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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
The Study of the Large Works with the Player-Piano Proves of Great
Aid in Studying Complete Scores—An Opportunity for Earnest Musicians
Which is Being Recognized—Proves a Distinct Service to Teachers.
When the player-piano first was becoming a com-
mercially known commodity, those who were.en-
gaged in pushing it were not in the least doubtful
that its immense possibilities would be at once rec-
ognized and appreciated by the musical profession.
In fact, if we undertake to study the advertising
literature cf that period we shall at once perceive
a sort of naive confidence in the receptiveness of
musicians and of the musical public; a confidence
unhappily not justified by the results.
Those good old days passed, and to them suc-
ceeded a long period of pure commercialism, a pe-
riod in which the whole aim has seemed to be to
produce a player-piano as cheaply as possible, to
make its bare operation as easy as possible while
banning any attempt to improve its artistic ca-
pacities, and to sell it on terms so light as those on
which low-priced straight pianos have customarily
during the last ten years or so been sold. From
this wilderness it would appear that we are now
emerging. The public and the trade alike are
finding that there is no satisfaction in the merely
cheap and the merely mechanical; and the cry goes
up for better things.
For the coming of those better things the musical
world is, however, by no means to have the credit.
For it is perfectly plain to all who know the ac-
tual situation that musicians, of all people, have
been the slowest to appreciate the musical possibil-
ities which all this long while have been in the
player, and which the non-musicians have begun
recently to recognize in a serious manner. Never-
theless, there are certain aspects of the player-piano
as a musical instrument that deserve the earnest
consideration of all who are interested in music
and in musical education; and it is of one of these
aspects that the present article treats.
In setting forth the notions which follow, we are
not at all content to have it supposed that we are
interested merely in an academic statement of cer-
tain possibilities. Contrariwise, we desire to point
out an avenue whereby the sellers of player-pianos
may find entrance to the hearts of musical people,
thereby perhaps rendering easier some sales to
some of them.
Studying Orchestral Works.
This specific avenue to the heart of the musician
lies in a recognition of the fact that the player-
piano presents unsurpassed means for the study of
large orchestral works.
As every music-lover
knows, the larger works for orchestra, such as
symphonies, concerti, overtures and orchestral tone-
poems, are exceptionally elaborate and complex, es-
pecially such ns represent the product of contempo-
rary composers. These works can only be under-
stood when they have been studied as well as heard.
In fact, the musician whose education is not to be
neglected must undertake personal study of the
scores of many such works, and must acquaint
himself with their details most painstakingly.
There are three ways in which this can be done.
First, the musician may read the printed score, and
if he be exceptionally gifted, may be able to play
directly therefrom. Such scores, however, are ex-
ceedingly complex and, indeed, where there has
been no special training in deciphering them, are
virtually hieroglyphic to the ordinary student.
Moreover, the art of playing from sco.re is ex-
tremely difficult, and few master it. Nor is it to be
said that the immense labor thus necessarily ex-
pended is repaid in most cases, since no possible
kind of playing from score with ten fingers only
can be either thoroughly representative or thor-
oughly correct. Thus, the first method is seen to
have its disadvantages.
The second method is to buy special piano ar-
rangements for two or four hands, and to play
these, along with study of the full score. This
plan is useful, but it has the disadvantage that the
arrangements must always be more or less doc-
tored to the requirements of ordinary piano play-
ing, and often therefore do not correspond literally
with the score. The difficulty of playing them sat-
isfactorily is, of course, by no means so great as
in the first case, but two-hand arrangements are
necessarily thin, nor is it always possible to secure
the services of another competent pianist.
Using a Full Score Arrangement.
The third method is to use full-score arrange-
ments, made for the player-piano note for note
from the original, and to use these along with the
printed score. And here the chorus of protest
will arise. The musician will turn up his nose,
sneer, and say that no. one who cannot play from
full score has any business studying scores, while
the piano arrangements are good enough, and any-
one can master them; or if he cannot, he can go
to the devil. As for the player-piano, one must
not mention the horrible thing. True, the musician
says he knows nothing about it, but it must be all
wrong and horrible, because it stands to reason.
This not inaccurately represents the general at-
titude of the general musical mind on this sub-
ject. Nor is it an attitude that can be pushed aside
with a sneer. We have ourselves to blame, gen-
erally speaking, for its existence, and those who
sneer now are those who know no better. The
musician has seen and heard the ordinary player-
piano; and to him it is a thing of evil.
Yet, if the musician will take the trouble to find
out for himself, he will soon see that the player-
piano may be of the utmost value to him as a
help in the study of large scores. To take a single
concrete example, suppose we have a chord voiced
by the full orchestra, involving the whole string
choir, the wind and the brass, from the lowest to
the highest instrument in each. Such a chord may,
and sometimes does, involve a compass of four ac-
taves, and there is no way in which the exact pitch
sensations of this chord can be gotten at the piano,
except through the use of the player. It is not
enough to say that the musician ought to know
by looking at the score the exact sound of the
chord, for in fact the probability is that he will
not know anything of the sort. Musicians are al-
ways talking about their art and its requirements
as if complete mastery were a perfectly natural
thing, of which any lack were a matter for shame.
Truly, of course, there are as many incomplete
musicians as incomplete barbers.
Again, the musician will find that the interpre-
tation of a symphony will become much easier to
him (supposing him to be a conductor, for in-
stance), if he can at once see in front of him not
only the sounds and their relations, forming the
tonal scheme of the composer, but also can study
out the tempo, the comparative importance of the
parts and the emotional results Mowing therefrom.
With the player he can immediately have a bird's-
eye view of the whole thing. And he cannot get it
as quickly or as well any other way, except he hire
a private orchestra to do it for him, and take care
that they are all perfect, so that he need not re-
hearse them first.
Consider the case presented by a concerto. The
solo pianist or violinist must master every note of
the whole score, both of his own part and of the
orchestral setting, and must be as familiar with one
as with the other. When you consider how long it
takes to get the solo part alone into the fingers,
before the interpretation is studied out, the value
of the player-piano is at once demonstrated. A
few hours' study of a concerto in this manner will
enable the soloist to obtain a complete grasp of
the plan of the score, of the composer's intentions
and of his own relation to the scheme, with a com-
pleteness and surety that otherwise are the results
of many days' labor.
As an Aid to the Teacher.
One might continue these remarks along such
lines for much longer, but enough has been said.
As an aid to the ordinary teacher the player-piano
is in this respect, of course, unique. In how
many places do the symphony orchestras never
send forth their sounds? In how many communi-
ties is the cultivation and understanding of larger
forms virtually unknown, save perhaps to the few
pupils who can occasionally hear piano arrange-
ments played in their teacher's studio? Consider
the value of the player-piano in these situations!
See what an efficient aid the teacher can have to-
ward the cultivation of the higher forms! Above
all, see how, now that the player is here and here
to stay, the teacher has the opportunity to make
of it a friend and abettor, not an enemy.
Lastly, when the objections are made that will
be made to the effect that in this or that respect
or detail the player-piano is not perfect, you may
reply that it is relatively as perfect as any instru-
ment that the musician has to deal with; and that
if complete musical perfection were a pre-requi-
site of performance, precious little music would
ever be heard anywhere.
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