Aeolian Company
Aeolian's New York Headquarters from 1912-1927 | |
Company type | Private company |
---|---|
Industry | Organ/Piano Manufacturer |
Predecessor | Mechanical Orguinette Co. |
Founded | 1887 |
Founder | William B. Tremaine |
Defunct | 1985 |
Fate | Bankrupted |
Successor | Aeolian-American Piano Corporation |
Headquarters | |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Frederick Gilbert Bourne |
Products | Organs, Pianos, Phonographs |
Subsidiaries |
The Aeolian Company was a musical-instrument making firm whose products included player organs, pianos, sheet music, records and phonographs.[1] Founded in 1887, it was at one point the world's largest such firm. During the mid 20th century, it surpassed Kimball to become the largest supplier of pianos in the United States, having contracts with Steinway & Sons due to its Duo-Art system of player pianos. It went out of business in 1985.
History
The Aeolian Company was founded by
Location
Aeolian was first located at 841
The firm returned to Fifth Avenue in 1925, this time moving to 689 Fifth Avenue. The firm's facilities in the new Aeolian Building included a 150-seat recital hall, recording studios for Duo Art piano rolls, offices, design studios, drafting rooms, and a director's room in the upper stories. The Aeolian Company (as Aeolian American Corp.) remained in the Aeolian Building until 1938, after which it leased half of Chickering Hall on West 57th St.[10]
Copyright law
It was Congressional suspicion of the market power of the Aeolian company during the early 20th century that prompted adoption of the first
The player piano deeply troubled popular music composers such as John Philip Sousa. Sousa worried that the pianos would kill the public's demand for sheet music, and sheet music was the source of composers’ copyright royalties. To make matters worse, the player piano companies refused to pay royalties to composers for the songs they put on player piano rolls. These rolls were scrolls of paper with holes punched out in patterns that instructed the piano how to play a particular song. The rolls, argued the player piano companies, did not “copy” the composers’ musical compositions. As a result, they were perfectly legal.[12]
The Supreme Court, in its 1908 opinion in
The result in White-Smith lasted but a year before Congressional action. The Copyright Act of 1909 mandated that all musical compositions would be subject to a compulsory license. In short, since 1909 the copyright law has allowed musicians to copy others’ songs by mechanical means (e.g., via piano roll or phonorecord/sound recording) without asking permission, so long as they paid a specified fee to the original songwriter.[citation needed]
Anticipating that Congress was about to overturn White-Smith, Aeolian Company moved swiftly to buy up song rights from musicians and publishing companies so it could copy them onto player piano rolls. Aeolian's competitors quickly complained to Congress about Aeolian's attempt to corner the music market. Congress responded with the invention of the
References
- ^ "Aeolian" New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, Macmillan, 2001)
- ^ (October 31, 2018). Aeolian Company designs in collections, at auction, in exhibitions, design catalogues and historical information. artdesigncafe. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
- ^ "History of the Pianola – Institute". The Pianola Institute. Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
- ^ a b (December 21, 1899). Aeolian Organ Company’s purchase [of Votey Organ Company]. Hartford Courant, p. 3. Retrieved April 13, 2020
- ^ Mayer, Barbara, Reynolda: A History of an American Country House, Winston-Salem, John F. Blair, Publisher, 1997, p. 70
- ^ "G. G. Foster, Piano Manufacturer, Dies; Chairman of Aeolian American Was 94". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
- ^ a b "William Heller, 85, Head Of Aeolian Piano Company". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
- ^ "Aeolian & Aeolian American Corporation". Lindeblad Piano Restoration. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
- ^ "Peter Perez". NAMM. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
- ^ "Aeolian Building (Later Elizabeth Arden Building)" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. December 10, 2002. p. 5.
- ^ Cohen, Julie E. et al. (2006). Copyright in a Global Information Economy, (p. 447). Aspen Publishers.
- ^ a b "Don't Downplay The Importance Of Tweakers In Innovation; Excerpt From 'The Knockoff Economy'".