Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUJIC TIRADE
VOL. LXIII. No. 13 Published Every Saturday by the Estate of Edward Lyman Bill at 373 4th Ave., New York, Sept. 23, 1916
sln
*Jf ^
• Music Advancement Work—What it Means
A
COMPREHENSIVE, understandable presentation of the idea back of the National Bureau for the
Advancement of Music, and how it is hoped to accomplish the desired end, was set forth by C. M.
Tremaine, head of the bureau, in The Review last week. Incidentally, Mr. Tremaine presents some
^ truths that should receive the earnest consideration of everyone interested in the development of
musical interests generally and, therefore, of the trade itself.
There is nothing visionary or impossible about the music advancement plan. At the present time there
are choral societies, organizations interested in community music, organizations whose aim is to bring the best
of orchestral music before the great body of the people, organizations big and little, in the trade and out,
working for the development of musical interests in one form or another.
The trouble is that these organizations have been working separately, have chosen their own particular
little sphere, and have kept within its borders, without realizing or having presented to them properly how
much greater force their work would have, should it be done in co-operation with other bodies. What the
Music Advancement Bureau seeks to accomplish is the co-ordination of all these forces, to start them working
for a common purpose in accordance with a given plan, to have interests now working wildly and often at a
tangent with other interests, come together for mutual benefit.
There is a tremendous latent power existing in musical circles in this country, but to make that power
effective it must be organized as one compact whole. The power of a waterfall cannot accomplish results
unless it be brought under proper restraint. A million men cannot make an effective army until they are
brought together in regiments, brigades and army corps, properly drilled, equipped, and, most important of
all, officered by men who can direct the force of that army along lines that will bring results.
The time is now ripe for the music advancement movement. The community music idea has been spread
throughout the country. Only last week over 25,000 citizens of blase New York gathered in Central Park on
two succeeding evenings to enjoy an open-air musical festival and to lend their voices to the choruses.
The public press on its own initiative has taken up the cause of "music in the home,' 7 which represents in
itself a tremendous force that needs only co-operation and direction in the proper channels to make its value
paramount. Appreciation of the "music in the home" idea in the daily papers will result in a broadening-
out process, and if the proper support is given to the "music in the home" page, it will become of great
general interest, as helpful and as instructive as the pages now given to automobiles and similar interests.
What is needed, as Mr. Tremaine truly said, is co-ordinated effort, and whole-souled support, both
financially and morally, at a time when the movement is starting and when it needs this support. The
member of the trade who withholds his support until he sees what is going to happen is not only standing
pat, but he is acting as a brake on the wheels of progress. His support now will keep those wheels turning,
but his lack of support may be a factor in stopping those wheels.
Keeping in action a movement that is already under way is quite simple, as compared to the problem of
putting new life into a movement that has become dormant through inactivity.
Not only is the support of the big men of the trade and of the musical world needed, but the co-opera-
tion of the piano dealers and the leading music elements in the smaller cities and. towns is equally essential
to make the music advancement movement countrywide in its scope.
It is the man in the smaller city who will get real benefit from the movement if he gives it actual support,
for he can bring pressure to bear upon the local papers and can, through his own enthusiasm, arouse local
interest generally in music of all kinds, subsequently meeting the demand for musical instruments that will
naturally follow.
(Continued on page 5)