BP Austin Ragtime Extravaganza - Five Completely Unknown Rags from ca. 1917 - All Untitled

Benjamin P. Austin was a musical arranger in high demand during the music roll days. The bulk of his output seems to originate from two companies; the National Music Roll Co. of St. Johnsville, NY and the Musicnote Company of Dixon, IL. The former company released his arrangements on orchestrions of all sizes, including home format 88-note players. However, this group of five rolls came from a special dance Peerless O roll. The original titles were only descriptive, such as "Fox Trot" and "Two Step," from the roll label. These are tunes #1,3,5,7 and 9 from the original roll. The remainder of the roll are waltzes with titles which might or might not be Austin compositions. This roll is rather unique in Ragtime history, as one issued purposely without titles. My assumption is that the manufacturer figured no one cared; it was meant as (and presumably used for) the dance hall.

[@5riverboat]

I miss you my dear old friend, hope you are having a heavenly visit with Trebor!

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I'm interested in what this would sound like in person, to have two pianos playing the exact same thing at the same time. Is there a particular reason you did it like this?