DUCA Roll Book I
Together with other, unfortunately, only a few original documents (among other things the Caecilia roll books!) and parts from the instruments and roll manufacturing of the Philipps AG this "Duca Noten-Verzeichnis" has been preserved. Tody it is owned by Thomas Richter. Thanks to his impressively supportive attitude we had the chance to digitize this book. We have begun with the evaluation of the data.
It is obvious, this seems to be book I of formerly two books, because it contains recordings to No 1200 / No 5032. The first entry is July, 10th, 1908. The last entry is of December 13th, 1912. However we would love to see book II, this is with certainty the more valuable one of both books, because it documents the beginnings of the recordings - and the most important phase till the end of 1912. As there is still a bigger number of blank sides in the book, we suppose that also other reasons led to a stop in this book I.
The book has been obviously an often-used and important workbook to Philipps. All sides are very used, partially sides got rid and are incomplete.
We digitised and edited each single page. The owner of the book (Thomas Richter, Neu-Isenburg) asked us to share the file with the community to allow for further research - and to inspire other collectors to share their documents the same way. We would appreciate if you would share other documents on your webpages - or send these to us for sharing on our website.
1908 Philipps DUCA Verzeichnis for Download. [105.086 KB]
1913 DUCA Rolls Sale Catalogue
With the courtesy of Mark Stikkelbroek we can share these two copies of a 1913 Philipps DUCA rolls sale catalogue.
The first one seems to be an earlier version, as the rolls end at No 1208 - and the numbering system for the accomp. rolls start with 2000. The later version of 1913 represents the final numbering system. Not all roll numbers are listed in a sequence. As the catalogue is labeled with "sofort verfügbar", we would guess these rolls were in stock.
First version of the Philipps DUCA rolls sale catalogue. [17.248 KB]
1913 Philipps DUCA rolls sale catalogue. [17.062 KB]
DUCA's position
Philipps entered the market after Welte and Hupfeld and in parallel to Popper (Stella) as a third. A little bit late start into a quickly rising-and-coming-down market of the reproducing pianos. This had the disadvantage that the small market of the reproducing instruments was already taken - namely the potential customers as well as the most famous pianists. The advantage, nevertheless, was that Philipps could avoid the deficits of the Welte and Hupfeld DEA systems by better technical solutions. There is a significant technical nearness between the Welte-Mignon and the Philipps DUCA - up to now, it could not be cleared how this narrow connection could originate. Existing patents prevented, actually, such a technical nearness. Subject to further research.
In 1912 Philipps formulated this motto: "Was uns unsterbliche Künstler in ihrem Spiele geboten, ruft uns heute das DUCA in seiner vollen Schönheit zurück.", saying "What immortal artists have given us with their play, is brought back to us in all its beauty by the DUCA. " And a little further down in the text it says ". . .this instrument is the best what was brought up to now in the area of the reproducing instruments. . . ". This statement is, from our point of view, absolutely justified with regard to the technical realisation (instruments and rolls) - even though some marketing is in this statement.
Pianists on DUCA
Till today it is still often stated, the repertoire for DUCA may be too limited and dull. Looking at the impressive repertoire we cannot agree. Also the DUCA was apparently interesting enough to very famous pianists. Many of them had already recorded at Welte and Hupfeld a couple of years before. Nevertheless some of these recorded much more pieces on DUCA. Many promising pianists who have not played for Welte or Hupfeld are just available on DUCA. Some of the pianists had been: Arthur Friedheim, Arthur Schnabel, Xaver Scharwenka, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Terressa Carreno, Ferruccio Busoni together with Michael von Zadora, Germaine Schnitzer, Helene Moillet-Gobat, and many more.
It is true that the number of rolls is much lower in comparison to Welte and Hupfeld - anyhow no lack of choice appears with a repertoire of more than 1500 rolls. A unique selling proposition of the DUCA is unquestionably the big and nice repertoire of dance music and light music.
DUCA Dance Music
Another historic highlight of the Philipps DUCA Roll Book proves this page. As of July 10th, 1911 the recordings of Dance Music had been listed separately (actually the book had been flipped and restarted from the other side). As Philipps had reached No 783 for the classical repertoire already, they had to decide with which number block they should start for the dance music. No 3000 was chosen - presumably assuming that this leaves enough reserve. October 10th, 1911 this has been changed to 5000 - and was corrected for the first 3000th numbers as well. Looking back, it would have been sufficient to start with No 3000 - however, at that time one could not foresee this.
DUCA Recording Piano
H. W. Schmitz has, years ago, found the Lipp recording grand piano (ser no 26087, photo from DMM 040). Unfortunately, the recording unit had already been removed decades before. Nevertheless, many signatures of the pianists who had recorded on this piano had been preserved. We compared these dates with the dates noted in the DUCA roll book. Most data correspond precisely to the recording dates in the DUCA book. Some are a few days before or after the recording session. We assume that the pianists had mostly spend several days in Frankfurt and have supported also the pre / postprocessing of the roll recordings.
DUCA Recording parts
Within the collection of the preserved DUCA production parts many of these scales were found. They had obviously been used in the production process among other things for DUCA. These scales are from thicker cardboard with cuts for a gearwheel guidance (original gearwheel is also preserved) on both sides. Hypothesis is that the mother's rolls were made out of the same material.
Length of DUCA rolls
It is remarkable that the roll lengths given in the DUCA book (in metre) is different from the lengths of the DUCA play rolls. It is actually twice the lengths of the playable DUCA rolls. The photo shows the DUCA roll No 10 "Murmelndes Lüftchen". Roll length in the catalogue: 21.5 m. Actual roll length of the punched area of the playable DUCA roll: 10.75 m. As experts already supposed, the recorded rolls had twice the lenght to allow a more precise recording. In the transfer of mother roll to playable roll the length gets halved.
DUCA pricing
As an extra page we found right in the beginning of the DUCA roll book a page of April 1st, 1914, announcing new pricing. In 1913/1914 the request for rolls decreased given the success of gramophone and radio - as well as the preception of the oncoming WWI. - As the other manufacturers did, Philipps tried to push more sales with lower prices. Therefore, all entries in the book were corrected/lowered April 1st, 1914 with two prize variations (Duca and electr. Pianella).
DUCA Price Policy
In the rear part of the book two sides with very interesting details are found on the Price Policy by Philipps - not only for DUCA, but also for other systems. Titles from this repertoire were of course used also for other Philipps systems. In the book we found with some roll numbers notes saying "not suitably for P. A.".
DUCA Roll Production
Rather all recordings which were documented chronologically in the book have thus been put onto the roll repertoire later. The photo shows the conversion of the rolls No 1-6. There are just some minor corrections and title changes compared with the later catalogues.
Corrections (in the list marked in brackets) of the pianist's names let us assume that pseudonyms had been used to increase the number of the performing pianists in the catalogue. Thus played J. Hommel some pieces - and his name had been corrected to S. Wilberg. There are similar conspicuities with W. Rehberg / S. Wilberg and Hans Foerster / S. Wilberg. Nevertheless, we also know by the other manufacturers that pseudonyms were used. Further investigation will be necessary here.
It seems to have been possible to record 18 to 24 pieces on one day. This amount is found at least with many pianists. As indicated in the comparison of the signature data on the recording grad piano with the the data in the DUCA book, the pianists were obviously often several days on site. We can be sure, that preparation and recording took more than a day.
Numerous highlights are found in this book. Here some examples:
May 15th, 1909, Oswald Philipps himself has recorded a roll. An other roll together with August Philipps at 4-hands. Also August Philipps has recorded some rolls.
May 19th, 1911, Ella Rafelson, famous assistant to Robert Teichmüller has recorded rolls.
June 17th, 1911, the just 11 year-old Walter Rehberg has recorded a roll.
June 17th, 1911, the later piano partner of Paul Hindemith, Irene Hendorf, has recorded a roll.
June 20th, 1911, Helene Moillet-Gobat recorded many rolls. She was the first woman in Germany holding a master's certificate.
July 11th,1911, Xaver Scharwenka has recorded 22 pieces - more than for any other system.
October 1th, 1911, August Schmid-Lindner has recorded 25 pieces on one day (provided that the entry is right), the highest number on one day.
May 17th, 1912, Ferruccio Busoni and Michael von Zadora have recorded some 4hands pieces.
Here is a list of all entries from the DUCA Roll Book I, starting with Jul10th, 1908:
Date Pianist (born-died) [total / recorded roll numbers]
10.07.1908 Hans Förster [1 / no 8]
22.07.1908 Hans Förster [3 / no 1-3]
08.08.1908 Hans Förster [1 / no 4]
11.08.1908 Hans Förster [1 / no 11]
24.08.1908 Ellen Pairan [4 / no 5-6; 14-16]
27.08.1908 Ellen Pairan [1 / no 7]
27.08.1908 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [5 / no 9-10; 12-13; 20]
30.09.1908 Prof. Alban Förster (1849-1916) [4 / no 22; 24; 28; 29]
04.10.1908 Eugene d’Albert (1864-1932) [7 / no 21; 23; 25; 30-34]
08.10.1908 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [3 /; no 18-19; 27]
14.10.1908 Eugene d’Albert (1864-1932) [1 / no 17]
29.11.1908 Anton Förster [7 / no 35-41]
30.11.1908 Anatol von Rössel (1877-1967) [14 / no 42-43; 61-64; 66; 68-74]
01.12.1908 Anatol von Rössel (1877-1967) [19 / no 44-60; 65; 67; 96]
02.12.1908 Norah Drewett (1882-1960) [10 / no 75-84]
09.12.1908 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [2 / no 34; 34a]
13.12.1908 Fritjof Backer-Gröndahl (1885-1959) [7 / no 85-91]
24.01.1909 (J. Hommel) S. Wilberg [1 / no 92]
24.01.1909 J. Hommel [1 / no 96]
26.01.1909 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [1 / no 95]
27.01.1909 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [1 / no 93]
27.01.1909 Herr und Frau Willy und Elsa Rehberg (1863-1937) [1 / no 94]
06.04.1909 Willi M. Jinkertz [14 / no 98-111]
08.05.1909 Prof. Carl Friedberg ((1872-1955) [12 / no 112-123]
15.05.1909 Oswald Philipps [1 / no 124]
15.05.1909 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [3 / no 125; 127-128]
15.05.1909 August Philipps [2 / no 126; 130]
15.05.1909 August und Oswald Philipps [1 / no 129]
20.05.1909 Professor Julius Röntgen (1855-1932) [3 / no 138-140]
21.05.1909 Professor Julius Röntgen (1855-1932) [7 / no 131-132; 134-136; 137; 141]
22.05.1909 Professor Julius Röntgen (1855-1932) [7 / no 133; 142-147]
20.07.1909 Frederic Lamond (1868-1948) [6 / no 148-150; 156-157]
21.07.1909 Frederic Lamond (1868-1948) [16 / no 151-155; 158-168]
nn Maria Oppenheimer [2 / no 169-170]
04.10.1909 Johann Wysmann [13 / no 171-183]
04.10.1909 Francois de la Croix [11 / no 184-194]
07.10.1909 Adolf Tandler (1875-1953) [5 / no 195-199]
09.10.1909 (J. Hommel) S. Wilberg [5 / no 200-204]
25.10.1909 Hans Förster [4 / no 205-208]
03.12.1909 Hans Förster [8 / no 209-216]
07.12.1909 Hans Förster [7 / no 217-222; 227]
07.12.1909 August Philipps [4 / no 223-226]
13.12.1909 D. Knopf (A. Knoof) [7 / no 240-246]
14.12.1909 (Willy Rehberg) S. Wilberg [12 / no 228-239]
22.12.1909 (Willy Rehberg) S. Wilberg [3 / no 247; 255-256]
22.12.1909 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [6 / no 248-253]
22.12.1909 Felix Baer [1 / no 254]
07.01.1910 Raoul Pugno (1852-1914) [24 / no 257-280]
12.01.1910 Hans Förster [4 / no 281-284]
10.02.1910 Hans Förster [3 / no 285-287]
16.02.1910 Frau Prof. Frida Kwast-Hodapp (1880-1949) [20 / no 288-305; 317-318]
16.02.1910 Prof. James Kwast (1852-1927) [8 / no 306-313]
16.02.1910 Herr und Frau Prof. Kwast [3 / no 314-316]
nn Hans Förster [3 / no 319-321]
nn Hans Förster und S. Wilberg [4 / no 322-325]
07.05.1910 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [2 / no 326-327]
07.05.1910 (Willy Rehberg) Hans Förster [1 / no 328]
23.05.1910 (Willy Rehberg) Hans Förster [6 / no 329-334]
22.07.1910 Hans Förster [5 / no 335-339]
31.07.1910 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [1 / no 340]
01.10.1910 B. Schröder [2 / no 341-342]
13.11.1910 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [7 / no 343-349]
21.11.1910 August Philipps [1 / no 350]
21.11.1910 S. Wilberg [1 / no 351]
21.11.1910 S. Wilberg und Hans Förster [3 / no 352-354]
25.11.1910 Berthe Marx-Goldschmidt (1859-1925) [18 / no 355-373]
05.12.1910 August Philipps [1 / no 374]
06.12.1910 Ignaz Friedmann (1882-1948) [22 / no 375-396]
08.12.1910 Ugo Afferni (1871-1931) [1 / no 397]
07.01.1911 Norah Drewett (1882-1960) [6 / no 398-403]
13.01.1911 Maria Careras [22 / no 404-425]
18.01.1911 Marc Meytschik (1880-1950) [10 / no 426-435]
25.01.1911 Josef Weiss (1864-1945) [24 / no 436-459]
06.02.1911 Felix Baer [5 / no 460-464]
03.05.1911 Michael von Zadora (1882-1946) [23 / no 465-487]
15.05.1911 Prof. Theodor Müller-Reuter (1858-1919) [14 / no 488-501]
16.05.1911 Alfred Grünfeld (1852-1924) [20 / no 502-521]
19.05.1911 Fräulein Ella Rafelson [24 / no 522-544]
22.05.1911 Augusta Cottlow (1878-1954) [23 / no 545-567]
01.06.1911 Paula Stebel (1885-1932) [20 / no 568-587]
02.06.1911 Johann Strauß III (1866-1939) [7 / no 588-594]
07.06.1911 Prof. Max von Pauer (1866-1945) [22 / no 595-616]
08.06.1911 Ernst Toch (1887-1964) [7 / no 617-623]
10.06.1911 Fritz von Bose (1865-1945) [20 / no 624-643]
17.06.1911 Walter Rehberg (1900-1957) [1 / no 644]
17.06.1911 Irene Hendorf [1 / no 645]
17.06.1911 Frl. Else Kallmeyer [1 / no 646]
17.06.1911 Louise Löhr (1862-1938) [3 / no 647-649]
17.06.1911 Frieda Thury [2 / no 650-651]
20.06.1911 Helene Moillet-Gobat [20 / no 652-671]
22.06.1911 Lonny Epstein (1885-1965) [19 / no 672-691]
24.06.1911 Maria Kaufmann [21 / no 692-712]
26.06.1911 Ida Feinmann [3 / no 713-715]
26.06.1911 Heinz Hanitsch [2 / no 716-717]
27.06.1911 Germaine Arnaud [22 / no 718-739]
29.06.1911 Prof. Moritz Mayer-Mahr (1869-1947) [24 / no 740-763]
05.07.1911 Conrad Ansorge (1862-1930) [20 / no 764-783]
10.07.1911 Ernst Buchhorn [12 / no 5000-5011]
11.07.1911 Xaver Scharwenka (1850-1924) [22 / no 784-805]
21.07.1911 Richard Singer [22 / no 806-827]
27.07.1911 Paul Eggert [21 / no 828-848]
29.07.1911 B. Hinze-Reinhold (1877-1964) [20 / no 849-868]
31.07.1911 Felix Baer [2 / no 869-870]
10.10.1911 August Schmid-Lindner (1870-1959) [25 / no 871-895]
12.10.1911 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [3 / no 896-898]
14.10.1911 Arthur Friedheim (1859-1932) [22 / no 899-920]
30.10.1911 Adolf Schmitt [10 / no 921-930]
31.10.1911 Hans Förster [1 / no 5012]
03.11.1911 Dr. Otto Neitzel (1852-1920) [18 / no 931-948]
07.11.1911 Edmund Parlow (1855-1944) [10 / no 949-958]
15.11.1911 Hans Förster [1 / no 969]
16.11.1911 Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) [10 / no 959-968]
20.11.1911 Elfriede Vogel [1 / no 970]
20.11.1911 Hans Förster [1 / no 971]
24.11.1911 Germaine Schnitzer (1888-1982) [21 / no 972-992]
25.11.1911 Wynne Pyle (1881-1980) [20 / no 993-1013]
05.12.1911 Alice Ripper (1889-1961) [11 / no 1014-1018; 1020-1025]
11.12.1911 Lucien Wurmser (1877-1967) [21 / no 1026-1046]
14.12.1911 Eduard Risler (1873-1929) [22 / no 1047-1068]
18.12.1911 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [1 /no 1110]
13.01.1912 Arthur Schnabel (1882-1951) [19 / no 1069-1087]
16.01.1912 Wera Schapira (1891-1930) [22 / no 1088-1109]
26.01.1912 Ernst Buchhorn [10 / no 5013-5022]
27.01.1912 Hans Förster [1 / no 1111]
30.01.1912 Ernst Buchhorn [10 / no 5023-5032]
05.02.1912 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [1 / no 1112]
05.02.1912 Hans Förster und Fr. Treis [3 / no 1113-1115]
05.02.1912 Hans Förster [1 / no 1116]
14.02.1912 Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) [7 / no 1117-1123]
15.02.1912 Arthur Schnabel (1882-1951) [3 / no 1124-1126]
08.03.1912 Hans Förster [1 / no 1127]
18.03.1912 Felix Baer [4 / no 1128-1131]
13.04.1912 Alexander Pohl [1 / no 1136]
16.04.1912 Hans Förster [1 / no 1019]
16.04.1912 Hans Förster [1 / no 1132]
22.04.1912 Felix Baer [1 / no 1133]
07.05.1912 Hans Förster [2 / no 1134-1135]
17.05.1912 Prof. Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) [16 / no 1137-1152]
17.05.1912 Prof. Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
and Michael von Zadora (1882-1946) [8 / no 1153-1160]
20.05.1912 Hans Förster [1 / no 1161]
10.06.1912 Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949) [20 / no 1162-1181]
19.06.1912 Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921) [8 / no 1182-1189]
24.06.1912 Felix Baer [4 / no 1190-1193]
31.07.1912 Hans Förster [1 / no 1194]
27.08.1912 Hans Förster [1 / no 1195]
25.09.1912 Hans Förster [2 / no 1196-1197]
17.10.1912 Hans Förster [1 / no 1198]
25.11.1912 Willy Rehberg (1863-1937) [1 / no 1199]
13.12.1912 Josef Treis [1 / no 1200]
