Wiktionary
n. (context musici English) An acoustic piano which is automatically played (mechanically).
WordNet
n. a mechanically operated piano that uses a roll of perforated paper to activate the keys [syn: mechanical piano, Pianola]
Wikipedia
thumb|thumbtime=2:30| Steinway reproducing piano from 1920. Harold Bauer playing Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22, excerpt of 3rd movement. Duo-Art recording 5973-4
A player piano (also known as pianola) is a self-playing piano, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed music recorded on perforated paper, or in rare instances, metallic rolls, with more modern implementations using MIDI encoded music stored on floppy disks or CDs. The rise of the player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano for the home in the late 19th and early 20th century. Sales peaked in 1924, then declined as the improvement in phonograph recordings due to electrical recording methods developed in the mid-1920s. The advent of electrical amplification in home music reproduction via radio in the same period helped cause their eventual decline in popularity, and the stock market crash of 1929 virtually wiped out production.
Player Piano, the first novel of Kurt Vonnegut, was published in 1952. It depicts a dystopia of automation, describing the deterioration it can cause to quality of life. The story takes place in a near-future society that is almost totally mechanized, eliminating the need for human laborers. This widespread mechanization creates conflict between the wealthy upper class—the engineers and managers who keep society running—and the lower class, whose skills and purpose in society have been replaced by machines. The book uses irony and sentimentality, which were to become hallmarks developed further in Vonnegut's later works.
Player Piano is the second studio album of Dayve Hawke, under the alias of Memory Tapes. It was released July 5, 2011.
A player piano is a self-playing piano.
Player piano may also refer to:
- Player Piano (novel), 1952 novel by Kurt Vonnegut
- Player Piano (album), 2011 album of Dayve Hawke
- The Player Piano, American post-rock band
- Player Piano, one of the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks prelude shorts
Usage examples of "player piano".
The diamonds of the backgammon board undulated like player piano keys.
In Player Piano, for instance, was it the threat of automation that started you off?
A white grand piano falling out of the Connecticut sky, turning over and over, making a shadow like a jellyfish on the jammed-up cars, making windy music in its cables as air blew through its rolling chest, its keys rippling like the keys of a player piano, the hazy sun winking on the pedals.
Martin dusted and polished again, moved in the player piano and scattered sawdust upon the floor.
In nineteen ten a bar was a place where men went to meet during or after work, and all there was was a long counter, brass rails, spittoons, player piano for music, a few mirrors, and barrels of whisky at ten cents a shot together with barrels of beer at five cents a mug.
An empty twenty-by-twenty studio apartment with a body-damaged sofa, a bookcase with fourteen books in it and lots of waiting space, an easy chair bought on the cheap from Goodwill Industries, a Sears, Roebuck unpainted pinewood desk with an unoiled 1934 Underwood Standard typewriter on it, as big as a player piano and as loud as wooden clogs on a carpetless floor.
A player piano tinkled in the background, just like an old western movie.