Player piano

Player piano piano fitted with an attachment or device for automatic playing, actually a 19th-c. adaptation of the *pneumatic organ action to a piano. The first players were separate cabinets set in front of the keyboard, hand cranked, the keys being depressed by finger-like levers (see: pianista). Later the mechanism was incorporated into the piano proper. The pneumatic system was controlled by perforated paper rolls. See: piano-exécutant, pianola, Welte-Mignon (37, 89). Sort…