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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
14
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1917 opens propitiously and all signs point
to a continuance of present prosperity for some
time to come. But the deplorable feature of
the music roll industry is, of course, the enor-
mous cost of everything connected with the
process of manufacture and especially of paper.
This question was thoroughly treated in The
Review on January 6, where a statement made
recently by the Champion Coated Paper Co.
was analyzed and showed plainly the abnormal
conditions now prevailing in the paper industry.
It is' perfectly plain that the cost of all papers
suitable for music roll manufacturing must con-
tinue to increase, and that there is even a
possibility of actual definite shortage. In the
circumstances, it is hard to see why there should
be any sort of complaint over the proposal to
raise prices. The industry must live. It must
live simply, because without it the player-piano
comes to a sudden stop. That is the only rea-
son; but no other is needed.
The question of a substitute for paper in
music roll manufacture has been canvassed be-
fore this, but nothing practical has ever been
adduced in this way as yet. The brass rolls
used for a long time by the manufacturers of
the Telektra player have now been superseded
by the ordinary paper sheets of commerce. A
few years ago, somebody or other took out a
patent for a music roll made of oil-cloth, but
"PERFECTION"
30c
For FEBRUARY 1917
30c
LATEST POPULAR SONGS
Glogau
86018 A Picture of Dear Old Ireland. Ballad.
Played by Joseph J. Fecker
86929 Eve Wasn't Modest 'Till She Ate That Apple.
(We'll Have to Pass the Apples Again.)
Jazz-Rag One-step.
von Tilzer
Played by Harry Monroe.
86917 It's the Irish in Your Eye, It's the Irish in
Your Smile. One-step.
von Tilzer
Played by Harry Monroe.
86926 Meet Me at Twilight. Ballad. Mandolin Arr.
Played by Harry W. Walter.
Harris
Romberg
86928 Mother. From "Her Soldier Boy."
Played by Arthur Maiville.
Hubbell
86923 Poor Butterfly. Jazz-Rag Fox-trot.
Played by Frank C. Weston.
86915 Put On Your Slippers and Fill up Your Pipe.
[You're Not Going Bye-Bye To-Night.)
Jazz-Rag One-step.
von Tilzer
Played by Frank C. Weston.
86927 There's 8om<-one More Lonesome Than You.
Played by Paul E. Rowley.
von Tiller
Nugent and Lawlor
86922 Waltz Songs Revue, No. 1.
A Medley, Introducing: (1) Sweet Rosie
O'Grady; (2) The Sidewalks of New York.
Played by Arthur Prescott.
Hanley
86920 War Babies. Ballad.
Played by Joseph J. Fecher-
86921 What do You Want to Make Those Eyes At
Me For? Fox-trot.
Monaco
Played by Paul E. Rowley.
86916 When I Found the Way to Your Heart.
(Just As the Day, At Its Dawning.) Bal-
lad,
Vanderpool
Played by Joseph J. Fecher-
LATEST DANCES
Meyer
86925 Dance and Grow Thin. Fox-trot
Played by Charles Dunbar.
Evensong
Waltz.
Mandolin
Interpolations.
Martin
86931
Played by Alvin Gardner.
Fryor
86930 Hearts of America. March.
Played by A. Gardner and G. Morton.
Spilling
the
Beans.
Fox-trot.
Daly
86932
Played by George Morton.
HAWAIIAN MUSIC
Kelekoni
86933 Dear Hawaii. Ballad.
Played by Cyril Hudson.
My
Walktki
Mermaid.
Hula
and
One-step.
86934
Played by Cyril Hudson.
* C 1 u ' " n b a
GAUTEMALEAN MUSIC
86919 Blue Waves Waltz. Marimba Arr.
Mariano and Valverde
Played by John A. Schmidlin.
86924
Fletita. One-step. Marimba Arr.
Hurtado
Played by J. A. Schmidlin and C. Dunbar.
We will allow you the 16c price on shipments of
100 or more rolls at a time.
We will be glad to send you a sample roll free.
Standard Kustc Roll Co.
,_ mm
Makers of Mu»ic
Oranse N. J.
Mtmber of the National Association of Music Boll Manufacture of Anarlca
we are not aware that anything was ever done
with it. Yet if paper prices go up any farther,
it begins to look as if the question of a pos-
sible substitute will cease to be academic and
become very practical. Paper, of course, has
many advantages, but just as many defects.
Imperfect tracking is, perhaps, the worst of all
the disadvantages which inhere in the paper
sheet, and the history of the industry is deeply
marked with the troubles that have grown up
around the inventions for correcting the faulty
registration of paper due to its tendency to
transverse distortion.
The time may come
when paper will be superseded, and the ques-
tion is not so academic as many might suppose
it to be.
The Song-roll continues its merry way, and
we are now confronted with the problem of find-
ing an appropriate name for it. A new art like
that of the player-piano and its incidentals is
always in this situation.
Every new device,
or improvement on an old one, must be named,
and if the industry appeals to the general pub-
lic rather than to specialists, as ours does, it is
necessary that these names be catchy rather
than scientific, suggestive rather than accurately
descriptive. It is plain to see that such a hid-
eous and stupid term as "player-piano" would
never have lasted a day in a scientific industry
appealing to engineers or professional men of
any sort. So, too, with the new type of roll
that contains the words as well as the music.
Those who have put forth theirs as "Song-rolls"
don't want the name made generic; nor do the
makers of the "Word-Roll" want everyone to
use that name. The problem is difficult. W e
suggest, tentatively, the use of the term "words-
and-music roll." It may not be graceful, but
then again it is a little more nearly descriptive
than any of Jhem. We might try a name like
that, anyhow, just to see what the retailers think
of it. Of course, sooner or later, we shall either
invent better names or else get used to the bad
ones, and end by consecrating them to our use
finally and fully. Meanwhile it is a nice little
problem all by itself.
The old complaint about the indifference of
retailers to the selling of music rolls has again
been voiced, and one can only be amazed at
the extent of the apathy with which such a
state of affairs is generally regarded. When
the possibilities of the player-piano are fully
considered, the possibilities of the music roll
must be seen as certainly not less enormous.
Yet the fact does remain that retailers as a rule
shamefully neglect the music roll, and owners
of player-pianos are almost always very ill pro-
vided with music for their instruments. W h y
this should be so may be hard to explain, but
the truth is that the owner of a player-piano who
has more than a dozen or so rolls is actually a
rarity. Now it should be plain to any one that
a situation like this is anomalous. For if the
owner has too few rolls, that means he has
only a stunted interest in his player-piano and
is therefore not boosting it. This again means
either that the dealer from whom he bought
his music in the first place has never followed
him up on the music question since he came to
own his player-piano, or else that the owner
has become disgusted with bad music roll serv-
ice and has drifted into complete apathy on the
subject. It certainly does look absurd either
way, and one cannot get over the feeling that
many more player-pianos would be sold if the
individual player-piano owners were buying
more music. There is something wrong here,
very wrong; and we cannot help believing that
a little more attention to this situation on the
part of manufacturers and a little less feverish
rushing after cheap novelty, would be better for
all—it would help business materially.
AEOLIAN CO.
Six of the new Aeolian Song-rolls are put out
for February, all of them of the popular sort,
with hand-played arrangements contributed by
Arndt, Gershwin, and Paul Paris. The reg-
ular hand-played Metro-Art records feature
Rubinstein's op. 44 Romance played by Felix
Arndt, and one of Schuett's charming Scenes de
Ballet. The regular Themodist-Metrostyle edi-
tion leans mainly to the popular, but includes
an arrangement of one of Liszt's best known
and most popular studies, the Chasse-Neige. A
general selection is given herewith:
SONG ROLLS
Composer.
Title.
Played by.
Tierney-Bryan—It's a Cute Little Way of My Own,
Gershwin
Kaiser-Costello—They re Wearing Them Higher in Hawaii,
Alstyne-Kahn—Whose Pretty Baby Are You Now?.Gershwin
METRO ART RECORDS
Composer.
Title.
Played by.
Jackson—Admiration, Intermezzo
Arndt
Broadway Hits—Fox Trot Medley
Arndt
Sanders—Dance of the Teenie-Weenies
Arndt
Donaldson—On the Good Ship B. V. D
Jenkins
Hanley—Please Be Good to Me
Eastwood
Ball—Story of Old Glory
Paris
THEMODIST METROSTYLE, REGULAR EDITION
Title.
Composer
A-Hunky-Dory—Fox Trot Medley. Saxophone arrangement
Amore de Principe
Eysler
Call Again, Mr. Galligan—March song,
Branen-Gerber-Jentes
Follow Me—Selection
Tierney
ONE
GRADE
ONLY
AND
THAT
THE