#player-piano

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#automation-history #creative-labor #technology-and-employment #job-displacement #phonoliszt-violina
fromThe Atlantic
1 day ago

Play It Again, Claude

By the early 1900s, player pianos had evolved to more fully reproduce a human performance, including subtle dynamics like tempo changes and the introduction of a damper pedal. The human role went from deskilled to fully deprecated as electric motors replaced foot-powered bellows. With the Seeburg Lilliputian Model L, the only job left for humans who wanted to play the piano in the 1920s was to put in a coin.
History
Music
fromOpen Culture
6 months ago

Discover the 100-Year-Old Self-Playing Violin, One of the Most Complex Music Players Ever Made

The Phonoliszt-Violina was an elaborate automated violin instrument with rotating horsehair bows and pneumatic mechanisms, popular in upscale venues before becoming obsolete.
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