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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
CUSTOM HOUSE, BOSTON,
1
. , ' Collector's Office, May 18th, 1894. J
Exportations of Musical Instruments from the
Port of Boston, month ending April 30, 1894.
To Netherlands:
Twenty-one (21) organs -
-
To England :
One hundred and fifty-one
(151) organs
-
-
All other and parts of
-
$1,191
$9,960
1,238
11,198
To Nova Scotia, etc.:
One (1) organ
-
Three (3) pianos
.
All other and parts of
$50
600
483
To Newfoundland :
One (1) piano
-
in man, and a sentient being was given to the
earth, endowed with an emotional nature keenly
alive to the "concord of sweet sounds," with the
intellectual powers necessary for their arrange-
ment, and with inventive faculties which have
enabled him to design and to construct instru-
ments of various kinds for their production.
Notwithstanding these rich natural endow-
ments, however, the human race has struggled
through many centuries to bring music up to
its present state of development. Music is at
once a science and an art, and these are creatures
of slow growth. They do not spring full
panoplied into life, but are the evolutions of
centuries. Man's first essays in the field of
music were crude and barbarous, and consisted
of attempts to imitate the songs of birds and the
sounds of inanimate nature, by instruments of
the simplest and most primitive character. Long
after considerable progress had been made in
musical culture it continued to be wholly in the
direction of melody. The laws of harmony were
but little understood, and were not sought to be
utilized until the last few centuries.
Although we occasionally meet with people
who are insensible to the charms of music, the
" motions of whose spirits are as dull as night, "
225
To British West Indies :
One (1) organ -
-
6o
Total -
4ft., ()in. high.
$13,807
Importations of Musical Instruments into the
Port of Boston, month of April, 1894.
Germany -
-
-
-
-
-
$2,117
England
285
Is our latest style—of im-
posing and elegant appearance.
The first glance convinces
buyers that it offers more in
musical value and artistic re-
sults than any piano before
the trade.
Unquestionable durability.
Very tempting prices are of-
fered for this and other styles.
52,402
Thoughts on Music.
§
HE origin of the divine art of music is coeval
with the birth of nature. Before the cre-
ation of animated beings to catch the waves of
sound set floating by them, inanimate objects
were filling the universe with the "music of the
spheres." The tiny rivulet chanted its joyous
lay as through moss and fern it flowed merrily
along over its pebbly bed. The mighty river
lent its notes to the universal song of praise to
the Maker, as it swept grandly and majestically
down to the sea there was music in the roar of
the cataract and in the rush of the mighty ava-
lanche ; music in the melancholy soughing of
the winds amid the solemn pines, and in the
wild shriek of the tempest; music in the soft
waves of the summer sea as they gently laved
the shining beach, and music, grandly sublime,
in the thunder's mighty voice and in old ocean's
roar, when lashed by the fury of the gale.
Then, when the earth had been prepared for
th<-ir reception, were created the various forms of
animal life that live and have their being on our
sphere, and the air became vocal with the songs
of birds. Their sweet twitter was heard at early
morn ushering in the day, their melodious
warblings filled the houis of sunlight with joy
and gladness; and in the still hours of the
night, the tuneful notes of the mocking bird and
the "amorous descant" of the nightingale
burst from the lap of silence and dispensed
sweet melody about.
Finally, the diapason of creation closed full
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and who, according to the great interpreter of
human nature, are fit for treasons, stratagems,
and spoils, they are but the exceptions that
prove the rule. The vastly preponderating ma-
jority of our race are and have been, in all ages
and in all countries, susceptible to the influ-
ence of music, says Musical Notes, and from the
remotest ages of the past there never has yet
existed a people who have not sought to give
expression in some way, however barbarous and
uncouth, to the love of music innate within
them.
Dwellers in a land where there were no cata-
racts would not seek to imitate the sound of the
waterfall. A people living far inland would be
ignorant of the sound of the voices of the sea—
the denizens of the tropics would know nothing
of the downward rush of the avalanche, and
these who had their habitat in the wilds of
Australia would know but little of the melody
of the songs of birds. They strove to imitate
those sounds with which they were familiar, and
which were pleasing to their ears; and, ot
course, the rude instruments designed by them
were contrived as well as possible for a repro-
duction of those sounds.
The primitive nature of the music of the vari-
ous peoples of the earth was also largely influ-
enced by their respective temperaments, which,
in their turn, were colored in a very great
measure by their leading pursuits. A pastoral
people, living a simple, peaceful life, would
breathe from their shepherd's reeds music of a
very different character from that which one
would hear from the rattling drums and braying
trumpets of a martial nation much given to
war.
In the stately Orient, whose people are marked
by slowness and deliberateness of speech and
action, and by a dignified and solemn mein, we
would not expect the tripping measures and in-
spiring airs that characterize the lively and
vivacious West. The skirl of the pipes is in
admirable keeping with the wild glens and
rugged hillsides of Caledonia, as well as with
the sombre nature of its people ; but, when we
strike the green shores of the Emerald Isle, and
see the droll humor in the eyes, and the broad
smiles upon the faces of Erin's sons, our feet
keep time to the music of the jig, and the souls
within us expand to the inspiring strains of
" Garryoweii."
THE trade papers have been sending Karl
Fink to different parts of the hemisphere, but
he lingers lovingly in the suburbs of the
"greater New York." He is now in Boston,
where he is rapidly filling his book with
orders.
YORK, PA.—Messrs. M. B. Gibson and W. S.
PIANOS AND ORGANS
BOSTON.
NEW YORK. CHICAGO. KANSAS CITY.
H
Bond have purchased the entire block of stock
held by the W. D. Elliot estate in the Weaver
Organ and Piano Co. J. H. Baer, president,
W. B. Gibson, secretary, and W. S. Bond, treas-
urer, of the company.
METCALF *
• PIANO
CELEBRATED
STEGER
PIANOS
PATENTED 1892.
MANUFACTURED BY
The Brockport Piano Mfg. Go.
BROCKPORT, N.Y.
are noted for their fine singing quality of
tone and great durability. The most
profitable Piano for dealers to handle.
STEG-ER & CO., Manufacturers,
Factory, Columbia Heights.
23S WA BASH AYE., CHICAGO.