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THE MUSIC TRADE
NOVEMBER 9, 1918
the following "families": (a) violins, (b) banjoes,
mandolin, and piano, (c) kazoo, (d) brass, and
How a Musician Organized an Impromptu Jazz (e) percussion.
Band Among a Group of American Soldiers
For music, I found that marches, dances, etc.,
were far more effective and acceptable than the
A writer in the London Musical News relates toy symphonies of Haydn and Romberg.
a most interesting experience which he had The violinists and brass players had their
printed music, and at first I allowed all to join
while "Somewhere in France" as follows:
Probably until the advent of the American in according to their own ideas. I then de-
Forces to this country very few musicians had scribed the importance of contrasts in tone-
heard of the combination of instruments known quantity, and at a sign from me we soon got
as the Jazz Band. I am giving a brief descrip- our pianos and fortes. Then contrasts in tone-
tion of my own experience in this matter, in quality were obtained by shutting off certain
the hope that it will be of some interest to groups of instruments in turn, the kazoo family
were given certain melodic phrases and all joined
your readers.
About two miles from "Somewhere" we have in the full parts.
an aerodrome in an isolated position, where
there is a considerable force of Americans,
THE UKULELE
Englishmen, and W. R. A. F.'s. I had often
Listen to the ukulele
entertained the company by taking concert par-
in the lane;
ties to this station, but one evening I strolled
Hear the dancing leaves sing gaily,
up to the camp alone for a smoke and a chat
Gliding into moods that wail a
with the men, taking, however, a case of music
Sear refrain.
and a few simple instruments. During the eve-
Hear the water's drowsy splashes
ning I seated myself at the piano in the Amer-
As it crawls;
ican Y. M. C. A. hut, handed a tambourine,
Hear the roar as down it dashes,
triangle, and a small pair of cymbals to the near-
Swelling into mighty crashes
O'er the falls.
' .
est Yanks, and began playing a well-known
Sousa march. The men "jumped to it" at once,
Hear the zephyr-wooed narcissus'
and, with broad smiles, joined in lustily with
Breathing warm;
me. Very soon we had a crowd, of interested
Hear the wind's impassioned kisses,
Changing into howls and hisses
men round us, evidently enjoying this im-
In the storm.
promptu orchestra. We then proceeded to play
well-known waltzes and other music. Present-
Hear the lovers' sanctifying
ly I heard the remark, "Why, it's a Jazz Band!"
Of the heart;
Hear the false and truthful trying,
I asked them to tell me just what they called
Slurring softly into sighing
a Jazz Band in America, and was informed that
When they part.
it was a combination of any and every kind of
—WILT.IAM HUDSPETH in Nebraska State Journal.
instrument. That gave me an idea, which we
soon developed. I soon found that we had in
TUNING DEVICE FOR TYMPANI
the camp several violinists, also cornet, French
horn, and side-drum players. These instru-
WASHINGTON, D. C, November 4.—Patent No.
ments I promised to lend, and had them sent 1,282,406 was last week granted to Carl E. Gard-
to the American Y. M. C. A. representative, and ner, Cambridge, Mass., for a tympani or kettle-
the following week our band began to take drum, which relates more particularly to tun-
shape. Some keen Englishmen joined us with ing devices for the same, and has for its princi-
a home-made bass drum, consisting of the frame pal object the provision of means whereby the
of a large square box with parchment stretched pitch of such drums may be altered rapidly and
across. This has now been superseded by an accurately by a single motion of the drummer.
excellently made circular instrument. Two ban-
The Kaiser has not invested in War Savings
joes and a mandolin next appeared. Then,
with the aid of kazoos for mouthpieces we con- Stamps. Are you like the Kaiser?
structed clarinets, bassoon, horns, trombones,
and others of a fearful and wonderful descrip-
tion. Our percussion department now consisted
of two or three side-drums, bass drum, two
triangles, two pairs of small cymbals, castanets,
JOHNFRIEDRICH&BRO
bones, bells, etc. Our Jazz Band consisted of
A JAZZ BAND IN FRANCE
I WILL BUY
FOR CASH
Sheet Music and Small Goods
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REVIEW
WEYMANN s r s
BAND INSTRUMENTS HELP MORALE
Gift of Catholic War Work Council Makes Sol-
diers at Camp Johnson Happy
Musical instruments are the means of great
comfort and recreation among the troops. Wal-
ter G. Hooke, executive secretary of the Na-
tional Catholic War Council, asked the com-
manding officer of Camp Johnson what his or-
ganization could do to help the boys in camp.
"I'll tell you what I want," responded the
camp executive. "One extra set of band instru-
ments will do more to keep the boys in camp
and happy, when off duty, than anything else I
can think of."
Within a week instruments of which Sousa
might be proud were presented by the bishop
of the diocese. To-day two bands instead of
one are giving concerts at the camp.
ZITHER=PIANO IMPROVEMENT
WASHINGTON, D. C, November 4.—A zither-
piano is the latest invention of Henry F. Sche-
nuit, Pasadena, Cal., Patent No. 1,282,636 for
which was recently granted. In the use of the
ordinary piano it is not difficult to obtain firm,
resonant tones from the strings, due to the fact
that the strings are individually struck with a
positively acting hammer, which insures that
sufficient volume of tone will be produced by
the string and in proportion to the force with
which the string is struck. In the construc-
tion of zither-pianos it has been a matter of con-
siderable difficulty to design a sounding board
and arrange the strings thereon in a manner
to insure that the picking action of the string
vibrating members will initially act upon the
strings in a manner to cause them to produce
clear notes of fine timbre. It is an object of
the present invention to provide a sounding
board and a string arrangement thereon which
will make such a result possible.
ANTIQUITY OF THE GUITAR
The guitar has an older and more distin-
guished history than any of the other instru-
ments, and its many beauties, both as a solo
instrument and as an accompaniment to the
voice and other instruments, have made it a
favorite, not only with famous musicians, but
with the common people of many lands as well.
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Black Diamond
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