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REVIEW
THE
V O L . LIV. N o . 20.
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, May 18,1912
SINGLE COPIES. 10 CENTS.
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Becoming Obsolete?
T
HE statement was made the other day, by a gentleman who ought to be better informed, that piano playing was be-
coming obsolete.
Far from it, but there is much which could and should be done by those vitally interested from a financial
standpoint to encourage the use of musical instruments, particularly the piano.
In no way can the piano manufacturers and piano merchants' associations" systematically serve the interests of the entire
music trade in a broader and more comprehensive manner than to throw their influence in the direction of encouraging and
stimulating musical education, and the time to train people musically is when they are young.
A friend of mine, a very wealthy man, the other day said that he would give $50,000 if he could play the piano.
He remarked further that he did not wish to learn to play when he was young and his parents never compelled him to,
and, as a result now, he said, he had missed one of the best things which life could give him—the enjoyment of music.
The child who is not taught the rudiments of music is missing something because the man who can play the piano is never
lonesome for a moment, for he has within his easy reach mines of wealth in enjoyment which can never be fully explored,
but to take up the study of music in full maturity or in middle life is almost impossible, and few there are who can steal the
time from imperative duties to devote to the study of music. ' If the thousands of men who are interested in the sale of musi-
cal instruments would place their united work towards aiding and encouraging music in the schools of all kinds—use their in-
fluence to obtain appropriations from the State and the Nation, the result would be most helpful and think, from purely a
financial standpoint, what dividends it would pay in the future in the way of increased sales of pianos!
Pianos are not becoming obsolete, but their use can be vastly encouraged and stimulated if there be the right kind of effort
placed behind educational work.
It was Darwin in his autobiography who said: "If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read
some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week, for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would have been
kept active through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness and may possibly be injurious to the intellect and more
probably to the moral character by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature."
Weigh these words carefully and it will be seen that there is much in them.
Life is made better and brighter and more enjoyable by reason of a diffusion of musical knowledge, and, pray, what men
are better fitted—what men have greater interests at stake-—what men should do more for the stimulation of musical learning
than the men who create and sell pianos?
You may talk about increase of sales and possibilities of business of the future, but there is no way in which piano sales
of the future can be better augmented than through every man doing his part in helping along a love for music in the homes and
in the schools and on the part of individuals.
Then the pianos of the future will not be dead pianos. They will always be live instruments—full of joy and full of
emotion—and not used as in thousands of homes to-day—merely as decorative features of room adornment.
All of the advertising can be helpful, but think how much more helpful piano advertising would be if read by people who
have been trained in their early youth to piano playing.
Do you think that such people would be without a piano in their home?
Do you not think that they would be ready to pay good prices for pianos?
Why, energies placed in the direction of musical education would be business building in the largest possible way. But better
still, such work would be good for the nation, because it would be making better citizens—people who were capable of finding
pleasure in their own musical efforts and by giving keener enjoyment to others.
By forgetting the necessity of concentrated effort in encouraging and stimulating musical education we are passing by
the vital essentials to a business which should be constantly expanding and becoming a greater factor—an indispensable factor—
full of life and pulsing with enjoyment in our everv-day affairs.