Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
50
Conducted by B. B. Wilson
THE OPENING OF THE NEW SEASON AND WHAT IT PROMISES.
PIANO MAN AS COMPOSER.
Unusual Number of Songs That May Be Considered Close to or in the Hit Class—Heavy Cost
of Popularizing Songs—Increase in Number of Publishing Houses—Lower Prices
Force
Greater Output to Keep Average Total Up—Vulgar Songs Still With Us.
A. T. Wittich, of Milwaukee, Responsible for
Music of "Toddlekins"—Words by News-
paper Man—W. A. Kaun Says London Is Rag-
time Mad at the Present Time.
With the passing of Labor Day and the fall
activity in the theatrical field the busy season for
the music publishers, if there is to be a busy sea-
son, may be said to have fairly begun. The ma-
jority of the publishers of popular music and their
staffs have been working hard during the summer
months, getting prospective hits ready for the fall
trade, as it were. The plugging staffs have tried
out one song after another to test its possibilities,
and during the past few weeks have been con-
centrating on those numbers which showed the
greatest promise. With the opening of the musical
comedies and the vaudeville houses and the injec-
tion of new life into the cabarets, the public will
be in a position to indicate their selections. The
month just passed has been devoted to the sowing.
What will the harvest be?
Hits That Are Hatching.
To the casual observer it would seem as though
there were a particularly large number of hits in
embryo ready for the public this fall. That is,
songs that have already begun to produce good re-
sults even before the recognized opening of the
season. This fact may be ascribed to the growth
in the number of music publishing houses during
the past year, some of them large, many of them
small, but all hustling to advertise their productions
in the recognized way. Even allowing only one
live number to a publisher, the total number of
songs would naturally be large.
or which does not serve to fill a real demand. The
result is that the expense to the publisher for popu-
larizing the music keeps on at the usual pace.
Cost of Popularizing Songs.
No better illustration of the almost prohibitive
cost of popularizing songs is to be found than in
the recent case of a large house making a spe-
cialty of publishing production music, especially
that of imported operettas. The house in question
found in its catalog a number from one of the
American musical comedies, an interpolation,
which achieved much success as a production num-
ber, but finally reached its limit in that direction.
The publishing house had either to install a pro-
fessional department for the purpose of handling
the song in a general way, to be satisfied with the
present results or to sell the number. The latter
course was followed, and the purchasing company,
with a large and well-established professional de-
partment, developed the song into one of the real
hits of the season. It costs less than two cents
per copy to publish a song, but it may cost a dollar
a copy to popularize and sell it.
How Vulgar Songs Are Advertised.
Although songs of the ballad order, novelties
and straight ragtime numbers make up the bulk of
the songs offered to the public this season, there
being no radical novelties in that line, there is still
to be found the usual proportion of suggestive or
"smut" songs, no better and no worse than those
offered last season. When the crusades stop, the
Outlook as Compared with Last Year.
reign of the suggestive song will probably draw to
From the financial viewpoint the outlook for a natural end through lack of advertising, though
the present season is not quite so encouraging as nasty songs, to a more or less extent, will always
last, for the reason that prices have dropped during be with us. As a matter of fact, some of the vulgar
the interval at the behest of the syndicate buyers songs would never have been heard of if the
and there appears to be no chance, even remote, crusaders had not condemned them and the news-
of a reaction to higher prices. To keep up with papers called especial attention to the fact, not
last year's business it will be necessary for the forgetting to publish the name and frequently the
publishers to do a far greater volume of business, lyric of the song. Public and adverse criticism is
which, unfortunately, under present conditions ap- the best advertisement an undesirable product can
pears to increase in direct ratio to the reduction in have. Without Anthony Comstock's roar the num-
prices. The plea of the ten-cent and department ber of copies of the picture "September Morn"
store managers to the effect that through the medium sold would have been limited to probably a dozen
of their music departments they are in a position at most. That little knock of his made thousands
to make a song popular for the publisher, is not of dollars for the lithographers and post card
borne out in fact, and it is noticeable that the man- people. The condemnation of "smut" songs has,
agers do not buy anything that is not being pushed in a large measure, had the same effect.
but 'Nancy Lee,' 'The Holy City,' 'The Blue Alsa-
tian Mountains,' 'A Warrior Bold' and other melo-
dies classed Stephen Adams among those who truly
Death of Michael May brick Moves Many Music
possess the melodic faculty.
Lovers to Comment Upon His Gift of Origi-
nating Melodies—No Revamping as Now.
"Beyond all doubt, this faculty is not as common
as once it was. We listen to the airs of Mozart, of
The recent death of Michael Maybrick, who Mendelssohn, of Rossini, and wonder how such an
under the name of "Stephen Adams" composed a abundance of original themes, pure and melodious,
la; ge number of songs of popular character, has led could have welled up in any man's brain. We feel
many music lovers to comment upon the fact that he the same wonder regarding our great hymn writers,
possessed a wonderful gift of discovering really like Lowell Mason. Where is the faculty now?
new and original melodies for his songs, a gift that is Operatic composers of the present day have dis-
claimed by many to have practically vanished at the carded the melody altogether; there is excellent
present time. Mr. Maybrick's standing is well negative evidence that they are incapable of a tune.
summed up in the following editorial which ap- Our popular songs are for the most part either tune-
peared in a New York paper at the time of his less or are the repetition, the merest and baldest
death, headed "The Dead Race of Tune-Makers": revamping of old tunes.
"Even some of the best of the song writers of
"The death of 'Stephen Adams,' whose real name
was Michael Maybrick, attracted almost no atten- recent times, like Molloy, can truly be said to have
tion this week. The newspapers had but a brief composed but one tune, and to have varied that in
paragraph about it. Yet that man's songs had everything else that they did. Now and then a
probably been sung by more people than any other man with the real faculty comes up, like Bullard,
living composers. And while he lived this man was who wrote the 'Stein Song,' or Edward MacDow-
the possessor of a delightful faculty which seems ell, or Ethelbert Nevin—but Bullard and MacDow-
to grow very rare—the faculty of composing "real ell and Nevin all died young.
tunes,' quite original and quite diverse. His songs,
"Stephen Adams was one of the world's tuneful
perhaps, were not of the very highest character, geniuses. Was he the last oi his race?"
THE PASSING OFTHE TUNE MAKER.
(Special to The Review.)
MILWAUKEE, WIS., September 2.—A. T. Wittich,
a member of the sales force at the Edmund Gram
Music House, and regarded as Milwaukee's oldest
piano house, has composed the music for an un-
usually pretty lullaby song entitled "Toddlekins."
The words were written by Harry H. Heming, a
well-known writer and former newspaper man of
Milwaukee, who is now looking after the advertis-
ing for the Gram house. The song has attracted
much attention and will be placed on the market
within the near future.
William A. Kaun, head of the William A. Kaun
Music Co., well-known publishing house of Mil-
waukee, writes from London that the "metropolis
of the world is ragtime mad." Mr. and Mrs. Kaun
are touring Europe and will later visit Hugo Kaun,
the well-known composer of Berlin, a brother of
Mr. Kaun.
IVAN CARYLLJN^ NEW YORK.
Prominent Composer Arrives for the Purpose of
Conducting the Rehearsals of "The Little
Cafe," to Be Produced Shortly—"Oh, Oh,
Delphine," "The Quaker Girl," and "The
Count of Luxembourg," Open Seasons.
Ivan Caryll, composed of "Oh, Oh, Delphine"
and other successful operettas, arrived in New
York on the "Imperator" last week for the pur-
pose of conducting, personally, the rehearsals of
his latest production "The Little Cafe," which will
'he presented in about :ix weeks under the man-
agement of Klaw & Erlanger.
While here Mr. Caryll will also conduct the
final rehearsals of the original company in ''Oh,
Oh, Delphine," which opens its season at the
Grand Opera House on September 15, and after
a week in New York goes on tour of the entire
country and lasting for forty weeks.
"The Quaker Girl" opened a new season in
Brooklyn last week and the "Count of Luxem-
bourg" will open its season in Toronto at an early
rlate with the original company with the excep-
tion that Mildred Elaine replaces Ann Swinburne
in the cast.
The music of all the productions mentioned is
published by Chappell & Co., Ltd.
CHICAGO WOMAN HONORED.
Mrs.
McCormick Receives Honorary Citizenship
from Parma.
A dispatch from Parma, Italy, says: "This city,
which is celebrating the centenary of Verdi, has
conferred honorary citizenship upon Mr= Edith
Rockefeller McCormick and her husband, of Chi-
cago, for the former's gift of a prize valued at
$11,600 to the successful competitor in drawings
for a statue of Verdi, which is to be erected in
this city."
MENDELSSOHNJS "OPPOSITION."
Some very loud talking in a popular restaurant
near Times Square the other day elicited the ques-
tion from a patron : "Is that a riot or a couple of
song writers talking?"
Tt developed that the noise emanated from a pair
of song pluggers. The man seeking information
finally approached and said: "Say, where's that guy
Mendelssohn keep his office? I want to get a copy
of his 'Spring Song.' "
"Don't tell him," replied the loudest of the two.
"It's an opposition song."—Variety.