Highlights of Lithuanian piano rolls

EN"Ethnic piano rolls in the United States" is dedicated to the unique but relatively unknown artifacts of music-recording history – piano rolls. Issued mostly in the United States in the first part of twentieth century, ethnic piano rolls encapsulate the musical life of various US ethnic communities, and are now a valuable source for the research of US music history as a whole. Though classical music recordings made by internationally known musicians for player piano have received the attention of music historians, a huge amount of traditional/ethnic music has remained outside the scope of researchers’ interests. There are, for instance, only a few studies available of Greek, Italian, Spanish, or Jewish music for player piano. The most valuable thing about these recordings is their uniqueness, making them the only documentation of these recordings, not found on other recorded media such as phonograph cylinders or gramophone discs. Another striking aspect is the conscious effort to preserve a national identity among the international and multicultural immigrant communities of the United States. Ethnic piano rolls are unique cultural artifacts that expand our knowledge of musical history and technological and sociological developments, revealing intensive musical communication, musical migration, influences, and contaminations between local ethnic societies, countries, and even continents.