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THE
72
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Conducted by B. B. Wilson
DEATH OF HAMILTON S. GORDON.
PERFORMING RIGHT SOCIETY, LTD.
GRAND OPERAJN THE MOVIES.
Veteran Music Publisher Passes Away on Fri- New Organization in Great Britain Formed
day of Last Week at His Home in East
for the Purpose of Collecting Royalties for
Orange, N. J.—Had Spent a Lifetime in the
the Public Performance of Musical W o r k —
Trade—Deeply Interested in Religious Work.
Modeled After New American Society.
G. Ricordi & Co. Take Steps to That End—
George Maxwell Home from Europe—Works
for American Society of Authors, Composers
and Publishers While Abroad.
Hamilton S. Gordon, head of the prominent
music publishing house of that name at 141 West
Thirty-sixth street, New York, died at his home in
East Orange on Friday of last week after a short
illness with pneumonia and a complication of dis-
eases. Mr. Gordon was sixty-seven years •Qld and
a native of Hartford, Conn.
Mr. Gordon was engaged in the music business
all his life, having been engaged with and finally
succeeding his father, S. T. Gordon, in the busi-
ness. The present house was originally started
under the name of Berry & Gordon in the year
1846. The name was changed to S. T. Gordo,n in
1854, then to S. T. Gordon & Son, and finally to
Hamilton S. Gordon in 1891. The house of Gor-
don has published many standard music books and
much standard music. Anra.ng the most famous
of its publications was "Silver Threads Among the
Gold," which was immensely popular thirty or
more years ago, and which experienced a strong
revival about three years ago.
Mr. Gordon was for many years prominent in
church circles in New Yo.rk and later in East
Orange, to which town he removed his home about
ten years ago. He was one of the founders and
supporters of Bethany Sunday school, a mission
school in the cro.wded west side of New York,
and was also interested in other similar work. He
was also active in trade circles and was an en-
thusiastic member of the Music Publishers' Asso-
ciation of the United States. He is survived by a
widow and four sons, Leslie A., Hamilton A.,
Clarence T. and Herbert H. Gordon.
The funeral services wef held o.n Sunday at
Mr. Gordon's late home in F-'i'-t Orange.
According to George Maxwell, managing direc-
tor of G. Ricordi & Co. in New York, who recently
returned from his annual visit to the headquarters
of the company in Milan, grand opera in the
movies is coming next, and Ricordi & Co., who
control a great number of the leading grand op-
eras, have made arrangements to have several of
them presented o.n the films at an early date.
Franchetti's "Germaina," and also "Tosca" will be
among the first operas presented in the new form.
In behalf of the Society of American Authors
and Composers, which he was instrumental in
founding this spring, Mr. Maxwell labored on the
other side with the result that arrangements are
now completed whereby the society is affiliated
with the corresponding societies in Italy, England
and Austria. The arrangement with Germany re-
quires but the adjusting of a clause with the
French society to go into effect.
There has just been completed in London the
organization of the Performing Rights Society,
similar in most respects to the recently organized
American Society of Authors, Composers and
Publishers in the United States, and its objects
are set down as follows:
Rule 1. The society shall exercise and enforce
on behalf of its members all their rights and rem-
edies conferred and provided by the Copyright
act, 1911, and all acts in force for the time being,
in respect of the public performance of their
works, and shall in particular have (save as here-
inafter pro.vided) the sole right—
(a) To authorize and forbid the public per-
formance of their works.
(b) To grant licenses.
(c) To collect fees and subscriptions, and all
moneys, whether for the performance of their
works or by way of damages o.r compensation for
unauthorized performances.
(d) To divide, apportion and distribute the
same among the members in conformity with the
rules of the society.
(e) To conduct or defend such legal proceed-
ings as may be sanctioned by the committee, but
any member shall himself be at liberty to take or
defend any such proceedings at his own cost and
charges if the company shall fail for the space of
fifteen days after the receipt of a written notice
from the member in that behalf to intimate to
such member its willingness to do so; and
(f) To generally pro.tect the interests of its
members.
The rules and regulations are much the same as
with the American society, and it is provided that
the business and operations of the company shall
BALLAD CONCERT IN TRENTON.
be conducted and managed by a committee con-
sisting of not more than eighteen persons, of
Some of the Leading Ballads Published by
whom nine shall be publishers, six shall be com-
Chappell & Co., Ltd., Featured in Recent
posers of musical works and three shall be authors
Concert in Trenton, N. J.
of literary or dramatic works. The chairman
Following the successes secured at the John shall be a publisher. The first committee and first
Wanamaker stores in both New York and Phila- chairman and first vice-chairman shall be ap-
delphia during the past few months, the Chappell pointed by the subscribers of the memorandum
ballad concerts, given under the auspices of the of the association or a majority o.f them, and
branch of Chappell & Co., Ltd., in New York and they shall hold office until the annual general
modeled after the ballad concerts held in London, meeting of the company, to be held in the yeai
have proved very popular in vario.us cities in the 1919.
East.
An elaborate scale has been drafted for the
A recent Chappell ballad concert of particular division of royalties on both published and
interest was that given in the studio of H. Roger unpublished works, the society getting a share
Naylors in Trenton, N. J., when vocalists of recog- and the balance being divided between composer,
nized ability sang a score or more of the leading author, arranger, translator and publisher accord-
Chappell ballads, including "Little Gray Home in ing to circumstances and special provisions.
the West," "Where My Caravan Has Rested" and
"Rose of My Heart," by Hermann Lohr; "The
First Rose" and "I Send You My Heart," by Liza
Lehmann; "Since You Came Back," by Dorothy
Foster, and others of equal attractiveness. The
concert was well attended and created quite a
furore in musical circles' in the New Jersey capital.
THE LIFE OF THEJ>OPULAR SONG.
The
More Popular a Song Is the Quicker It
Disappears Claims Philip Hale.
"The more popular a song, the quicker it dis-
appears," writes Philip Hale in the New Music
Review. "A few weeks ago we had great difficulty
in obtaining copies of 'Muldoon, the Solid Man'
and 'When Malone's at the Back of the Bar' in this
city. Who sings 'Jasper' to-day, except, possibly, a
gramophone? It was, it is, an excellent song.
Who sings 'Abraham' or 'Bill Simmons'? Even
'Waiting for the Robert E. Lee' is sliding toward
Time's dust bin. The more realistic the allusions,
the more pat they are to the life of the moment,
the quicker the fall, the deeper the darkness. But
these songs, full of 'the black of the pave, tires of
carts, stuff of boot soles, talk of the promenaders, 1
would be invaluable to any sociologist, fifty years
from now, wishing to reconstruct the period in
which they flourished."
ANOTHER "LONESOME PINE*!
A Wonderful Ballad
Alice of Old
Vincennes
(I LOVE YOU)
By KEITHLEY and THOMPSON
Alice Of Old Vincennes
(I love you)
E. CUNTON KEITHLEV
THE LATEST ENGLISH SONG SUCCESS
Oyer a Quarter Million Copies Sold in England and the Colonies.
"Little Grey Home in the West"
By HERMANN LOHR
Published in four key a: Bb (A to D), C, DbandEb.
Price 60 Cents
CHAPPELL & CO., Ltd.
41 Eaat 34th St., - NEW YORK
Canadian Branch: 347 Yon** St., TORONTO
CHICAGO
McKINLEY MUSIC CO.
NEW YOR<