Books › The Story of the violano-virtuoso : world's only self-playing violin and piano, 1900 › scan 27
Scan 27
The Story of the violano-virtuoso : world's only self-playing violin and piano, 1900
18 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 21. See the scan on archive.org.
1Violano Music and Monthly Service
3Each month we publish a new list of current music—popular, classical, dance, special numbers, etc. These music rolls are made exclusively for the Mills Violano-Virtuoso. A bulletin is issued every month containing the new selections and is sent to every Violano owner. A nominal charge is made for the rolls, and we have different music service plans that permit the customer to get his music on a most economical basis.
5Because our rolls are produced in such an unusual way—a method entirely different from those used by the world's largest music roll publishers—Violano music is absolutely distinctive in its quality and lack of mechanical effects.
7The usual way of making a music roll—and the way employed by all publishers except us—is to have the musician mark the paper of the master roll, and afterward these markings are cut out with a punch by hand. Necessarily, the mechanical way of making a roll suggests the mechanical nature of its music.
9Our music is reproduced in an entirely different manner. By means of a special recording machine, the artist is enabled to play the music right into the roll. Every time he touches a note on the violin or piano, it cuts a hole directly into the paper. Thus his technique and individuality are in no way lost in the process of reproduction. The music as transferred to the roll is actually hand-played—the most genuine reproduction of the original artist's work that it is possible to obtain.
11The music that plays on your Violano has unmistakable personal expression qualities. That is why this self-playing violin and piano is rarely referred to merely as an "automatic instrument."
13"Your self-playing electric violin has been taking in about $100.00 per month regularly and has brought considerable new trade to my store. People come from nearby towns to hear the fine music it plays and it is a great attraction."
15"The music in our place has not only increased our business 100 per cent, but we receive an average of $100 every month in collections. The Violano brings us new customers because it attracts to our store people on the street who think it is a real orchestra playing."
16—WILLIAM WILLIAMS,
17314 Genesee S., Saginaw, Mich.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.