Music Trade Review

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AUGUST 31.
THE MUSIC TRADE
1918
REVIEW
The Player-Piano Is Wholly an American Invention, and Is One of the Shin-
ing Contributions Made by This Country to the World's Musical Develop-
ment—A Plea for a Greater Appreciation of the Possibilities of the Player
F11 the course of some rather uppish remarks
made in this department of the Player Section
during the last two months the writer hereof
has taken upon himself to say that the Hun is a
lirst-class liar and that among the hest of his
lies—if the comparison holds good—is the very
old and moldy one regarding his complete as-
cendency and Nietzschean superiority to the
rest of the world in all matters relating to music.
We have been fed with the Germanic culture
notion of music till we have actually come to
believe it; and to believe also that music was
actually made in Germany. We have believed
it; but thank goodness, we are waking up.
Comes now Anne Faulkner Oberndorfer,
whose work with the National Bureau for the
Advancement of Music is familiar to all. She
has been telling the people out in Chicago some
truths about the Hun in music, and the work she
lias started will be carried out nationally. That
is just one little thing in confirmation of the
stand this paper took months ago.
Moreover, a further bit of good news conies
to hand. We now hear, through the news col-
umns of the Chicago Tribune, that the Alien
Property Custodian is sequestrating the profits
arising from royalties on talking machine rec-
ords made by enemy aliens, as well as operas
and other forms of music. Thus again we are
hitting the Hun where he feels it most; that is
to say, in his purse. In the classic words of
Punch, it is the argumentum ad pocketum.
Now, these things are all very nice and we
should be duly grateful. But there are other
matters of equal importance; in certain re-
spects of even greater importance. One of
them we have in mind to present to our intel-
ligent readers herewith.
The Player and the Hun Spirit
Among the points which we have urged in
opposition to those misguided Americans who
have supposed that the American genius some-
how does not run to the level of the mysteries
I'll
of music has been the very obvious but neg-
lected point about the player-piano. Those
who know to what an extent the false ideals of
Germanic Kultur had permeated the teaching,
the theory and the practice of music in this
country will not be surprised at the attitude of
mingled sneer and fear which the body of Ameri-
can musicians adopted at the advent of the
player-piano. It is not unsafe to say that the
prejudices which even now are more or less
prevalent among musicians will take a lot more
rubbing down before they are finally removed;
but likewise it is not unsafe to assert that much
of the old prejudice has already gone. And
why? Mainly because the player-piano has
shown its transcendent merit too clearly for
serious objection.
The German influence has had nothing what-
ever to do with the development of the player-
piano, which is a purely American invention
from beginning to end. The player-piano, how-
ever, has not had its deserts. Its influence for
good is almost unrecognized even to-day. Yet
we have no hesitation whatever in saying that
the one and only chance for the general de-
mocratization of music and for the conversion
of a minority cult into a majority practice is
to be found in the player-piano. The statement
is strong, but the statement shall stand. The
greatest weapon in the hands of an apostle of
musical culture to the Americans is, and will
remain, the American player-piano.
Criticism
Let us see, however, w h e t h e r this s t a t e m e n t
will bear analysis.
All criticism of the player-
piano is, of course, either intelligent or the re-
verse. N o w the unintelligent critic either raves
or drivels. W e have heard a w o m a n , who o u g h t
to k n o w better, object to the player-piano on the
g r o u n d s t h a t it e n c o u r a g e s musically u n l e a r n e d
p e r s o n s to "run t h r o u g h a B r a h m s s y m p h o n y
when the)' o u g h t to be s t u d y i n g a Bach inven-
tion." W h i c h is exactly as intelligent as s a y i n g
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that a person who is not a professional poet has
no business to read "Paradise Lost" until he
has mastered a treatise on prosody. For if
the objection means anything it means that the
appreciation of music consists in learning to
play the piano or some other music by the
methods which have been worked out for the
days which preceded the advent of the player-
piano. In a word, music appreciation consists
of learning Bach inventions, that is to say, of
learning to play what you would never dream
of playing afterwards for anybody else's en-
joyment, and which you would learn anyhow,
only as a technical exercise. It never seems to
occur to the ladies and gentlemen who take this
attitude that one can learn all the Inventions
Bach ever wrote and all the Preludes and
Fugues, too, without ever acquiring a genuine
and catholic love for musical literature.
True Musical Culture
Musical culture consists in a receptive atti-
tude towards the influences of music and in a
familiarity with the greatest possible number of
pieces of good music. Just here most profes-
sional musicians look so small; for nearly all
of them are hopelessly at fault when it conies to
famih'arit}' with large quantities of good music.
The truth is that the ordinary pianist never
can learn enough good music; it takes too long
and he usually has neither the time nor the
energy.
The great and supreme value of the player-
piano lies in just this, that it permits you and
me to become acquainted with the greatest pos-
sible amount of the best music, under conditions
ever so much more favorable than any which at-
tend the non-user of this instrument; and to ac-
complish this quite tolerably in most cases,
more than satisfactorily in many.
Expression
All the intelligent criticism we have ever
heard takes another tack; it goes at the alleged
shortcomings of the player-piano with regard
to expression in the various aspects of that idea.
The best answer to the criticisms which have
been made in this way, is to point out that (a)
many player-pianos have actually been made al-
ready which permit personal control of expres-
sion to a degree of refinement which was
scarcely thought possible a few years ago; (b)
that the ordinary player-piano of what may be
called the popular type is, as it stands, far in
advance of the present capacity of most peo-
ple to control it, and (c) that the various types
of reproducing piano now on the market have
forever silenced the plea that music can only be
brought into the home by pounding of the ke'y-
board.
Advantages
The truth is that the player-pianist has ad-
vantages possessed by no other music-lover.
The time is surely, though slowly, approaching
when the mission of the player-piano will be
understood as now it unhappily is not; and when
we shall see that it is more than a mere player
of the piano, that it is a new instrument of
music, with a new capacity and a new technic,
that it deserves and shall have a new type of
music written for it. The player-piano is yet
to come into its own.
The player-piano is neither a jazz-box nor a
robber of the bread from the mouth of the in-
nocent musician; it is America's contribution to
the world's musical appreciation; and no small
contribution at that. In these days let us not
lose sight of this fact. Let us be proud of
ourselves, not ashamed.