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External article: Playbill: Piano rolls made by Golden Age keyboard legends now available as audio downloads

At Kunst der Fuge you can listen to authentic performances derived from historical piano rolls, recorded on mechanical pianolas by some of the greatest pianists in music history, including Rachmaninov, Godowsky, Rubinstein, Paderewsky, Volavy, Horowitz, Cortot, Ornstein, Wittgenstein, Levitski, Hofmann, Moiseiwitsch, Backhaus, Joplin and Roll Morton. These recordings are available at kunstderfuge.com/piano-rolls.htm.

The transfer to MIDI has been made possible by the structural similarity between piano rolls and the MIDI protocol, using high-resolution scanning systems developed by dedicated engineers worldwide, with key contributions from Terry Smith (Canada).

This process preserves some of the most significant performance documents in music history. The resulting MIDI files are not synthetic sequences, but faithful reproductions of original piano roll recordings captured on acoustic instruments.

In the early 20th century, piano rolls represented one of the highest-fidelity recording media available, predating modern audio reproduction systems.

Today, these performances can be faithfully reproduced using advanced playback systems such as Yamaha Disklavier, Steinway Spirio or high-quality sampled instruments.

Enjoy!