises the larynx when she fails for the umpteenth time to understand a non-Californian accent!
One thing you might do is to ask all your visitors whether they have ever come across an 88-note Themodist roll of "Land of my Fathers," specially arranged for Pianola. It's roll no. TL 21416, also manufactured by the Aeolian Company's Universal subsidiary, and the arrangement is by J. James. I've come across other rolls of the anthem, but never that one, and since I have given many Pianola concerts in Wales over the years, you can bet I've asked around. We can make exact new copies of rolls nowadays, so it would only need to be scanned once, and then the arrangement could be as timeless as you!
Friendly greetings from all the Pianolas and rolls at the Pianola Institute, and from me, Perfy.
Perfy Raytions
perfy@pianola.org