I've just stumbled across a site which has taken a huge number of historic piano/pianola rolls and with a modicum of modern technology transformed them faithfully into single channel MIDI files.

The original paper rolls will deteriorate into pulp over the next decades so several enthusiasts around the world are using this electronic transfer process in order to preserve the actual playing of some remarkable piano virtuosos. Some details are HERE.

You'll find 2,650 MIDI's created from these rolls - without lyrics as far as I can tell at THIS SITE. There are at the time of writing 16 different archives. Each archive has an index, but there doesn't seem to be an overall one. As you'll see your only choice is to download ZIP files of about 1 Meg or so.

With a GOOD soundcard and speakers these MIDIs can sound pretty damn good, but please bear in mind that they come from an era where the arrangements were meant to be beyond the playing ability of your average pianist. Hence if you want to use them for student use I'd suspect that you'll have to do quite a lot of editing in your favourite notation editor.

Almost forgot to mention that the repertoire seems dominated by classical parlour pieces, but there's a fair representation of ragtime and popular pieces. In the case of medleys the individual tunes are not detailed, but because the pianola roll ID Number is given, I'd expect that there are other indexes on the Web to provide fuller details.

I hope someone else enjoys this collection as much as I have over the last couple of hours.

Regards, John