Music Appreciation Through Animation: Percy Scholes's 'AudioGraphic' Piano Rolls

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Video essay: “From 1925-30, British music educator Percy A. Scholes spearheaded an initiative for music appreciation by means of the player piano. The series “AudioGraphic Music” featured select works from the musical canon on the Aeolian Company’s piano rolls. In addition to their function as sound recordings, Scholes prepared the rolls as visual artefacts with introductory texts, pictures, and analytical commentary. This video article explores the analytical and pedagogical potential of these rolls as tools for music listeners and highlights how they foreshadowed recent innovation in musical animation.” Published in SMT-V, 2021; 10 minutes

by: Stephanie Probst

  • access video here
  • keywords: cultural context; music theory; notation; manuscript; multimedia; sound studies; technology; material culture; Western music; public musicology; digital humanities; player piano; music rolls; music appreciation; public music theory; Percy Scholes; J.S. Bach; fugue
  • Listing ID: 2060
  • Resource Type: Video/Film
  • Audience: undergrad + grad
  • Century: 1900-1999 (20thC)

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