US1304117A - Note-sheet fob musical instbuments - Google Patents

Description

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEIoE.

CHARLES E. STODDARD, 0E BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Y NOTE-SHEET FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

, Patented May 20, 1919.

Application led January. 23, 1912, Serial No. 672,802. :Renewedl October 24, 1918. Serial No. 259,595.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES F. STODDARD,

a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Boston, county of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Note-Sheets for Musical Instruments, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters lon the 10 drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to note sheets for governing the playing of automatic or partly automatic musical instruments, as,

for example, player-pianos.

Among other objects the invention 1S 1ntended lto provide for a substantially accurate reproduction or imitation of the sustaining pedal effects produced in manual playing and to which the beauties of manual rendition are largely attributable.

Heretofore in the art, provision has been made in automatic playin apparatus for operating a damper or similar pedal mechanism automatically under the control of the note sheet. For example, marginal perforations in note sheets have been provided for shifting the damper rail of the instrument.

to withdraw. the dampers and returnthem to the strings at desired intervals. Thishas required the provision of a special mechanism additional to that required for sounding the notes.

Furthermore, in the art, provision has been made in automatic playing apparatus for a manual control of the damper pedal mechanism vsuch that the operator, following the instruction of notations upon the perforated note sheet, could withdraw and replace the dampers at will. This was objectionable because of the diiiiculty which any operator but a skilled demonstrator linds inV following the instructive notation on a note sheet and further, because it required the operators attention to a manual control additional to such tempo and intensity controls as are ordinarily operated manually on many types of players.

` There anism for operating a'damper rail so as to withdraw all or a large proportion of the dampers simultaneously, particularly in that the undamping of many notes including a succession of notes in the range permits sympathetic vibration of all of the undamped strings whether they are inharmonious or not. Thus, for examplewhen all of the dampers are removed and only a few notes sounded, a sympathetic vibration is setgup in "substantially all of the strin and the resultant volume of sound is ma e up of a combination of harmonious and inharmonious sounds such that the resultant sound is often harsh and disagreeable.

The specific embodiment of this invention about to be described overcomes all the obj ections referred to above and provides a note sheet capable of reproducing or imitating with remarkable fidelity the desirable edects which accompany the operation of a damper or similar mechanism, to the exclusion of the inharmonious and undesirable effects. For this purpose, the illustrative note sheet does not necessarily have any marginal perforations for controlling any pedal operating mechanism, but may be provided merely with perforations corresponding to .the individual notes to be sounded. Furthernotes to the exclusion of those which are not desired to enter into the harmony. Likewise, for the first time in the art, this invention provides for a very beautiful reproduction or imitation of damper pedal edects by utilizing merely the individual note sounding actions of the instrument, thus providing for automatic production of damper pedal effects upon instruments which have no automatic damper pedal mechanism or manual damper pedal mechanism for that matter. In these respects, therefore, applicant is entitled to be considered a pioneer inventor.

The character of the invention may be readily understood by reference to the acis a further objection to any mechcompanying drawing which shows diagrammatically and by way of illustration, a note sheet embodying the invention. The arrow near the foot of the ligure indicates the direction in which the note sheet is assumed to be traveling.

The perforations in the drawing, indicated in full lines, are those which would be cutin accordance with practices prior to this invention, for playing the individual notes, the sheet being laid out and the perforations arranged by reference to a musical score or other record of a composers composition or a performers rendition. prolongations of the full line perforations areV those which contribute principally to the production of the sustaining pedal effect in the playing as controlled by the illustrative note sheet. Y- Y According toY practices heretofore employed, the note sheet would be cut as indicated in full lines, the advance ends of the dierent perforations being appropriately related to produce the desired tempo as is Vwell understood. in the art. The lengths of the full line perforations would be determined substantially by reference to what may be called the noted tempo value indicated upon the record from which the note sheet is made. In-some instances, ac-

cording to the prior art, one such full line perforation might be made to overlap the following perforation or perforations very slightly in an attempt to produce what is called a legato effect, but the overlapping Vfor this purpose would not cause any perceptible or material overlapping in the sounded tones; and the purpose of the present invention. is very dierent in kind from that of the so-called legato cutting.

In a note sheet cut in accordance with the full line representations of the drawing, no damper pedal or like effects could 'be produced automatically except by .providing Vsupplemental perforations requiring the c0- operation of automatic damper rail 'controlling mechanism, involving not only the provision of additional automatic apparatus in the playing instrument, but also involving the sympathetic vibration of discordant strings.

In accordance with the present invention,

Y throughout van arbitrary period and until lits sounding is terminated to provide vfora resounding by the perforation 104. The latter is also arbitrarily prolonged tofsustain its note. The combined lengths of the perforations 100, 103 and 104, 107, indicate, by way of illustration, a period of time in 'the travel of the note sheet during which it is desired to'sustain notes of the rst group to reproduce or imitate a sustaining 'pedal eifect.

The illustrative hiatus between the prolon'gation 103 and the perforation .-104 is intended merely to provide vfor 'a :second dis- The dottedA lineV tinct percussion of the corresponding string which is desired to occur in the playing; and this hiatus is preferably so brief that it is little if any appreciated by the hearer, the

result being to all intents and purposes that 100 is sustained throughout the desired period of the pedal eect, the re-sounding of the note Vof the perforation 104 being introduced in accordance with the tempo of the original record.

In like manner, a'perforation 101 having its advance end located in proper relation'to fect indicated by the original record, WhenV accompanied by a sustaining pedal operation.

A perforation 111 Vsounds its note in the proper tempo relation to the others, and that note is sustained-by a prolongation 112 extending throughout the distance corresponding to the period during which the sustaining pedal effect is desired to be maintained.

The foregoing will suflice to illustrate to those skilled in the art, a construction Vof note sheet embodying this invention. The specific illustration of the drawings represents aV practicable arrangement of perforations and prolongations.

It will be noted that these sustaining effects are produced by the individual note perforations whereby the specic notes are themselves sustained and such sympathetic harmonious vibrations occur in such other strings as are undamped at the time, While on the other hand, the discordant sympathetio vibration is eliminated, thereby avoiding an objection tothe normal damper pedal operation.

Whether or not. any deliberate variation in intensity is provided for upon the sheet, by informative symbols or otherwise, the sustaining efects above described give, in actual playing, an effect of light and shade, as it were, in intensities upon many types Vof playino' instruments.

or example, when many notes are .being sustained in the unique manner provided for by the prolongations of a large proportion of. the individual note perforations, each pneumatic playing action which is employed in so sustaining Va note, continuously bleeds from the supply of pneumatic pressure or exhaust and thereby tends Vto reduce suchv pressure or exhaust with 'a tendency lto 70 the note initially sounded bythe perforation Y cause succeeding notes to be sounded more softly. This tendency is, of course, increased as a greater number of notes are sustained and the effect is enhanced, to such an extent as to be readily appreciable, by the use of the extensive note sustaining prolongations or perforations, overlapping in many cases, as illustrated in the drawing. While this effect of light and shade in intensity does not necessarily follow the variations in intensity which may be indicated upon the original record, it nevertheless serves substantially and valuably to eliminate the practically uniform intensity of playing which contributes to the monotonous mechanical quality which has characterized the playin by means of most note sheets heretofore usedg, and has invariably characterized the playing of note sheets havin no supplemental intensity or pedal per orations by which to operate auxiliary expression controlling mechanism. In other words, this invention presents for the first time in the art an arrangement of perforations in a note sheet by which sustaining pedal effects areproduced and at the same time the monotonous intensity of playing *is eliminated-all by means of individual note perforations and without the employment of any automatic mechanism except the individual note sounding actions.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specicdetails of the described illustrative note sheet construction. On the contrary, as will appear to those skilled in the art, the invention may be variously embodied.

Claims:

1. A note sheet for reproducing or imitating characteristics of a manual rendition, provided with note sounding perforations which have their advanced ends relatively located to sound their notes in accordance with desired tempo, but which, in order to cause their notes to be sustained with the effect of a damper pedal operation, have their rear ends arbitrarily prolonged.

2. A note sheet for reproducing or imitating characteristics of a manual rendition, provided with note sounding perforations which have their advanced ends relatively located to sound their ,notes in accordance with desired tempo, the length 0f some of said perforations being that called for by the noted tempo value of the notes controlled thereby, while the length of others of said perforations differs from that called for by the noted tempo of the notes controlled thereby, by being prolonged beyond that called for by said noted tempo, whereby the strings of the notes controlled by the perforations thus prolonged are maintained undarnped and said notes are individually sustained with the effect of a damper pedal operation.

3. A note sheet for reproducing or imitating characteristics of a manual rendition having perforations therein for sounding respective notes, with their advance ends relatively located to sound the notes in accordancewith desired tempo, a large proportion of perforations selected from said perforations being arbitrarily prolonged, the prolongations of perforations corresponding to notes in a given musical measure of the composition to be played, being substantially overlapped whereby said prolongations combine to sustain their respective notes concurrently with an effect of a damper pedal operation.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

CHARLES F. STODDARD.

Witnesses:

RoB'r. I-I. WARD, J. H. CHASE.

Copies ot this patent may be obtained for nve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of latenti, Washington, D. G.

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