While conventional ARTCRAFT Music Rolls are edited and processed in "groups of eight" in the Maine Studio, only 2 Sets of BALLET MECANIQUE are handled at one time. (This involves a total of 6 rolls, which are checked against the perforating logs with each run of 16 copies.)

    Memory alone can't carry the roll editor though about 250 feet of perforated paper plus 85 pages of the manuscript shown below! Thus, the "TIME SPACE" stamps, accents and other dynamic cues are added while "inching" through this handwritten score, every time a pair of Sets is processed in The ARTCRAFT Studio. Years of familiarity with the manuscript ... and the composition itself ... have reduced the editing time to approximately 3 to 4 hours for the tandem music roll Sets. All this is accomplished on the motorized editing table which is an integral part of the one-person 'production' work, here in Wiscasset, Maine.

    It is, perhaps, this continuous association with the BALLET MECANIQUE project, and the niche production of virtuoso music rolls, which has caused the ARTCRAFT arranger, Mr. Henderson, so be so incensed whenever somebody revives this music under the cloak of "first time ever" ... "the original version" ... "never heard before" and other flawed claims. There is and was no single way to present this composition, but the solo Pianola was usually at the center of the spectrum.

    Certainly, 16 solenoid MIDI players in 1999 did little to convey the intensity, the sense of humour and the awesome theatrical drama which in built into BALLET MECANIQUE if the music rolls are carrying the load.  Antheil "directed" his instrumentalists in the post-movie concert hall days, much as a concert pianist would lead an orchestra.

    Experimental music, which this was, has no single "end all" version for a definitive performance. From his grave, the composer would probably say "do you own thing, but ... keep the Pianola!" now that modern player rolls have completed his concepts dating from 1924-1925, when the Salon presentations were at their height.

    Thanks for taking this 'tour' of BALLET MECANIQUE rolls! We hope you enjoyed seeing some examples which make this a composition like no other in existence.