Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1911 Vol. 53 N. 26

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PLAYER SECTION
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 30, 1911.
THE PLAYER-PIANO IN NINETEEN-ELEVEN.
The Player-Piano Has Shown Its True Nature and Large Possibilities at No Time So Clearly
as During the Past Twelve Months—Steady Advance Toward a Greater Perfection and
Greater Appreciation Manifested on the Part of the Music-Loving Public.
He is a wise man who keeps his eye continu-
ously on the signs of the times and with anxious
care endeavors to penetrate their inner meaning.
And these signs are to be discerned with under-
standing by all who are willing to look for them.
We have at present a very clear indication of the
future possibilities for trade expansion in the do-
main of player-pianos—an indication that has been
afforded from time to time throughout the year,
[t will be worth while to pay some attention to it
in this the last week of 1911.
To any unprejudiced observer it must be clear
that the player-piano has shown its true nature
and large possibilities at no time so clearly as in
the past twelve months. If it would be absurd
to suggest that these possibilities are as yet com-
pletely developed, it would be equally absurd to
deny that 1911 has shown them in a manner not
to be ignored. There is at least—what never before
has been possible to say—a clear recognition on
the part of the trade that the player proposition
is something that must be taken up with serious-
ness, seriously studied and seriously turned to
commercial account.
This general awakening is perhaps the most
notable of the signs of player progress which 1911
has furnished to us. And no intelligent observer
will be inclined to deny the transcendent impor-
tance of this phenomenon or to fail in gratitude
for it.
But the fact that the piano trade is waking up
to the necessity of taking the player seriously, and
the further fact that this awakening has become
most manifest during the past year, are by no
means the only or even the most important of the
things to which our attention is drawn in a survey
of 1911 player conditions. There are other things
of even greater importance, and to these we now
desire briefly to direct attention.
The first and perhaps most remarkable of these
is the changing attitude of the public. Whether
we consider the player as a true musical instrument
sui generis or merely as a means for public amuse-
ment, the fact remains that the people at large
seem at last to be ready to accord it something
like a due meed of appreciation. There is a great
deal less nonsense talked by the public about
players, and what is even more interesting, a great
deal less nonsense is being talked by musicians.
It would seem that the efforts of the piano trade,
the player manufacturers and the trade newspapers
(such, at least, as have given due recognition and
treatment of the subject have at last begun to
have their proper effect, and that we shall shortly
see a public respect for the player far in advance
of anything that has as yet been experienced.
Whatever may be the precise reasons for this en-
couraging condition, it is plain at any rate that we
have reason to be thankful. And we may most
properly say this, even in face of the plain fact
that many dealers are still crying aloud that the
player proposition is a nuisance:—is, }n fact, a very
abomination. The time must come, of course, when
such absurdities will cease to be heard throughout
the land, but it is not at present to be denied
that they still exist, although, as pointed out above,
the growing sensibility of the trade at large to
the importance of the player and the commercial
possibilities inherent in it is one of the most en-
couraging signs of the time.
The Retail Development.
To get away from glittering generalities, how-
ever, and down to the bedrock of facts, there are
several developments to be considered which have
largely taken shape during the past year. Among
these none perhaps surpasses in importance the
rapid growth of a retail sentiment in- favor of a
player-piano that can be sold upon practically the
same terms as obtain with the straight instrument,
ft will hardly be denied that this is not a thor-
oughly healthy symptom. But there is much to be
said in favor of it. In the end, and considering
what it is that we all want to see the player-piano
become, namely, a true musical staple with a nat-
ural demand, there is much to be said for the
plea that the great mass of people should have a
chance to acquire what hitherto has only been
possible to those who are relatively well off. But
there is another side to the question. At the best,
according to present manufacturing conditions, it
is impossible to produce satisfactorily a player
mechanism which shall be equal to the task of
carrying the load of usage at the hands of people
who,- with all respect to themselves, have some-
what crude views, in general, regarding the proper
manner of playing a musical instrument. The
sovereign people may need player-pianos, but they
should be required to buy good ones, at least good
enough to withstand the sort of use that a player-
piano is liable to receive at their hands.
And there is another side to the question. The
kind of people who want a cheap player-piano
are those who would otherwise want a cheap
straight piano. The terms whereon they can buy
the latter are hardly less than the terms whereon
they are now learning that they may purchase the
former.
And this is truly a very serious matter. For
at the best the dealer's investment in the cheapest
of player-pianos is nearly or quite double what
he pays for a straight instrument of similar grade.
And it is therefore difficult to see exactly where
the dealer "gets off'' when he goes into this sort
of business. Here we have a sign of the times
that possesses features discouraging, to say the
least.
On the other hand we have the much more
encouraging sign that people of refinement and
musical taste are beginning to take up the player-
piano with more earnestness than ever before.
This naturally means that the better instruments
are coming into their own, as, indeed, was to have
been expected from the very first. The player-
piano, speaking from the retail standpoint, is
properly a cash proposition, and the dealer who
encourages only the sale of the highest grade
players will be far more likely to come off best
in the end, even though his actual volume of busi-
ness be thereby rendered smaller.
It must never be forgotten that the maintenance
problem, to which special attention is drawn else-
where in this Player Section, still looms most
ominously athwart the trade horizon. There is a
big item of expense, trouble and dissatisfaction to
be confronted here. The dealer who goes into the
selling of cheap players to cheap people, or even
of good players to those who cannot or will not
exercise their intelligence to learn the proper use
and care of the instruments, is tempting Dame For-
tune most recklessly.
Nevertheless, a careful survey of the retail field
shows more reasons for encouragement than for
despair. The year 1911 has certainly seen vast
improvement in the trade conception of the player,
both as a musical instrument and as a commercial
sales proposition. There is an immense amount
of improvement still to be realized, but the signs
are propitious.
Technical Aspects of the Year.
When we turn from selling to making, we ob-
serve everywhere a growing refinement of design
which is most encouraging. And perhaps the most
admirable feature of this is found in the fact that
it is no longer alone from the mechanical stand-
point that designers are working. The idea has
certainly penetrated within the intelligence of con-
structors and designers that the player-piano, in
the end, is to be judged exactly by what it can
do in the way of playing the piano, or rather in
enabling someone to play it. And the further fact
—which this newspaper has for so long urged—
that the musical ineptitude of most purchasers is
absolutely no reason whatever for neglecting the
playing capacities of the instrument, as judged
from the highest standards, is likewise becoming
more and more apparent to those who design and
those who make.
For all these things we may truly be thankful
It was high time that something of the sort was
brought about.
Passing from general to special considerations,
we observe the very noticeable fact that the grand
player-piano is rapidly forging to the front. Sev-
eral designs have been brought forward during the
year and more are coming. The most striking
feature of all these perhaps is that they are highly
refined and musically most efficient. In neatness of
appearance, in ease of control, and in general
sensitiveness the player grand of 1911 is an en-
tirely admirable creation.
Indeed, it is very noticeable that the whole
trend of design during the year has been toward
an increased sensitiveness of the vacuum system
and a greater simplicity in the control. Without
a doubt it is coming to be generally recognized
that simplification of design is a crying need. The
later developments have been almost entirely along
the line of single-valve actions, highly sensitive
pedaling and exceedingly simple control. It is not
too much to predict that another year will see
firmly established the principle that for all pur-
{Continued
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d.)
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
REVIH
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
SUBSCRIPTION, (including postage), United States'" and
Mexico, $2.00 per year; Canada, $3.50; all other coun-
tries, $4.00.
Telephones—Numbers 4677 and 4678 Gramercy
Connecting all Departments
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 30, 1911
Another year is passed and gone. Again we
look back over our record of achievement and ask
ourselves what we have accomplished, what we
have left undone. The task is sometimes inspir-
ing, sometimes depressing. Yet this annual cast-
ing up of our mental accounts is quite as useful
as the auditing of books at the close of a fiscal
twelvemonth. The world is old and wise. Long
centuries have elapsed since first men began to
bethink them that the close of the calendar year
was the time of times for reviewing past achieve-
ments and for planning future conquests. The
instinct is healthy, and we lose nothing by re-
specting it. Even the "New Year's Resolution,"
so long the theme of the humorist and the skeptic,
has its big, its very vast, uses. The things that
we ought to have done, the things that we have
left entirely undone, rise up to haunt us with their
reproaches. And the most humane mind cannot
shrink from the spectacle of men making these
annual mental balances and resolving for the fu-
ture to do better and more wisely.
As these words are written all the Christian
world is busily celebrating the birth of the Master.
The volumes that have been written on Christmas
and the Christmas spirit furnish sufficient excuse
for not adding here to the burden of written re-
flections on this inspiring theme. But the com-
ing of a New Year does furnish every reason for
us, in this industry of ours, to take serious thought,
both of that which is gone and that which is yet
to come. For the past year has been in many
ways most significant. Some of the reasons for so
thinking we have set forth in a leading article
published in the present issue of the Player Sec-
tion. And it is our firm belief that what we have
there set down represents a contribution, not
without value, to the literature of contemporary
trade activity. We venture to express the hope
that those who read this Section will not omit this
important article.
But there are other and almost equally cogent
reasons for pausing to take stock of our position.
The year 1912 is upon us. Many readers of The
Review, especially those who live in the great West,
will not receive the present copy until the New
Year has indeed become a reality. What are we
going to do during this year 1912 with our player
proposition? Are we going to be content with
merely a repetition of last year's achievements,
or are our ambitions limited by no such petty
ideals? The question is not without significance.
For the spirit in which we undertake to answer it
will be the spirit in which we shall conduct our
business operations during the year to come. And
so it is very distinctly worth our while to con-
sider well what our course of action during the
next twelve months is to be.
If that course of action is going to be anything
definite at all, we are safe in determining that it
shall be progressive. No progressive mind in the
player trade will pretend that we have as yet
'more than scratched the surface of the possibilities
therein inherent. And no sane man will for a
moment contend that current methods of exploita-
tion and sale are all that they ought to be. This
Player Section of The Review has occupied much
space and devoted much labor to the great cause
of player progress. And it is a great cause—
great commercially and great musically, Jt is a
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
cause which we must well and faithfully serve if
from it we are to get our due monetary reward.
And it is also a cause that we should be ashamed
to slight, if only for the sake of our own con-
sciences.
And to all his friends and readers the Player
Section Editor offers the sincerest wishes for a
prosperous New Year.
So the next year should be for all of us a year
distinctly of progress. It should be a year during
which all our best efforts should be devoted to-
ward a greater mastery of the player proposition in
all its branches, whether these be mechanical, musi-
cal or commercial. We need, and need badly, more
knowledge of, more familiarity with, all these
things. And above all, it would seem, we need a
different spirit, a new and broader conception, a
more just notion of what it is we are trying to do
in placing the player-piano before the American
public. All these things we need and all of them
we can have. The sole question is* as to how
we are to get them. And this fortunately is not
half so difficult as it seems. If the spirit be will-
ing and the flesh not too weak, then the rest is
easy. As a man thinks, so is he. This at least is
ever truth.
Tribute Paid to Instrument by Superintendent
of Music in Philadelphia Schools.
INFLUENCE OF THE PLAYER-PIANO.
A tribute to the player-piano and its influence
that possesses real value recently came from
Superintendent of Music Pearson, of the Phila-
delphia schools, who made the following state-
ment :
"A number of years ago I purchased a player-
piano with a general collection of ragtime, Mo-
zart, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert and
Chopin. I had a boy who at first ignored th's
player-piano, but eventually he became interested
and said, 'Pop, may I try this?' And he did.
At first he played only ragtime, but gradually he
became interested in the better class of music,
until finally the ragtime was buried at the bot-
tom of the pile and was never used. Now that
boy has grown into manhood, is an accomplished
And of those things tha* we must have if indeed and thorough musician, possessing a wide knowl-
the coming year is to bring us a full measure edge of the literature of music, and he started with
of reward for that which we have done, the first a mechanical instrument.
is Knowledge. We are dealing, in this player
"Some few months ago a neighbor of mine pur-
business of ours, with a complex problem—com- chased a player-piano and a general assortment
plex perhaps rather because of its novelty than of of ragtime, but gradually he began to purchase
its inherent difficulty, but complex none the less. music of a better class, until now he has nothing
To slight it, to suppose that it needs nothing else but classics in his collection.
but superficiality for its due appreciation, is to "These illustrations merely show the powerful
think wrongly. It is easy, but totally erroneous, influence the mechanical musical instrument has
to suppose that the merchant needs to have no on teaching good music."
ideas about the player-piano except the idea of
selling it. For in the end there must be someone THE PLAYER-PIANO IN NINETEEN-ELEVEN
on whom is to fall the task of bearing the burden
(Continued from page 5.)
of that exact knowledge upon which the success
of player selling finally depends. If a merchant
poses of expressive playing the natural foot-touch
considers himself too important to waste his time on the pedals is at once the simplest, most effec-
in learning the facts about the player-piano, then tive and most attractive method.
that very spirit which he himself shows will
The Growth of Specialization.
subtly penetrate every fiber of his organization, of
As was to be expected the year has witnessed a
the establishment which he has built up. And the
further growth and development of specialization
end shall be disaster. For, as the chief thinks,
in all branches of the player industry. In the
so thinks the man-at-arms. The subordinate may
broadest aspect we observe that the notion is
have sometimes better ideas than his chief, but
becoming more fundamentally rooted that it pays
it is never safe to bank on such a remote con-
best, from most standpoints, to buy a well-tried
tingency.
action from a specialist who makes nothing else.
Although it is to the honor and credit of some
houses that they have persisted in developing an
What is true of the big mm is equally true of
entirely independent and individual design in
those who are commercially smaller. No man, be
the business in which he is engaged what it may, pneumatic mechanism, it is equally true that for
general purposes the game of making a player
can hope to succeed on any othtr basis than that
of exact knowledge. The man who knows is the action for a single piano or single line of pianos
does not pay. The development of specialist pneu-
man of power. The man of power is the man who
matic action making is parallel with that of the
gets to the top of the heap. And this is true of
every form of human activity. How much more, piano action itself. And the natural conclusion
is that it is just as inevitable.
then, shall we hold it true of those activities which
deal with complex and unfamiliar things? For,
The same is true of the minor branches. Houses
mark it well, we are dealing with a proposition
are specializing in motors, in tubing, in hardware,
by no means too thoroughly understood even by
in leather. More and more an evolution is spread-
those who are recognized as experts. We all
ing throughout the whole industry. And the re-
need every bit of knowledge that we can lay hold
sult cannot fail to be most beneficial to all con-
of. The salesman needs knowledge of the musical
cerned.
and also of the mechanical possibilities inherent
All in all, then, it would be absurd to deny that
in the player-piano. The tuner needs, and needs
the year 1911 has given us all much cause for
badly, better knowledge of the mechanism, better congratulation and encouragement. This great
understanding of the principles underlying its regu-
industry of ours is more than ever firmly estab-
lation and repair, better understanding of its musi-
lished. To question its permanency to-day would
cal capacities. The merchant himself needs, and
be to write oneself down as blind to things as
needs badly, at least a sympathetic understanding they are. The player-piano has come to stay. If
of these things. For otherwise he shall only know
ever there was any doubt of this, the year 1911
half of what he is doing. And his sales record
has shown the absurdity of harboring any feelings
shall show the fatal truth when, a year from now, but those of confidence, hope and enthusiasm.
the business of 1912 is cast up.
These thoughts are perhaps not entirely without
significance for us all. But the season is festive
and joyous. Let us then for a moment forget our
business cares and join in wishing each other,
after the merry times of Christmas, the happiest
of New Years. May we all, on Monday next, join
in the cheeriest of greetings to each other, sin-
cerely wishing to all that 1912 may be the happiest,
the most prosperous and the most fruitful of all
our years of endeavor apd strife.
ORIGINALITY.
Of no use are the men who study to do exactly
as was done before, who can never understand that
to-day is a new day. We want men of original ac-
tion, who can open their eyes wider than to a na-
tionality—namely, to considerations of benefit to
the human race—can act in the interest of civiliza-
tion, men of elastic, men of moral mind, who can
live in the moment a n Emerson,

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