The Player Piano and Musical Labor

By the early twentieth century the machine aesthetic was a well-established and dominant interest that fundamentally transformed musical performance and listening practices.This book explores that shift, examining the rise and fall of the player piano in early twentieth-century society and connecting it to the digital technologies of today.

Autorentext

Allison Rebecca Wente is Assistant Professor of Music at Elon University, where she teaches Music Theory. Her research focuses on mechanical music, especially the role of the player piano in the early 20th century.

Inhalt

Introduction

Chapter 1: Queue the Roll: Taylorized Labor Practices and Music of the Machine Age

Chapter 2: Unveiling the Editor's Hand: A Sonic Comparison of Rachmaninoff's C# Minor Prelude on Roll and Record

Chapter 3: Phantom Fingers at Work: Selling Mechanized Musical Labor in a Changing Musical Marketplace

Chapter 4: Absolute Music and the Player Piano

Chapter 5: The Player Piano, Revisited