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THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
The appeal of the piano, as against that of the
player, is of a type requiring one sort of attack,
one sort of persuasion, while contrariwise the ap-
peal which wins player sales is actually almost dia-
metrically different. Both instruments are pianos,
but the straight instrument is sold on the basis of
its utility as a means for enabling some one to
learn to conquer its technic, or to put into practical
use a technic already acquired. The player is sold
on the basis of its utility as dispensing with the
otherwise necessary performer. And naturally, the
point of view is in each case quite different. Not
only so, but the method of appeal is dissimilar in
each case. In fact, a type of mind is required for
successfully selling player-pianos, quite different
from, and generally superior to, that which suffices
fur the disposal of ordinary instruments.
"mechanical." Every time you call a player-piano
a "machine" you make the listener think, uncon-
sciously, of automobiles, sewing machines, and
things like that. You yourself institute a doubt.
You put into the mind of your hearer the very
thing you should keep out of it.
Would it not be a good idea for player houses
to post a rule requiring their salesmen to use con-
tinually the words "player-piano," "playing,"
SUBSCRIPTION, (including postage ), United States and
Mexico, $2.01) per year; Canada, $2.50; all other coun-
"player-pianist," and so on, when referring to this
tries, $4.00.
instrument, to the person who plays it, or to
Telephones—Numbers 4677 and 4678 Gramercy
kindred subjects? The idea may seem small for
Connecting all Departments
ventilation in an editorial column, but it is really
big enough for a whole section of The Review.
1911
NEW
YORK, JULY 2
This miserable carelessness, this half-baked will-
ingness to let everything go, this feeling that noth-
The Editor of the Player Section has recently
ing
much matters, and that exactness, system,
had an opportunity to investigate at first hand con-
When, however, it is impossible for a house to method, care in choice of language and so on,
ditions existing in the piano trade in certain parts
of the Middle West. Particularly he has availed maintain an entirely separate department for the arc all nonsense, is at the bottom of far more
himself of the occasion to discuss with dealers, tun- sale of player-pianos, it is at least generally pos- trouble in the player business than most of us care
ers and the public the effect upon trade, upon music sible to obtain the services of one man who ak;ne to acknowledge. And yet no one can doubt the
and upon public taste, of the player-piano. A de- shall have charge of the demonstration of players entire desirability of creating and maintaining a
tailed discussion of the facts thus noted during a and the sale of roll music. Ridiculous as the pub- proper public attitude of mind toward this instru-
journey through two States is to be found in the lic attitude toward the refinements of playing may meni. What, then, shall we do? The answer is
body of this section, and constitutes a most valu- be, bad as their general taste has always been, it not easy, but it would be worth while to insist
able addition to that body of knowledge which we is nevertheless manifestly foolish to bank too much upon salesmen using correct language and giving
call "trade" knowledge. It is to be hoped that on this and to assume in consequence that nobody correct ideas, even to the extent of fining them
every reader of this Section will carefully go over appreciates, cares for, or wants to be able to imi- tor violations of these rules.
this article, for it will bring new ideas, new view- tate, good playing. To put a salesman in as a
IMPROVED FORM OF VALVE
points, and new possibilities to the minds of all. demonstrator who knows nothing, and cares less,
And in this lies, perhaps, its most valuable attri- for either music or its rendering through the For Pneumatics of Player-Pianos the Subject
player-piano, is to put a trust in public indiffer-
of a Patent Granted A. G. Gulbransen—An
bute.
ence and ignorance which may succeed for a time,
Interesting Description of the Improvement.
For the truth of the matter is that we all need, but cannot be recommended as a policy. Whether
A. G. Gulbransen, of the Gulbransen-Dickinson
and need sadly, the clarifying influence of new the public has, or has not, any definite and settled
Co.,
of Chicago, 111., is the patentee of a pneumatic
ideas
on
the
subject
of
playing
music,
at
least
ideas, the mental attrition that alone comes from
for automatic player-pianos, No. 998,171, which has
there
can
be
no
harm
in
taking
care
that
when
we
frictional contact with antagonistic minds. All of
special reference to an improved form of valve
us are too prone, by far, to get into the easy, but do play we shall play well. Certainly no one who
which will allow more efficient operation of the
is
not
tone
deaf—and
very
few
people
are—prefers
fatal, habit of believing that our own views, those
pneumatic. After referring to previously issued
bad
to
good
playing,
even
of
bad
music.
A
man
we have gathered from the working of our own
patents wherein the general construction of his
minds in our own particular circumstances, are who knows and cares for nothing but the inanities
automatic player-piano and the pneumatics asso-
of
popular
''stuff,"
at
least
prefers
that
what
he
alone sufficient to give us sane and valid solutions
ciated therewith are described, 874,675 of Decem-
hears
shall
be
well
performed.
This
is
a
point
for universal questions. We are prone to argue
ber 24, 1907; 874,762 of December 24, 1907; 874,-
from the particular to the general, a fallacy of by ro means well enough recognized.
763 of December 24, 1907; 891,930 of June 30,
which the operation is by no means confined to
1907; 913,378 of February 23, 1909, the inventor
The
Editor
of
this
Section
went
into
a
ware-
members of the fair sex. And the leading article
says:
room
the
other
day
in
a
city
of
100,000
inhabitants;
to which we draw attention in the present issue
"In the construction of the valve associated with
will be found valuable precisely in so far as it a city, moreover, which somewhat prides itself on
the pneumatics, the form which I have preferably
succeeds in putting forth intelligibly and sanely a its musical taste. A salesman was sitting at a
employed is constructed by interposing a leather
phase of the player situation not hitherto generally very good player-piano, absolutely murdering an
washer between the end of the valve stem and the
recognized by most of us. Certainly it is a view arrangement of excerpts from grand operas. It
lever which is actuated by a rubber diaphragm
was
one
of
those
little
potpourri
rolls
with
that has not yet received elsewhere articulate ex-
snatches from this, that, and the other well-known moved by the pressure of air flowing to the pneu-
pression.
work in it. He sat there, right in front of the matic from an opening corresponding to any given
Why precisely the piano dealer in the small, entrance, giving a perfect imitation of a steam note in the tracker board mechanism. The leather
thriving cities of the Middle West, in a country calliope, or of a carrousel piano. The Player washer has been glued to the lever above men-
teeming with natural wealth, should find the player- Editor ventured to ask him, after a while, why tioned, and the end of the stem in turn glued to
piano a difficult, if not positively a distasteful, busi- he played so badly, without the least recourse even the leather washer. At the other end of the stem
ness proposition, is an interrogation which the to the various expression devices. He appeared a valve button has been attached, a second leather
hurt at the question, He could "operate" as well washer being inserted and glued on its two sides
article referred to attempts to answer. The point of
view here presented is in a sense not new, but in a as anybody, he said, but he did not care to do so to the valve button and the end of the valve stem
larger sense it posssses the attributes, not always just then. The editor then suggested that to mur- respectively. On each end the valve stem has been
allied, of novelty and truthfulness. It is a great der music, in a store where every passer-by could squarely cut off. I have found that according to
pity that dealers, who feel so clearly and postively see, and hear, the crime, was not exactly a good this construction there is a tendency for the valve
stem to be displaced from its normal position, with
the difficulties of the player-piano as a selling advertisement either for the player-piano in gen-
the result that the valve button does not become
proposition, should apparently be content to grieve eral or for the particular instrument played on.
seated evenly and satisfactorily on the valve seat.
over their perplexities in silence rather than ex- This has never occurred to the salesman before.
"According to my present improvement, the
press themselves in a manner which might be It was a new point of view. That man could not
heeded by manufacturers, by other dealers, and by see that every bar of abused music that sounded lower end of the valve stem is squarely cut off and
the public at large. But since they seemingly prefer out to the passer-by in the street proclaimed aloud is glued or otherwise suitably attached directly to
this method, it is well that, from time to time, an that the player-piano is capable of the grossest the lever above mentioned. The upper end of
impartial observer, whose sole object is to ascertain assaults on music, vvhe'.i it is incapably handled, the valve stem is rounded, and the valve button
facts, should be able to investigate, for himself, the nor had it occurred to him that it is the worst on the under side of which a leather washer is
reasons and conditions which together have made policy in the world to strengthen an already strong attached, is glued or otherwise suitably fastened to
the player situation in some parts of this country public opinion as to the general musical worth- the rounded upper end of the valve stem through
the medium of this washer. According to this
lessness of all players.
anything but good.
construction it will be apparent that the valve
Can players be successfully sold by men who This same salesman told us that he had recently stem is rigidly mounted with respect to the lever,
chiefly devote themselves to the selling of straight heard So-and-So, of such and such a concern, and for this reason it will always operate in a
pianos? The question is not without a large and "operating" the player-piano, and that this gentle- true and accurate manner, and no guides are
practical interest. Those houses which have made man was one of the finest "operators" he had ever necessary, such as are often used in connection
a success of the player business have specialized heard. We found that this salesman habitually with the primary valves of the pneumatics of other
from the very first. And it is hardly to be doubted referred to the player-pianists as "operators," construction. On account of the rounded form
that a similar state of affairs may be found in any talked of "running this machine," and so on. Is of the upper end of the valve stem the valve but-
line of business where technical and other con- it not about time that we organized a society for ton is allowed to adjust itself with great ease to
siderations give to one kind of commodity a value the suppression of the words "operator." "machine" the valve seat, and always forms a tight and accu-
or a public appeal different from that which is and so on, in reference to player-pianos? Surely rate joint. I have found that by means of the
given to another. Specialization, in fact, is not it must occur to any intelligent man that the con- improvement above described the operating effi-
alone logical, but also indispensable if the best tinual use of these words in connection with the ciency of the automatic player piano is consider-
efforts of a man are tp be given to his business. player-piano involves each time the connotation ably increased."
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