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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
HAS THE PLAYER ACTION REACHED FUNDAMENTAL STANDARDIZATION ?
How the Development of the Player Action Has Followed
the General
Rules of Evolution—
Reaching the Goal of Player Perfection by the Most Direct Route—Great Number of Dis-
tinct Types of Actions Causes Confusion and Hinders Progress—Uniformity,
Details, Absolutely Necessary—The Situation
There must necessarily come a time in the his-
tory of every movement when the classical period
ceases to flourish and hurries to its appointed end.
History shows us that all large developments of
any kind move in very much the same manner.
The evolution of a mechanism which in course ot
time becomes universally useful is comparable with
the development of this or that line of thought
which has influenced the minds of men or with
this or that economic advance. In all such move-
ments we may trace the working of one single
great underlying process. It is fashionable to chat-
ter about Evolution, but far less fashionable to
take the trouble of finding out just what Evolution
means. Those, however, who have taken such
trouble recognize the universality of the law itself,
while also perceiving that in detail its operations
are almost infinitely varied.
In a good many ways the historical development
of the piano-playing mechanism may be said to
have followed the more obvious direction of evolu-
tion ; at least as that term is usually, though some-
what 'incorrectly, employed in common thought.
More exactly, however, one might call it an evolu-
tion which already is becoming an involution. On
the one hand we have had the springing outward
of numberless offshoots from a parent idea, while
on the other hand we now begin to see the re-
infoliation, as it were, of these sprouts into one
single flower. In short (while the definition may
be accused of inexactness) we may assume for the
purposes of this article that for player mechanism
the period is about to begin when the process of
evolution will merge into its opposite.
The assumption, in fact, is that we are likely to
see a practical standardization of piano playing
mechanisms into one archetype. It is assumed here
that such a standardization is virtually inevitable.
The assumption may be incorrect, but an attempt is
here made to justify it. Not only so, but a further
attempt is here made to show that this standardiza-
tion is more than inevitable, is actually
the only possible result of successful player
exploitation, and that the better we strive
to make the player a true part and element
of the piano and of public musical life, the more
we shall surely compel a final complete standardi-
zation of types. Not only certain, but beneficial;
these are the qualities here ascribed to such stand-
ardization.
And first as to the probabilities in the case:
Every separate kind of piano-playing mechanism
is a machine intended for the same purpose. Each
is intended to perform precisely similar functions.
These may be described as the operation of the
piano action in such a manner as to reproduce or
simulate the ordinary hand playing of that instru-
ment. Now, it is obvious that there are in effect
three different sub-functions included in the com-
plete function. These correspond with the various
elements in hand piano playing which are called
by so many names. Mechanically they are reduc-
ible, in both cases, to these: velocity of stroke,
duration of stroke, speed of movement, and inten-
sity of stroke. In the case of the piano-playing
mechanism they can be further reduced to these:
mechanical operation of the action, speed control,
and dynamic nuance control, which are the three
sub-functions mentioned.
Now, nothing can be plainer than the fact that
there can only be one best way for doing any one
thing or combination of things. The mere fact that
there is so much variety in the design and construc-
tion of piano playing machanisms is the best proof
in the world that fundamental principles are im-
perfectly understood and as imperfectly carried
out. It is almost inevitable that with the increase
of general knowledge as to these principles and
in mastery over their details there will come about
recognition that certain methods in design and
construction are superior, and that these must then
prevail.
Summed Up with
in Many
a View to the Future.
If it be asked why such a result has not yet
been brought about the answer is not difficult.
Even if it be further -inquired why to all appear-
ances the assumedly inevitable reduction of many
types to one type is to-day as far away as ever, the
answer is again marked by no difficulty. In both
cases it is to be said simply that the present multi-
plicity of types is caused by an equal multiplicity
of beliefs concerning the fundamental principles
involved, or at least concerning their application.
And in specific answer to the second query it may
justly be pointed out that an increasing heterogene-
ity of type points plainly to a parrallel confusion
of thought in the minds of designers.
Plainly, no other answer is necessary; as plainly,
none other is possible. But the deductions which
we must draw therefrom are less simple. For it is
clear that we are dealing here with a situation into
which enter many elements of a highly complex
nature. Every designer presumably thinks that his
own player mechanism is the best. But everyone
cannot be best. And in plain fact, very few actu-
ally have reached a stage of efficiency which would
entitle them to be considered as coming at all
within the realm of best. But facts are facts and
we must deal, with them as we find them.
The big fact in the player situation is that where
a mechanism is intended for the doing of certain
specific and very well known things, competition
among different makers thereof must produce finally
a type which will be so much more efficient than all
others that it will supersede them. This does not
mean that there will only be one player mechanism.
But it does mean that all player mechanisms must
finally become more and more closely similar, each
to the other, with all of them founded" on one
archetype.
It is not necessary to suggest at this point the
name of any specific mechanism for the purpose of
pointing out that it does or does not at present
approach the possession of the qualities that go to
make a type toward which all others must finally
come. The designer or the practical player man
who is acute enough to perceive the changes con-
tinually going on in the trade will have no diffi-
culty in noting that all the drift of design is to-
ward certain fundamental principles which are
more and more being adopted. If it be merely
indicated that the mechanism of the future will be
distinguished primarily by its simplicity and econ-
omy of design, by the larger measure of personal
control that it will afford to the performer and by
the commonsense attitude which will be adopted in
its making toward the problems of touch, the player
man who knows his business will need no further
suggestions.
And it is further to be said that the mechanical
and musical efficiency of the player can never be
thoroughly realized until there is a measurable de-
gree at least of uniformity in design throughout
the trade. The time must come when the argu-
ments of salesmen will have to rest upon some-
thing more tangible than the parrotlike repetition
of this, that and the other claim for. superiority
based on some purely technical talking paint. The
time must come when the player mechanism will
be understood by all as the piano is now under-
stood, when its functions will be as familiar as are
those of the piano. The time must come when the
player mechanism will be regarded as part of the
piano, not as an accessory to it, whereof the value
is more or less doubtful. These things must come,
and they must come because they are founded
on the innate necessities of the situation. Without
some such uniformity of thought there can be no
perfect and true success in the future of the player
mechanism. The player must come to this uni-
formity. And when to this it does come it will
have marked forward the longest step till then
taken in its splendid career.
These words should not be misunderstood or
construed in a distorted sense. They are intended
as a stimulant to thought, as a series of sugges-
tions to designers and manufacturers, with the
hope that these gentlemen may be persuaded to
consider seriously what is going to be the natural
future of the player mechanism. That mechanism
has already gone forward to a position where it
cannot any longer rightly be considered as a mere
accessory to the piano. The time is at hand when
it must be regarded as truly part of the complete
instrument. It will then be useless and absurd
to build players on highly individualized lines,
merely for the sake of having them individual.
That time has perhaps not yet come, perhaps will
not come for many years. And so it may be w.ell
for all manufacturers to realize that, whether they
are endeavoring to produce the best player mech-
anism irrespective of its likeness or unlikeness to
others, or whether they are expending all their
energies in making something that is primarily an
individual mechanism, the future holds chances for
all. The player of the future is not yet altogether
foreshadowed. It may be based on any one of sev-
eral now in existence.
And with this final explanation the considerations
here adduced may safely be left to the reflection
of player men and the trade.,
SEES GOOD BUSINESS AHEAD.
Manager Pletcher, of Melville Clark Piano Co.,
Gives Some Statistics to Apollo Dealer.
(.Special to The Review.)
Detroit, Mich., Aug. 27, 1912.
T. M. Pletcher, of the Melville Clark Piano Co.,
was at the Detroit store for a couple of days this
week, lavishly dispensing enthusiasm regarding
prospects for the piano business in the coming fall
and winter. Just before he left Chicago he sent
out to all Apollo dealers a letter containing some
statistics regarding general business which portend
a high-water era in the music trades at large and
in player-pianos in particular. He said:
"Politics has not interfered with business this
year in the least and it is not likely to. The
railroads in the first six months of this year
earned $51,000,000 net more than they did in the
corresponding period of last year, notwithstanding
that in that six months the political turmoil was
greater than it will be again this year. Now that
the nominations are made, the result of the Presi-
dential election is a foregone conclusion. The
real campaign this year was fought in the primaries
and the State conventions. From New Year's to
the close of the Baltimore convention the people of
this country had the most mixed political situation
to bother their heads about that has come up in
half a century. Yet in that period general busi-
ness expanded in a steady and astonishing manner.
With the uncertainty out of the way the expansion
for the remainder of the year ought to eclipse
even that of the first half."
ATTRACTIVE PLAYgR WINDOW.
Clever Arrangement of Music Rolls and Lights
Draws Much Attention.
The matter of window display is a subject which
is given much consideration these days as a fea-
ture of the business, and in this connection the
window display shown last week by the Adams-
Koenig Piano Co., Buffalo, N. Y., was in every re-
spect most attractive. The exhibit consisted of
music rolls, which enclosed the entire window,
giving a room effect. A handsome Hallet & Davis
Virtuolo stood in the center. The lights thrown
through the roll perforations from the store made
the effect most charming and the exhibit attracted
unusual attention. A. F. Koenig, of the Adams-
Koenig Piano Co., was the originator of the idea.
This firm is exceedingly enthusiastic over the
Hallet & Davis line of pianos, which it represents.
If you desire a man for any department of
your service, either for your factory or for
your selling department, forward your adver-
tisement to us and it will be inserted free of
charge.