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THE
MUSIC
TRADE
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
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_ B. Spillane, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Second Vice-President, Raymond Bill, 373
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Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning,
regulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos
_
are dealt with, will be found in another section ol
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which will be cheerfully given upon request.
Player-Piano and
Technical Departments
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
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Vol. LXX
MEW YORK, MAY 8, 1920
No. 19
W H E N SHOULD THE CONVENTIONS BE HELD?
sending out a questionnaire to the members of the National
I N Association
of Music Merchants in order to learn what season of
the year the membership at large believes best suited for the annual
convention, President E. Paul Hamilton, of the Association, has
made a wise move. We wjll admit that the experiences at the recent
mid-Winter conventions in New. York were not calculated to enthuse
the association members with the idea of continuing the holding of
conventions at that time of year, but the "flu" epidemic and the
storms which prevailed during the convention season this year are
to be regarded as exceptional.
There can be no question, however, but that there is a wide
divergence of opinion among music merchants regarding the advisa-
bility of the mid-Winter.conventions and by learning the wishes of
the majority and carrying out those wishes in the selection of future
convention dates, maximum attendance and maximum interest can
be assured.
It will likewise be interesting to learn through the medium of
the same questionnaire whether the resolution adopted at the last
convention of the Merchants' Association, recommending the hold-
ing of a Music Show next year, really represents the majority
opinion of the Association.
*
FROM FATHER TO SON
piano manufacturer said and truthfully that the piano
O NE manufacturing
business is in a large measure a "family busi-
ness" in the sense that where possible each generation, as it conies
l° n g> goes into the factory and takes training in the business till
such time as the control is ready to pass on. In few other lines of
business is there evidenced such an inclination for sons to follow
in the footsteps of their fathers in the business world. Perhaps it
is the desire to perpetuate the family name as applied to the
fallboard of the piano that has a strong appeal, but it is just as
likely to be the character of the business itself, for both name and
quality have definite values.
The list of those piano manufacturing houses where the second,
a
MAY
8, 1920
third aim even iourth generations are now carrying on the burden
of the business is a long one, and this line of succession is tound
in such concerns as Steinway, Sohmer, janssen, bmitn, JLyon cz
iiealy, Vose, Price & Teeple, and a dozen others, to say nothing ot
cases where sons are acting as assistants to their fathers in the
control of various organizations.
This entrance of new generations into the business of tneir
fathers is unquestionably good for the industry, for it preserves
such traditions as exist, and insures in the desire to perpetuate tne
value of the name a like desire to keep the business methods ciean
and the product right.
PLEASING ACTIVITY IN BALTIMORE
V. D. WALSH, W M . BRAID W H I T E (Technical Editor), £ . B. MUNCH.
L. M. ROBINSON.
C. A. LEONARD, EDWARD LYMAN BILL, SCOTT KINCWILL, THOS. W. BRESNAHAN, A. J.
NICKLIN, L. E. BOWERS
Enttrtd
REVIEW
' " P H E music trade of Baltimore can certainly not complain of a
X lack of interest in Association affairs in that city, if the activities
reported last week may be accepted as a criterion of the way the
music merchants feel in the matter. The general association meet-
ing, the gathering of the Victor clans, and even the more or less
private affair of the Clark Music Co. brought out delegations that
were distinctly representative of the local trade as a whole. With
a proper spirit thus shown, the idea should be to keep the associa-
tion idea active and t to capitalize the interest.
In selecting C. j . Roberts as president of the Music Dealers'
Association, there has been put in the chair a man of proven ability
in association work, and with the proper support the success of the
Baltimore Association would seem to be assured.
THE QUESTION OF FOREIGN CREDITS
devices to meet the present exchange and credit
E NGLAND'S
situation "are a challenge to the enterprise of America," says
the Guaranty Trust Co. of New York in the current issue of its
fortnightly trade review, "American Goods and Foreign Markets."
England's recent shipment of $50,000,000 in gold to this country,
and the possibility of further shipments, it says, will appear to many
as "the conviction of a great international trading nation that the
maintenance of any specific gold reserve is of lesser importance
than the maintenance of credit in markets where it is England's
purpose to set up lasting, invaluable trade connections." It then
adds: "This is no adventure into uncharted financial seas for Eng-
land. Her history is the history of the use of every means to pro-
mote British trade. Her devices to meet the present situation are
a challenge to the enterprise of America. England's confidence in
herself invites the confidence of others. The more clearly the facts
become known as to the progress Europe is making toward a return
to normal conditions, the wiser appears the present British policy,
and the clearer appears the obligation of America to assume a
broader view with respect to the use of credit resources abroad."
I
THE PLAYER COMES INTO ITS OWN
EN years ago the player-piano was a subject of more or less
ridicule among professional musicians, the newspapers and eyen
the general public. It was accepted as offering simply "canned
music" for the edification of those whose musical tastes were not
cultivated to a point where they demanded something better than
an automatic grinding out of notes.
To-day we find the player-piano in the form of a reproducing
piano appearing as soloist with symphony orchestras of national
repute and attracting audiences of music lovers running into the
thousands and these audiences come not to view a novelty, or to in-
spect a piece of mechanism. They come to hear the best in music
presented in a modern manner, and remain to enthuse regarding
the accomplishment. Critics of the daily paper.;, who a decade ago
were cold and sarcastic, to-day show a distinctly opposite tendency
and express in their criticisms the enthusiasm which the members
of the audience feel but cannot thus express.
This new status of the player, or reproducing piano, in the
musical world, is a distinct tribute to a broader conception of the
instrument and its possibilities by the manufacturers themselves.
Setting aside the policy of letting the player-piano introduce itself,
they have taken the opportunity of placing it before the public with
all the prominence and dignity to which it is entitled. The modern
player, or reproducing piano, has become the envy of skilled mu-
sicians rather than a subject of derision. This new attitude should
be developed by every possible dealer, for along this line depends
much of the future success of the piano industry as a whole.
T