Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
the question by an attempt at stale puns on
names, something which was abandoned by all
reputable journalists years ago. Probably our
humorous friend was brought up in some back-
woods district where it was deenaed the proper
thing to be a punster. If he continues to reside
in Chicago he may learn that the business men
of to-day desire something better than vacuous
puns in an alleged trade journal.
THANKS.
a rival is to praise him. There are
some conductors of papers who are consumed
with jealousy and envy to such an extent that
they rush into print with columns of matter,
assailing their contemporary, which, instead of
injuring their rival, really benefits him and
makes the first party an asinine creature after
all. We have given our aurivorous friend Blu-
menburg credit for a moderate amount of shrewd-
ness, but then when a man of his capacity gets
green with envy he usually makes a colossal ass
of himself.
# * *
NAMING
THE TUNERS.
WE would call special attention to an article
relating to tuners which appears in another por-
tion of this paper. It is from the pen of Mr. D.
J. Greenleaf, who is an eminent authority upon
the subject with which he deals.
BUFFALO.
BUFFALO, Aug. 1,
EDITOR THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW :
.
1892.
The trade in Buffalo unite in one general
answer to the oft repeated question, and in their
behalf I wish to say, " Yes, it is hot enough for
us, singly and collectively." Warm weather ap-
pears to be rather an incentive toward inducing
Buffalo piano tuners to enter the rank and file of
the trade. You will remember that in my last
letter I informed you that C. H. Devine was
about to open a store on Huron street, opposite
the Morgan building. He is doing business in
connection with a Mr. Cullis as partner, who is
the monied man of the concern. They have the
Shaw piano as their leader and are State repres-
entatives for that piano. They also control the
Estey organ and have the agency of several
other pianos.
According to their account
they are having a splendid run of business.
Since their inception, Mr. Gustave Poppen-
bergh, another Buffalo tuner, has opened up
a store here and assumed the agency of the
Schaff piano, for which he predicts a large out-
put in this city. He is located on Main street,
near Glenwood avenue, his store being the most
northerly of any of its kind in Buffalo. Both
these firms start in just at the beginning of the
dull season and will very likely find it rather
up-hill work until business picks up again.
The Buffalo Conservatory of Music still exists
only on the paper of Mr. Horton Corbett's im-
posing prospectus. The necessary capital does
not pour in as fast as it should, considering the
statement that '' interest at the rate of ten per
cent is guaranteed from the opening of the Con-
servatory, September 1st, 1892." There can be
no doubt of the musical benefit such a conserva-
tory would bring to Buffalo. In the union of
such a faculty as that proposed for the school
there would be a strength which would accomp-
lish much more than individual effort, and it is
to be hoped sincerely that Director Corbett's
plans will not fall through. It is said that a
number of pupils have already signified a wish
to enter the conservatory.
When I called on Mr. Knoll a day or two ago
I found him making preparation for a two weeks'
vacation. On the 4th inst. he will start with the
Hugh de Payen's Commandery to attend the
Masonic Triennial Conclave at Denver, Colorado.
He will, on his way home, make a flying trip
to Sageville, Iowa, to visit his cousin, the Hon.
Fred. M. Knoll, and expects to reach Buffalo
again on the 20th of this month.
Messrs. Denton, Cottier & Daniels have noth-
ing new to report. They are one of the firms
who find little difficulty in doing a good busi-
ness, and one rarely hears any complaint of dull
times from them.
Mr. Frederick Hermann has moved his stock
from No. 145 Genesee street to a store next to
Mr. Edward Moeller's piano warerooms, and
there proposes to carry on the small musical in-
strument business in a way that will '' astonish
the natives." Being out of the way of general
traffic he will very likely find the establishment
of a good trade rather up-hill work.
As another item of out-of-town information I
have to report that the Mackie Piano, Organ and
Music Co., of Rochester, N. Y., has purchased
the entire stock of musical merchandise of T. J.
McMaster, ofLockport, N. Y., whose suspension
of business I mentioned in my letter under date
of June 16th. The Lockport manager of the
Mackie Company is their vice-president. He is
an energetic business manager and will undoubt-
edly make a success of it.
Respectfully,
575
journal, both in this country and in Europe :
some of them have XMitxzWy fattened on the flute !
Your friends and predecessors of The American
Musician doubled their circulation and got the
best of your subscription list by reason of the
lively and most instructive discussions concern-
ing the flute in its columns, and " Max Gei-
witz " would have remained in ignoble obscurity
but for the terrible retribution he brought upon
himself and the death-blow he dealt his genuine
"Meyer! "
If your American Musician friends had not
played the "Kilkenny cat a c t " they would
have absorbed all the subscriptions of the coun-
try worth having. The Leader, from a mere
music bulletin, delivered "post-paid free," rose
to the dignity of a paying magazine by reason
of its discussions and controversies on the flute,
and that in a little over two years ! London's
"Grandmother of the Olden Days," The Musi-
cal Times, sneers at the flute {Courier beware !)
and absolutely asked the other day "where is
its music to come from—are we to revive Kulau
and Quantz ? "—but the old timer still ekes out
an old fogy existence, while the Musical Opinion
and Trade Review leaps into the ring, strong
with the new blood of the (Boehm) flute and
knocks out all competitors. Speaking of this
latter, a prominent (genuine) English critic re-
cently wrote me, that '' our controversies on the
flute and cognate subjects have been the making
of this paper.''
The trouble with the average " critic " (nota-
bly the alleged "London " variety), is that he
is the last to see and estimate the value and im-
provements of musical instruments; or, if he
does see and know them, he is so swayed by
prejudice that he never recognizes them, so he
A. B. UFFALONIAN.
goes over and over the same old beaten tracks
and crakes the same old moth-eaten jokes, either
ignorantly or maliciously confounding the lead-
f[\r. U/ystyam U/rites
ing and most perfected instrument of the day—
f\T) Oper; Cetter to tl?e
the Boehm—with that which justly lost its place
(if it ever had any) " with the other members of
the woodwind family,'' and '' whose unsupport-
ed voice savored somewhat (!) of antiquity."
MESSRS. EDITORS:
The
best joke of your " London Critic " is that
In your issue of June 8th last, under the cap-
tion of "Home News," appeared this item— wherein he discovers that, by reason of the in-
'' The Decline of the Flute.'' The decline of the vention of the clarinet and the perfecting of
flute's popularity is thus accounted for by a the oboe, '' the flute lost a great deal of its or-
London critic : '' Modern orchestral composers chestral individuality!" Why, Messrs. Edi-
have permitted the oboe and clarinet to elbow tors, pray inform that " London Critic " that it
their way to the front, to the exclusion of a com- was the scientific perfecting of the flute, or
panion whose ancestry dates back to ancient rather its invention by Boehm that made the
Phrygia. Gluck, who flourished before the days oboe and the clarinet what they are to-day!
of the clarinet and who only had at his disposal Boehm's system, now universally used, gave
a coarse-toned oboe, was well content—notably them an " orchestral individuality, " a beautiful
in his ' Orfeo ' and ' Alceste '—to write fine mel- solo quality as well as a truthful intonation,
odies for the flute, while Handel, too, found its which they never possessed before.
And now, opportunely, a word about the
' soft, complaining' tones full of expressive
qualities. With the invention of the clarinet, Boehm to those '' critics '' (London or otherwise)
however, and the perfecting of the oboe, the who are honestly but culpably ignorant. Let us
flute lost a great deal of its orchestral individu- refer, Messrs. Editors, to your identical issue
ality. Composers, finding reed effects readier to containing the ' 'London Critic's'' discovery. On
their hands, became chary of according promi- page 14 you will find a programme in which the
nence to an instrument whose unsupported voice Boehm (not the flute on the decline) bore a
savored somewhat of antiquity, and whose timbre noble and ambitious part in the '' Hoffmann
lacked the color and character of the other Concerto," which your correspondent calls " a
beautiful example of that celebrated composer's
members of the woodwind family.''
Although I rarely see the Courier, unless my genius.'' Probably my gifted young friend and
attention is drawn to some special paragraph, it flutist, Charles T. Howe, who, no doubt, played
would be safe to wager largely that no such com- it artistically, may enlighten you and your read-
ically foolish " criticism " ever came from Lon- ers, especially those of the "genuine Meyer "
don, and certainly nothing like it ever appeared variety, as to the existing status of the Boehm
before in it or in any respectable musical journal among the "woodwind family." No, Messrs.
Editors, the violin and its big brother, the 'cello,
in the world.
"Decline !"—why, sirs, controversies on flutes are not to bear off all the honors with an ' • odd
and cognate subjects—"The Flutes, Ancient trick '' in the future—abreast of these comes the
and Modern " — " Flutes and Flute Music,'' Boehm receiving, when artistically played, at
" Boehm vs. Meyer," etc., and columns of arti- least as much recognition and applause, and
cles similarly" entitled, have been the very life very often carrying off the palm !
One word more, Messrs. Editors. The only
and saving of more than one prominent musical