melotropen.
/ˈmɛlətrəʊp/, U.S. /ˈmɛləˌtroʊp/ Music. Now historical.
A device for playing music automatically on a keyboard instrument, using a stencil of perforated cardboard strips made by a melograph (see melograph n.1).
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > keyboard instrument > stringed keyboards > [noun] > player-piano
melotrope1887
pianola1898
autopiano1904
player-piano1905
machine-piano1926
1887 Logansport (Indiana) Daily Pharos 27 July 3/4 The melograph records the music upon a sheet of paper, and this sheet passed through the melotrope produces each note and expression.
1888 Sci. Amer. 15 Dec. 376/3 The melotrope is merely mechanical in its operation, and is intended, as far as possible, to imitate the motion of the fingers in playing upon the keys of the instrument.
1959 I. Urwin tr. A. Buchner Mech. Mus. Instruments 35 Carpentier invented a crank-driven mechanism, the melotrope, which was placed on the keyboard of the instrument to be played.
1975 S. Marcuse Musical Instruments (rev. ed.) 338/1 Mélotrope, crank-driven device invented by J. Carpentier..for automatically playing a piano by means of perforated cardboard strips.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1887