This page is still in preparation, but may nevertheless be of interest in its incomplete state.

The Original Welte-Mignon - Freiburg, Germany, 1905 onwards.

Introduction
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the firm of Michael Welte und Söhne in Freiburg-im-Breisgau, southern Germany, achieved world renown as a manufacturer of orchestrions. Over several decades it built up a skilled workforce, both for the construction of the instruments and for the arrangement of the music rolls which caused them to play. So in 1904, it was ideally placed to develop an experimental piano playing device, with the aim of reproducing the recorded performances of the finest pianists of the day. What we now know as the Welte-Mignon was originally called, quite simply, the Mignon, an essentially French word meaning both small and pleasing, to distinguish it from the firm's other instruments, which were all considerably larger.

The Welte Factory in Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Germany.

On the Pianola History pages of this website you will find many descriptions of both piano players and player pianos. The one is a device fitting in front of a normal piano, and the other a piano with the player works built inside its case. In a sense, the original Welte-Mignon was neither of these, or at the very least it was a most unusual player piano, since it had no keyboard, and looked for all the world like an ornate sideboard, often decorated in ways to complement the owner's own furnishings. Nevertheless, it was rightly regarded as the first true reproducing piano, in that it automatically replayed the tempo, phrasing, dynamics and pedalling of a particular performance, and not just the notes of the music, as was the case with other player pianos of the time. It was publicly launched in Germany in 1905, and about a year later in the USA. In due course, the Mignon mechanism was installed into normal pianos, especially the Steinway and the Feurich.

Musical Example
The earliest born pianist ever to record on music roll was Carl Reinecke, who came into the world on 23 June 1824, three years before the death of Beethoven. Reinecke was a friend of Schumann, was helped in his career by Mendelssohn, knew Brahms as a young man, and probably heard Chopin play in Paris. His first concert tour, of Scandinavia, took place in 1843. He taught, amongst others, Albeniz, Grieg, Karg-Elert, Sinding, Sullivan, Thalberg and Cosima Wagner. That we in the 21st century should be able to hear his playing at all is a wonder in itself, but the real miracle is the quality of recording developed so early on by Welte in Germany. The Company regarded its Mignon recordings as something akin to photographs; wrong notes were as often as not left uncorrected, and it is likely that the dynamics were automatically recorded and remained similarly unedited. Reinecke's rolls were recorded in January 1905, when he was already 80 years old; to be sure, one hears the uneven playing of an elderly man, but it is a man with a style of performance formed and perfected in the early nineteenth century.

Carl Reinecke (1824-1910)

BEETHOVEN: Ecossaise in E flat,  [2.3 Mb] Recorded by Carl Reinecke - 21 January 1905, Leipzig.

This roll was played back on a Steinway Welte grand piano in London, in January 2006.
The audio recording is the copyright of the Pianola Institute, 2006.

Mechanical Operation
This section is not for the faint-hearted! As with nearly all player and reproducing pianos, the Welte-Mignon is powered by suction, and that simple fact may be enough for you. It uses pneumatic valves and motors, just like any other player piano, although its valves are a little different from most. But the more complex mechanisms found within it are those which control the dynamics of the music, according to coded perforations located towards the edges of the rolls. The Mignon splits its pneumatic mechanism into two sections, with the division occurring between F# and G above middle C. The historical reasons for this break point are not immediately clear, especially since most player pianos are divided between the E and F just below this, which is the actual halfway point of the normal keyboard.

A number of reproducing pianos make use of what are known as lock and cancel valves, allowing perforations on the roll to be only momentary, but to have a lasting effect. This avoids the need for extended perforations, which can lead to weakness of the paper and the consequent risk of malfunction. The firm of Michael Welte and Sons was already using such devices for its organs and orchestrions, and so their application to the Welte-Mignon was quite a natural progression. There are three pairs of lock and cancel valves on each side of the Welte-Mignon dynamic control mechanism, and one such device is illustrated below, in the animated diagram, which is based on the original Mignon patent, no. DE162708 of 1904, obtainable in full from the European patent database: www.espacenet.com.

The Welte-Mignon Dynamic Valve Box.

This animation shows only one pair of valves working, for the sake of simplicity, and to help establish an understanding of the way in which lock and cancel valves operate. The view is a cross-section through a wooden valve box, with the input signals coming via tubing from the tracker-bar, and entering the box through the six holes at the bottom. Above the inputs are six thin leather diaphragms, known as pouches, and above them the main suction supply chamber. At the side of each pouch, though too small to be sensibly illustrated, is a tiny bleed hole, whose purpose is to channel a small amount of suction to its respective tracker bar opening. The air allowed through the tracker bar by a perforation in the roll is far greater than the suction provided through the bleed hole, so it does not stop the valve from lifting as appropriate, but when the roll perforation closes, the bleed suction provides just enough to evacuate the passage to the tracker bar, thus equalizing the pressures and allowing the valve to fall again.

Valves 1, 2, 3 and 5 have two functions, one of which, not illustrated in this first diagram, plays a part in governing the Welte-Mignon dynamic control mechanism. All the valves contribute towards locking or cancelling the operation of the first valve of each pair, by means of the diaphragm at the top. Short lengths of tubing channel the output of each valve to small chambers, either above or below the locking diaphragms, as can be seen in the illustration above. For the sake of clarity, the presence of suction is shown in yellow, and atmosphere in white.

The second illustration, which is still in preparation, shows the overall dynamic governor, in combination with this valve box.

The Welte-Mignon Recording Process
The Welte Company in Germany kept its recording processes a closely guarded secret, and for many years the accepted explanation of its technique was based on the ideas of Richard Simonton, an American who had visited Edwin Welte and Karl Bockisch in the late 1940s and 1950s. In particular, Ben M. Hall, the sleeve note writer for an American series of LP recordings, entitled The Welte Legacy of Piano Treasures, created a detailed description of the recording process, complete with explanatory photographs and drawings.

But although Richard Simonton was a real enthusiast in the promotion of Welte's "lost" musical archive, his energy and commitment were not matched by a similar expertise on the history or technical operation of player pianos, and in the light of new documentary evidence, the theories that have been accepted for so many years have become unconvincing. This webpage describes the probable system that Welte used, using the latest evidence from all relevant sources, much of which was not available, or at least not recognised, until the past few years. Those wanting a more detailed analysis of the historical evidence should read our factsheet on Welte-Mignon Recording, once it is ready.

Ignace Jan Paderewski recording for the Welte-Mignon - 27 February 1906, Leipzig.

Recording the Pitches and Durations of the Notes
As the pianist played a particular note, a thin carbon rod attached to the underside of each key was dipped into a small cup of mercury, located in a trough under the keybed of the piano, which spanned the whole width of seven octaves. In this way, an electrical contact was made, without greatly affecting the touch of the recording piano, which had to remain sensitive enough for the most fastidious pianist. The system used must have been very similar to Charles Fuller Stoddard's 1908 design for the Ampico recording piano, illustrated in US Patent 1,095,128.

Detail of early Ampico Recording Piano - US Patent 1,095,128, filed 30 April 1908.

One can certainly see a wooden compartment of some sort under the keyboard in many of the Welte recording photographs, and it is particularly clear in the case of Ferruccio Busoni's 1907 recording session in Freiburg. Also in the photograph below are a number of relevant people: on the left of Busoni is Edwin Welte, followed by Karl Bockisch, whose arm is resting on the roll recording machine. These two are generally recognised as the inventors of the Welte-Mignon, though modern researchers have suggested that other earlier engineers might well also have played a part. The bearded gentleman on the right, in morning dress, is Berthold Welte, who was the director of Michael Welte und Söhne in Germany. Towards the far wall is a display stand, containing the various medals the firm had been awarded, and against the wall an original Welte-Mignon keyless piano.

Ferruccio Busoni recording for the Welte-Mignon - 16 March 1907, Freiburg.

Despite the element of secrecy and the implied uniqueness of Welte's recording process, it is worth noting that a very similar trough can be seen in the recording photographs for the Philipps' Duca reproducing piano, so Welte were certainly not alone in this feature of their design. Arthur Friedheim, shown below, was a pupil of Franz Liszt, and at one time his assistant and secretary.

Arthur Friedheim recording for the Philipps Duca - 24 October 1911, Stuttgart.

Unlike Duo-Art, Welte did not perforate music rolls in real time, but instead made ink traces on an original roll as the notes were played, and these were subsequently punched out by hand. It is likely that the paper for these originals was white, and that it was pre-printed with 100 continuous lines, in the positions where each pitch was located. A number of similar master rolls for the Welte Philharmonic Organ have survived, and one can still see one or two examples of the recorded ink traces, which provided a roll editor with a clear indication of where to punch out each note.

Fragment of a Welte Philharmonic Organ Master Roll - New York, c. 1910.

Recording the Dynamic Information
For each key, there were not one, but two sets of electrical contacts, operating at different times and positions during the playing of the respective note. One contact set, the carbon rod and mercury described above, operated immediately the key was struck, and the other, a normal wire contact at the back of the piano action, was not made until the hammer had more or less reached the piano string. The first contact triggered a pair of small electro-pneumatic valves, of a sort commonly found in Welte organs of the time, and this did two things: firstly, it operated a pneumatic mechanism which marked a note line on the master roll, and secondly, it caused air to be sucked rather slowly out of another small pneumatic motor, of exactly the same size as the note pneumatics on the early Welte-Mignon playback mechanism. As a result, this second pneumatic began to close against a spring.

When the second contact, at the back of the piano action, came into operation, another pair of electro-pneumatic valves was triggered, which also had two functions. Firstly, it prevented any more air being sucked out of the note pneumatic, and secondly, it allowed any air that remained there to pass into one of two larger pneumatics, one for treble and one for bass. These larger devices were the same size as the regulator pneumatics on the normal Welte-Mignon; they were sprung to open, but at rest they were kept closed by means of a regulated suction pump, evacuating through a restricted orifice. As air from any note pneumatics passed to one of these registering regulators, one board of the regulator would move, and the resulting motion was transferred on to the original master roll by means of a connecting rod and inked wheel.

Excerpt from a Welte original roll, showing dynamic line at the left side - Freiburg, 1926.

The faster a note was played, the more air remained in its associated note pneumatic, causing a greater movement as the air passed into the registering regulator. Similarly, more notes also resulted in more movement of the regulator, and so a wavy line was very simply drawn, representing the suction needed to recreate the dynamics of the music being played. Such a line can clearly be seen on the rather grainy photograph of the original master for Welte-Mignon roll 4119, "Moment Exotique", by Vladimir Horowitz, which is taken from a book entitled Reproducing Pianos Past and Present, by Kent Holliday, published in 1989 by the Edward Mellen Press. This master roll is the only original Welte-Mignon recorded master roll known to have survived. Unfortunately, although it was in Austin, Texas, in the 1980s when this photograph was taken, since the credits in the book confirm this location, all trace of it has now disappeared. Kent Holliday has kindly provided a copy of the original photograph, seen above.

But there was a further step in the recording of Welte-Mignon rolls. Although it is clear from one or two of the surviving factory rolls that the musical staff sometimes used wavy lines at the edges of the rolls to give a visual indication of how the dynamic mechanisms were operating, it would have taken a vast battalion of musicians to have been able to transfer such visually indicated dynamics into the coding perforations needed to operate the Mignon, especially given the large number of rolls issued by Welte in its first ten years. Some trace of such a large workforce would have survived, but there is nothing. However, given a mechanism that can cause two regulator pneumatics to respond to the energy expended by a pianist, it is a relatively easy matter to design further equipment to mark the dynamic coding automatically, dependent on the direction and speed of travel of each regulator. A small combination of valves, springs and pneumatics can be made to mark up the exact dynamic coding required.

Excerpt from a Welte second master, showing replay dynamic line - Freiburg, 1920s.

This, then, is the probable way in which Welte-Mignon rolls were recorded. Once an original roll was complete, it was copied to a batch of second master rolls, which were subsequently used in perforating production copies. Some musical editing of these rolls took place, but not much, given the occasional wrong notes which turn up from time to time. By contrast, it is clear from Welte factory rolls which survive in Germany and California, that a good deal of simple editing was carried out on the second masters in the early 1920s, prior to the issuing of recordings for the later Mignon system that used green rolls, but this was done mainly for technical reasons connected with the differing ways in which the two systems responded to the dynamic and pedalling signals.

Vladimir Horowitz recording for the Welte-Mignon - Freiburg, 1926.

Little is known of the recording producers or editors employed by Welte. It seems clear from most of the early company photographs that Edwin Welte and Karl Bokisch operated the recording machine themselves for the first two years or more. In later photographs, other operators can be seen, and in the 1920s, it is known that the German pianist and composer, Hans Haass, was employed as a recording producer.

Pianists and Repertoire
The three German reproducing piano systems for which rolls were recorded between 1904 and the outbreak of the First World War (Welte, Hupfeld, Philipps) had a very great advantage over their subsequent American and British competitors, in that the performances of a whole previous generation of pianists were captured, so that a remarkable glimpse of the piano traditions of the nineteenth century was preserved. When a new century succeeds the previous one, it quite naturally generates a nostalgia for times past, and one can sense that the styles of piano playing, particularly in Europe, at the start of the twentieth century were firmly rooted in an earlier tradition.

The Welte-Mignon Presentation Book of Testimonials - Freiburg, c. 1914.

The novelty and incredible fidelity of Welte's piano roll recording, as compared to early cylinders and discs, persuaded a veritable galaxy of pianists to preserve their performances at the recording piano. Liszt's pupils were in the prime of their lives, and many agreed to record, one or two even attempting to play in the style of their late master. As we have seen, Carl Reinecke, born in 1824, was the earliest-born pianist to record for Welte, followed by Theodor Leschetizky (b. 1830) and Camille Saint-Saëns (b. 1835), all with styles of playing fashioned in the first half of the nineteenth century. Grieg, Fauré and de Pachmann follow from the 1840s, though with remarkably dissimilar ways of bringing the keyboard to life. Grieg in particular sounds less ancient than his contemporaries, and it is to be regretted that his wonderful fluidity of phrasing is absent from most present-day interpretations of his works. All too often, "authenticity" is a synonym for applying a modern, unromantic style of playing to every type of classical music.

Leschetizky recording for the Mignon at the age of 75 - 18 February 1906, Leipzig.

In all, some thirty pianists born before 1860 made their way on to Welte rolls, but the historical importance of the Welte-Mignon is not limited to such early exponents of the piano. Composers such as Debussy, Reger, Scriabin, Puccini, Glazounov and Mahler recorded their own compositions, the superstars Paderewski, Hofmann and Lhévinne became best-sellers, and young giants from Vladimir Horowitz to Rudolf Serkin visited the Welte studios in Freiburg at the very beginnings of their careers. The repertoire they all chose was not as carefully regulated as we might expect from today's ultra-organised concert artists, and in many cases seems almost to have been selected at the last moment. But taken overall, a library of over 3,000 important classical recordings emerged from the enigmatic Welte recording pianos over a period of some twenty-five years.

Max Reger arriving at the Welte Studios - 26 July 1913, Freiburg.

Towards the end of the reproducing piano era, in the late 1920s, the Festivals at Donaueschingen and Baden-Baden set the scene for a number of special compositions for Welte-Mignon, by Paul Hindemith, Ernst Toch and other young composers, with Hindemith also using the Welte Philharmonic Organ as an accompaniment to his Triadisches Ballett, choreographed by Oskar Schlemmer of the Bauhaus in Dessau. But such esoteric music was not typical of the Mignon, which in general covered the standard classical and romantic repertoire, with the singular advantage that its rolls were longer than those for the later systems, so that more extended compositions could be included, without the need for hastily edited cuts. In the 1930s and the Second War, the Welte-Mignon languished, and it was rediscovered for the world by Richard Simonton, an American who initially made recordings from Edwin Welte's own Steinway in Freiburg, and who later acquired some of the "second master" rolls, taking them back to Los Angeles, where they remain today, in the care of the library of the University of Southern California. The remainder of Edwin Welte's private collection was donated by his family to the Augustiner Museum, in his home town of Freiburg-im-Breisgau.

Welte-Mignon Instruments

The Welte-Mignon in Perspective
Since the Second World War, the Welte-Mignon has served as the standard bearer for the cause of the reproducing piano, and it is true that it was the first such instrument to be fully developed, though only by a year or two, which is not so much when seen from the distance of a whole century. It also had the best commercial organisation in the United States of all the German player-piano manufacturers, and as a result became better known and sold more instruments than its Teutonic competitors, thereby becoming a more likely candidate for rediscovery after the Second World War. But in considering the Mignon's miraculous legacy, we should not ignore the equally stunning catalogues of the Hupfeld Dea and the Philipps Duca, which have been thoroughly ignored by musicians for many years. The University of Stuttgart, which had an almost complete set of Philipps Duca rolls, sold many of them off as late as the 1990s, apparently unaware of their potential musical significance. It would be reassuring to think that the renaissance of the Welte-Mignon might stimulate similar research and restoration of the other early reproducing piano systems.

Technically, the Mignon presents more of a challenge than, for example, the Ampico or Duo-Art. The latter two were designed with mass production in mind, and so the adjustments and regulations necessary for faithful reproduction were more exactly documented at the time. Welte rolls are rarer than those for other systems, so the combination of good rolls with a good instrument has, until the recent developments of roll scanning and re-perforation, been largely a matter of chance. No reproducing grand piano responds well to being transported to a concert hall or recording studio, because its pneumatic valves, which work to tolerances of a few thousandths of an inch, are inevitably disturbed and take many months to settle properly. It is possible that the Ampico, with its unit valves, is hardier than most, but the Welte-Mignon in particular does not like to be moved. There are one or two push-up instruments, used in combination with normal grand pianos, and these are very occasionally used in public concerts in Europe, but in general the musical world must rely on audio recordings to explore the range and fidelity of the Welte-Mignon repertoire.

Unfortunately, the Welte has not been well served by the many recordings that have been made on inadequate instruments, right up to the 21st century. An enormous wealth of knowledge and experience was lost when Welte ended its days of recording around 1930, so the coarseness of playback caused by a renewed learning curve amongst musicians and technical experts in the 1950s and early 1960s can perhaps be forgiven. But if you have reached this page as a result of uncertainty aroused by some present-day CD, then listen to the following audio track, from a Welte roll recorded by Manuel de Falla in Paris in about 1912. It almost beggars belief that such subtlety of playing can have been captured nearly one hundred years ago. There are several currently available CDs of Welte-Mignon performances, ranging from the excellent to the decidedly poor. Listen first to De Falla, and then form your own judgment of any other recording you may have encountered.

DE FALLA: Pièces Espagnoles - No. 4, Montanesa,  [4.1 Mb] Recorded by Manuel de Falla - c. 1912, Paris.

This roll was played back on a Steinway Welte grand piano in London, in January 2007.
The audio recording is the copyright of the Pianola Institute, 2007.

Website Links and Other Sources of Information

Welte-Mignon - A website on Welte history, in German and English, written by Gerhard Dangel of the Augustiner Museum in Freiburg.

Carl Reinecke - A German language website devoted to Carl Reinecke, with authoritative information on his life and music.