What is a player piano and when was it invented?
The player piano was a piano that could run itself along a piano roll to play a musical piece in real time according to the drum that was in it at the time. The player piano was introduced in 1863 by Henri Founeaux. The piano roil is inscribed onto rolls of paper with perforations in them in order to symbolize notes. The piano player plays the roll, rolling it at a normalized rate of so that the notes sound like they are being played in real time using pneumatic devices. Although no longer in use, modern day player pianos do exist such as the Bosendorfer CEUS and the Yama Disklavier. However, due to the advances in technology these pianos utilize solenoids and MIDI rather than pneumatics and rolls.
