Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbfsb!cbnewsc!tjr
From: tjr@cbnewsc.att.com (thomas.j.roberts)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Info Wanted on Typewriter music
Message-ID: <1991Feb8.164305.8973@cbnewsc.att.com>
Date: 8 Feb 91 16:43:05 GMT
References: <1991Feb07.165832.2912@sdd.hp.com>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 26

"The Typewriter", by Leroy Anderson.

I played this as a percussion solo in 1967, with the Willowbrook
H.S. Band (Villa Park, Illinois). I used a REAL old-fashoned
manual typewriter, with the following modifications:

 1) a plastic sheet instead of paper, to give a louder, better
    sound for the keystrokes; it was left loose on the platen.
 2) a carefully-tuned "margin bell" connected to a foot pedal
    (the bell has to be sounded at particular times in the music,
     without accompanying key hits).
 3) a piece of plastic attached to the carriage which rubbed on the
    groved rod which determines character spacings - this gave a
    much more satisfying "r-r-r-rip" when the carriage was returned.
 4) a microphone about 2' in front of the typewriter, just below
    the table height, connected into the auditorium PA system.

I sat in front of the band, center stage right, with my right side
(where the carriage-return is) facing the audience. This piece got
quite an audience response, partly because of the visual effect.
It took quite a lot of practice for this (then) non-typist to avoid
entangling the keys; I typed A LOT of gibberish, but without a
ribbon it is forever lost to posterity :-).

Tom Roberts
att!ihlpl!tjrob  TJROB@IHLPL.ATT.COM