Phonolamusic – Private Research Project in Vienna

Phonolamusic: acoustic journeys into the past

Phonolamusic is devoted to the exploration and documentation of unknown or forgotten music from the years 1905 to 1928 by means of a medium of the time: the phonola or player piano.

This artificial piano-like instrument was operated by a pneumatic engine and control of a piano roll; up to the late 1920s it was an everyday piece of furniture in households of the bourgeoisie right up to high aristocracy and was the most popular mechanical musical instrument. The music rolls that were produced by the thousand – with many recordings of famous pianists – are valuable historical musical sources.

The aim of Phonolamusic is to make this type of music accessible again and to spread it once more. The results of these ‘acoustic journeys into the past’ have appeared on specially themed CDs since 2011 under its own label Phonolamusic Records Vienna.