Project History and Goals
Over a period of several decades, author Arthur Reblitz attempted to gather a complete rollography for the Violano. He drew upon the knowledge and collections of dozens of people to pull together a list that accounted for more than half of the 3121 different rolls produced. This earlier list concentrated on Roll Numbers, Roll Titles, Song Numbers, Song Titles, Song Types and some of the Composers. Other information that is included on many of the roll labels was generally not included such as Copyrighters, Copyright Dates and Song Duration. Several paper copies of this listing were sold a number of years ago and the collection of new data was put on hold. Within the past 8 years, Jack Breen started working to attempt to fill in the missing information before it is lost forever. The primary purpose of this Web site is to use the power of the internet to contact people who might have some of the missing information. A significant amount of data has already been collected as a result of this renewed effort.
The goal of this project is to pull together as much of the information on Violano rolls as possible into a single database that has been sold for a nominal fee on CD-R since 2001. The database is being entered in Microsoft Access 2000 format. The CD will also contain files in MS Access 97, MS Excel, MS Word and ASCII formats. Earlier versions of Access may be included if a way can be found to convert to these versions and enough demand is present. Paper printouts with the data sorted either by roll number, song number or song title may also be available for those who do not have the necessary computer equipment or programs to run the database.
A matrix showing what information has already been collected and entered into the database can be found on the Information Status page. Rolls 1 to 3121 are well documented (~190 unknown currently) A significant amount of the data collected has come from copies of multiple original roll catalogs and roll labels. Copies of other catalogs would be extremely helpful for this project if any can be found. Please contact Jack Breen if you have any of these catalogs or some of the missing information.
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