Ethnic Piano Rolls in the United States: Between Folk, Foreign and National Music

Abstract

A small part of piano rolls among the thousands of rolls in the United States were published for local ethnic communities. These piano rolls were never collected and have not been researched either historically or musicologically. Only a few articles in academic journals or chapters in scholarly books on this topic have appeared in the last decade. As such, this opens a new field of research, one still neglected and underappreciated. After some investigation, it is clear that many 'ethnic' piano rolls are unique, not found on other recorded media such as phonograph cylinders or gramophone discs. Here we can find not only music, but an old language used by immigrants too. U.S. 'ethnic' piano rolls expand our knowledge of musical history and technological and sociological developments, revealing intensive musical communication, musical migration, influences, and contaminations between local ethnic societies, countries, and even continents. This article aims to formulate the main concept of 'ethnic' piano rolls, to describe the music encoded on them, and to explore avenues for future research.