The place of Rollos Victoria in the global player piano industry: innovation, expansion and forgotten recordings (1905-1929)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/anuariomusical.2025.80.608Keywords:
Rollos Victoria, player piano, music roll, Manuel Blancafort, metronomic roll, hand-played rollAbstract
This article re-examines the role of Rollos Musicales Victoria, a Catalan piano roll manufacturer based in La Garriga, within the global player piano industry between 1905 and 1929. Drawing on unpublished archival materials, personal correspondence and oral testimony, it reconstructs the company’s international ambitions, its technical innovations and its underexplored use of recording technologies. Particular attention is paid to the Blancafort brothers’ journeys to the United States and Europe, revealing key insights into Victoria’s production processes and commercial strategy. The study also uncovers compelling evidence that direct roll recording from the piano —long assumed absent in Spain— was indeed tested and employed at the company’s facilities, although never publicised. By combining perspectives from musicology, media archaeology and the history of technology, this article challenges centre-periphery narratives and positions Rollos Victoria as a case study in local ingenuity and artistic experimentation within a transnational context.
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