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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
8
THE PLAYER-PIANISTS' DEPARTMENT
[It is in every way eminently desirable that a publication
which undertakes to give so much space and so authoritative
a treatment to the great player industry, as does The Re-
view, should not neglect what is after all the real excuse
for the player's existence, namely, the music that is evoked
from it. Recognizing the extraordinary importance of do-
ing everything possible to spread more widely appreciation
and love for music among player-pianists, The Review's
Player Section for the present month contains below, and
will in future regularly contain, a department devoted to
the musical interests of player-pianists and of the player-
piano. Each month one musical article of general interest
will appear, together with useful hints, notes and comments.
This is in addition to the regular sub-section of the Player
Section, which analyzes the monthly issues of music rolls.
Professional demonstrators, salesmen and player-pianists of
every degree will find each month on the "Player-Pianist's"
page of the Player Section much valuable information. And
the Editor of the Player Section will at all times be glad
to answer inquiries on any and all musical player matters.]
WANTED-A NEW CONCEPTION.
Third Article.
In the second article of this series, published last
month, we undertook to prove that a rational con-
ception of music as a means of natural expression
was necessary to the development among the public
of a musical taste and feeling which shall con-
tribute toward the better exploitation and popu-
larization of the player-piano. It now becomes
necessary to discuss the means thereof.
The problem is to find a way of talking to the
public about music, in reference to the manner in
which the player-piano produces it, which shall be
intelligible. Obviously, this means that we must
entirely abandon the ancient and respectable
method hitherto prevalent. We must find a new
method; and to do that we must have a new con-
ception. That is the first thing for us to do—pro-
vide the new conception.
Music is a means of expression. No matter what
it-may have been in the past, it is that now. Music,
indeed, began as a quite artificial mode of expres-
sion. The works of the classical composers
(meaning thereby the eighteenth century school)
are always artificial before they are emotional.
Beethoven began the work of breaking down the
man-made barriers that concealed the Heavenly
Maid from the ears of men. He was roundly de-
nounced, too, for his pains. And it must he ob-
served that not until the artificial means for the
production of art-work are at the highest point
of development can we abandon artifice by substi-
tuting for it a free expression of emotion. Only
when the technic of the art is at the highest can
we begin to think little of it and much of what
we want to say.
To-day all music attempts to express bare emo-
tion, whether this be restrained or utterly free.
Formal correctness—that is to say, the rules of
musical architecture—is no longer the principal
goal of musicians. Now they are more anxious to
deliver a message than to worry about how it
should be delivered. Modern music, then, is be-
coming formless in a sense, but from this grow-
ing relegation of form emerges a more splendid
content. The time is certainly here for a broader
view of music as a means of expression. And for
that very reason the present time is propitious for
bringing home to the public at large the means
for an understanding of music that will give them
a clearer view and a more natural love for the
art
It would seem that we must begin by impressing
upon the public consciousness the idea that Music
is Expression. Any intelligent mind, no matter
whether it has ever consciously thought of the
matter before or not, knows that, apart from the
regular routine operations of our consciousness,
we are continually thinking thoughts of a more or
less original sort. We are using our minds con-
tinually to think thoughts, and are attempting to
express those thoughts so that they may be trans-
mitted to others, to impress their consciousness in
turn. We are, in short, forever using one or an-
other method of expression.
We express our
thoughts in such a. manner as to make them intelli-
gible to others, and to produce a more or less deep
impression upon their minds. When we extend our
attempts at expression from the ordinary business
of daily life to the region where what we have to
say is spiritual rather than material, we enter the
region of the fine arts. Whether in painting,
poetry, sculpture, architecture or music, the artist
is simply using the means best adapted for his
talent in expressing his thoughts and stamping
on them such outward form as will leave strong
and lasting impressions upon those who read, see
or hear his work.
Now, just as the general notion of expression is
thus common to all our mental activities, the
special forms of expression which we call artistic
are in themselves sprung from a common ancestry.
The artist, indeed, is more concerned with ex-
pressing himself than he is with the reception his
message will receive. For the thoughts and emo-
tions which seek expression from the brain of an
artist are of fine and uncommon fiber, and hence
are likely to be, if not unintelligible, at least ob-
scure, to the common herd.
Nevertheless, so far as concerns the arts which
make their impression upon the mind through a
common source of sensation, it is to be observed
that they have much in the way of common fea-
tures. Thus painting, sculpture and architecture
all run into each other, all overlap each other,
more or less. In exactly the same way the arts
which depend upon the ear for their entrance to
the seat of mental expression may be said more
or less to overlap it. It is true that one of these
arts, poetry, can be brought before the mind
silently, and therefore can make an appeal to the
emotions direct. But poetry is never well appre-
ciated till it is read aloud, that is to say, till it is
heard as well as intellectually presented. Music
may be "read" by a musician without a note being
actually externally heard. But music must be
heard to be properly appreciated. So, also, poetry
must be read aloud if the full beauty of its meter,
the ordered perfection of its wording, are to be-
come perfect to us.
Poetry and Music, then, are analogues. The dif-
ference between them, in regard to our present
purpose, is that the first is universally understood,
while the second is in a less fortunate position.
Now, if we could deduce rules for musical appre-
ciation based on the analogy of poetry, we should
have something tangible to bring to the minds of
the public. And if we could go still further and
show that it is quite as easy to appreciate music
as to appreciate poetry, that a musical phrase has
as much meaning as a poetic sentence, even if it
be not articulate and objective, then we should
have come close to fulfilling our task. Nor is
there much doubt that the thing can be done.
To put the matter in a nutshell, we are going
to urge here that Music be introduced to the public
as if it were Poetry. We would teach Music to
everybody by making everybody see that Music is
a language, highly poetic, perfectly natural, and
easily appreciated.
Before undertaking to set forth any scheme for
doing this, let us answer the obvious objections.
A lot of people are going to say at once that they
don't see why this should be at all necessary, and
even if it be necessary, what good it is going to
do to the player trade. It might seem that these
objections have already been answered, but it is
well, perhaps, to speak of them again. There is a
third objection, even stronger. This is that, grant-
ing the possibility of finding a new and superior
method for getting the American people to look at
Music in a rational manner, and granting also that
such a method can be devised, how are people to
be induced to take notice of it at all, much less
take it up and get interested in it?
We shall answer all these objections together
and thus dismiss them for the time being. People
will never buy player-pianos as rapidly and in as
great quantities as they should until they are
rationally interested in music as a part of their
daily life. They can never become interested in
music as long as that art is presented to them
merely as a lot of dry technical study. They will
never found a firm basis for the player-piano until
their musical ideas are really inherent and rest on
something better than ragtime and the unspeakable
banality of the musical comedy. They can and
must be educated. But this must be through a new
method. This method, of which we have spoken,
and which we shall explain below, must be brought
to the public mind by the player-piano manufac-
turers. To make this possible the aid of advertis-
ing must be summoned. In a word, that is the
method. Its details will be taken in the course of
these articles. At the present moment, however,
we must consider the thing itself, not the means
for its publication.
Proceeding as we are on the basis of an analogy
between poetry and music, we may begin by ob-
serving that just as simple poetry—of the rhymed
ballad type, for instance—and simple music of the
sort that is commonly written for the poetry in
question, are so much alike that merely to read the
words of the one is almost enough to suggest to
a musical mind, the tonal setting. In fact, if we
take, for example, such a song as "Home, Sweet
Home," and compare its words with the music, we
find that the two "fit together so well only because
each syllable and foot of the rhymed words cor-
responds with a syllable or foot of music. Allow-
ing for the fact that the words are articulate and
the music is not, the actual likeness between the
two is so close as to be unmistakable.
This same thing is true of all music of the sim-
pler type. All such music, all ballads, old songs,
marches, simple dances, and so on, bear a distinct
resemblance to some kind of simple rhyme. The
obvious conclusion to be drawn is that the natural
divisions of sentence, phrase and word are ana-
logues to similar divisions in music. In short, we
begin to see that sentences and phrases must nec-
essarily be the primary base of all music of the
simpler kind. This realization will make our fu-
ture task much easier.
{To be continued.)
A HEART TO HEART TALK
It is interesting to note that player-piano manu-
facturers who do national advertising are begin-
ning to talk extensively about "instinct." They
are inculcating the doctrine that everybody more
or less possesses an.instinctive love for expression
in music. Advertisers are talking about inherent
musical feeling as if they had always believed in
its existence. In very truth, of course, they have
not so believed. This is proved by the fact that
these advertisers have only lately begun to taik
about these things. And yet there is no doubt that
in so talking they are perfectly right. If only we
knew it, there is hardly one of us who has not
more or less genuine musical feeling latent in him.
If we all believed this, we should all be music-
lovers. And the reason that most of us are not
genuine music-lovers is to be traced principally to
the fact that we cannot bring ourselves to believe
that we can possibly possess the requisite mental
make-up. This is very unfortunate from every
point of view, but it is no doubt a natural enough
state of mind.
Why should so many intelligent people act as if
they were naturally bound to live and die in the
lack of any sort of musical feeling whatever? Why
is it that the majority of people will tell you
that they "like" music but "do not understand it"?
Why is it that people seem to think that some
sort of .exotic mental capacity lis necessary to