Music Trade Review

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THE
FEBRUARY 14, 1920
MUSIC
TRADE
43
REVIEW
ILLUSTRATED MUSIC THE LATEST
The Song and Dance Sensation of the Country
"Musique Picturesque" the Name of New
Series of Songs Containing Artistic Illustra-
tions Depicting the Theme of the Numbers
Fifty years before Columbus convinced Queen
Isabella that an America was waiting to be dis-
covered, printing with movable type was begun
by one of four contestants for that honor, whose
names are too long and irksome to remember.
After that movable type was used in printing
literature and music.
In 1459 one publisher of music was indicating
melodies by placing stave lines in the proper
c
C
L
O
D
L
O
U
D
(THAT PASS IN
THE NIGHT)
(THAT PASS IN
THE NIGHT)
u
The Biggest Money Appropriation Ever Voted by a
Publishing House Is in Back of This Number
*
Special, one order 18c
B. D. NICE & CO., 1 5 4 4 Broadway, NEW YORK
Bertrand Brown
positions on the staffs, but without the notes—
his idea being that each user could pen in the
notes to suit his or her (mostly his, no doubt)
own taste.
I saw a piece of music the other day pub-
lished in 1473, in which the melody was marked
by square black blocks arranged in succession
on the proper staff lines and spaces. These
notes had no stave lines. The publication had
never come into the possession of anyone who
cared to complete the notes by inking in the
staves.
If you want to know what the tenor in Queen
Isabella's quartet contended with, take a song
like "The Rosary" and write it out in black
squares with no dissimilarities to indicate its
rhythm, and see how effectively you lose a very
majestic melody.
Long after type printed literature was on its
first laps to the present age of enormous editions,
type printed music was still trying to gird its
loins.
1 OUT
So Thcmas Cross shot his business forward
with a bound when in 1683 he began to print
music from engraved plates. Incidentally, he
revolutionized England's music publishing
trade.
A printer of books who fraternized with
Columbus back in the old country would have
been quite at home in the shop where Benjamin
Franklin started to work, over three centuries
later. But a music printer of the same period
would have fidgeted with embarrassment if put
to it in the workshop of this fellow Cross, who
died a century and a half before Franklin.
Since Cross, the greatest bulk of music has
been printed by the process of engraving. And
this method has remained exactly the same for
over two hundred years.
The art of engraving has attained a high de-
gree of perfection during the last century, par-
ticularly in the reproduction of the work of
artists.
Artists talked through the medium of pic-
tures long, long before Moses delivered the
Ten Commandments. And they have been talk-
ing more copiously through that medium ever
since.
People like pictures. For that reason they
OF
2431
MOTHER, MY DEAR
(By Bryceson Treharne—Published in two keys)
was selected from 2431 manuscripts submitted to us
RECORDED ON THE RECORDS OF FIVE COMPANIES:
Columbia Records
A-2554
Charles Harrison
KdiNon Records
3635 and 82148
Ralph Brrolle
Path6 Records
22003
William Simmons
Victor Records
64765
Evan
Williams
Vocnlion Records
22036
Colin O'More
FEATURED AT THE RIALTO THEATRE BY JAMES HARROD
SUNG BY THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS ARTISTS:
Dan Beddoe
Rose Bryant
Calvin Coxe
Estelle Heartt Dreyfus
Ralph Errolle
Edwin Evans
Sue Harvard
Amelita Galli-Curci
Charles Harrison
G. Haydn Jones
Giovanni Martinelli
Colin O'More
Claire Peteler
Mabel Riegelman
Emma Robeits
Leon Rice
Robert Loren Quait
John Quine
William Simmons
Anna R. Sprotte
Evan Williams
PUBLISHER
AMERICAN
WORKS
We Now Have a Very Large Supply on Hand of
CLAYTON F. SUMMY CO. PUBLICATIONS
Eastern Agents, Harold Flammer, Inc.
SEND FOR MID-WINTER STOCK OFFER. COMPLETE CATALOGS AND THEMATICS
pay the costliest talent in the country to appear
continuously before them in the "movies." And
they bend their attentions late into the night
reading modern illustrated literature.
Printed word matter of the past two or three
decades has abounded in illustration. The
mediums of the artist and the engraver have
been used to interpret pictorially (and thus to
humanize as no other medium can) the con-
tents of books, magazines, periodicals and news-
paper supplements.
Meanwhile, the music lover has been living
with lines and dots on blank white pages. The
appearance of printed literature has improved
in attractiveness decades ahead of the appear-
ance of printed music.
There are some exceptions in printed music
books, especially for children. Moreover, pub-
lishers of sheet music have availed themselves
of the designers and engravers in preparing the
title pages of their publications, but heretofore
they have stopped there.
Two songs have just been placed on the mar-
ket, which are illustrated, inside and out, by
Jessie Gillespie, the magazine illustrator.
Printed in colors, they establish a new standard
for sheet music publication.
These songs are "I Never Knew" and "Maybe."
They are from the pen of Bertrand Brown.
It is pleasing that the first use of illustrations
in sheet music are in connection with ballads
like these—so simple and human in their sin-
cerity. They rise to a high plane of emotional
expression and would have succeeded on their
own merits without the illustrations. But pub-
lished as they are in this attractive manner, they
are certain to find their way into the repertoire
of all ballad lovers.
Music achieves expression which is outside
the realm of verse; verse, expression which is
outside the realm of music; and design, ex-
pression which is outside the realm either of
music or of verse. "Musique Picturesque"
(which is the trade name of this new series of
publications) blends these three arts—music,
verse and design—aiding them to combine on a
common plane of artistic expression, where
ensemble they create emotions beyond the reach
of either alone or of either in combination with
another."
"Musique Picturesque" is being distributed by
Harold Flammer, Inc., New York.
Consult the universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.