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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
OCTOBER 9,
1920
TRADE NEWS FROM CINCINNATI
CHECKERING PIANOS AT FESTIVAL
WAR FORTUNES NOW FADING AWAY
Local Piano Manufacturers See No Chance to
Reduce Wholesale Prices in the Immediate
Future—A. E. McElroy Now With Butler
Bros.—Small Roll Dealers Springing Up
Guy Maier and Lee Pattison Use Chickering
Pianos at Recent Appearance in Pittsfield
Mushroom Concerns Fall by the Way While
Established Business Goes on—Legitimate
Merchants Need Not Worry About These
Failures, Says American Exchange Bank
One of the most originally interesting and
attractive offerings at the recent Pittsfield
(Mass.) Music Festival was the performance
of compositions for two pianos by the Ameri-
can pianists, Guy Maier and Lee Pattison.
Since their first appearance together in Bos-
ton in 1916 they have steadily advanced in the
perfection of their art, and devoting their time
almost exclusively to this form of endeavor
they have arrived at a point where the field is
practically their own. Each is an artist* of high
rank and rare individual attainment. Each is
temperamentally the counterpart of the other.
Mr. Maier has been called a pianist of fiery
temperament and dash, while Mr. Pattison is a
conservative classicist, and yet in their en-
semble performances they have so merged their
individualities that they play together as one.
Messrs. Maier and Pattison use the Chicker-
ing piano in all their concerts and used that
instrument at the festival.
CINCINNATI, O., October 5.—No decrease in the
prices of pianos manufactured in this district can
be expected for some months to come, according
to the best information obtainable at this time.
While the manufacturers admit that the decreases
in other lines as well as the reduction announced
several days ago by Lyon & Healy, Chicago, had
received their attention, all stated nothing had
been done here along that line.
Augustus Beall, secretary of the John Church
Co., was frank in his explanation of the situation,
stating that it takes from six to seven months to
produce a finished article and that these now
under way were being built at the market prices.
Consequently he believed there was no likelihood
of a reduction in prices until the existing supplies
had been consumed by the public.
The Baldwin Co., apparently, has nothing of
the kind in mind and the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co.
has not considered the subject. There has been
no meeting -of the officers since Henry Ford
started the ball a-rolling at Detroit. Howard E.
Wurlitzer, president, who has been in Europe Interesting Instrument Placed in Worch Collec-
tion at National Museum, Washington
several months, sailed from France Saturday and
is expected in New York City October 11.
WASHINGTON, D. C, October 4.—Through the
A. E. McElroy, road representative of the
generosity
of Hugo Worch, the well-known
Vocalstyle Music Co., resigned during the past
piano merchant of this city, a valuable addition
week and is now with Butler Bros., piano manu-
is to be made to the important Worch Collec-
facturers. "Mac," as he is best known to the
tion of 150 keyboard instruments now at the
' trade, severed his connection with the Vocalstyle
National Museum which depicts every phase of
house with the best of good feeling. Traveling
the origin and development of the American
was distasteful to him and the offer of Butler pianoforte. An interesting history is attached
Bros., which would enable him to remain m Cin- to this copy of the Bach.harpsichord.
cinnati and with his family, was too tempting to
One of the rarest and choicest possessions v be-
refuse.
longing to the Berlin collection of archaic mu-
Henry and Harry Gennett, of the Starr Piano sical instruments is a cembalo, or double-bank
Co., Richmond, Ind., were in town during the harpsichord, made by Gottfried Silbermann
past week, on a shopping expedition.
(1683-1753). This instrument was at one time
H. C. Houston, of the Wilcox & White Co., the property of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-
was a caller at the Otto Grau Piano Co. last 1750), the great master, and reputed to have
week.
been the most accomplished harpsichord player
Lucien Wulsin, of the Baldwin Co., attended of his time. After the death of Johann Sebas-
the annual meeting of the American Legion at tian Bach the instrument became the property
Cleveland and contributed his aid towards the of his son, Phillip Emanuel (1714-1788), who,
election of Colonel F. W. Galbraith, Jr., this city, like his father, was also a gifted performer on
as national commander. At the close of the con- the cembalo. He used the original Bach instru-
vention he hiked over to Chicago to have a peep ment during a course of fifty years.
at the Windy City connections of the Cincinnati
Later the Bach harpsichord was transferred
factory.
to the Berlin collection of antique keyboard in-
Cincinnati, during September, was afflicted with struments. At the present time the original
good and bad spots. For instance, E. E. Rob- cembalo is used in concerts to illustrate the com-
erts, of the Baldwin Co., reports the month just positions written for this instrument by such
closed to have exceeded all previous September tone artists as Frescobaldi, Bach, Purcell,
records. Other houses found business to be weak Francois, Handel, Ramean, Hayden, Mozart
at times and the aggregate for the month to be and others. The directors of the German Mu-
just fair.
seum for Masterworks and Physical Science at
Raimund Wurlitzer, son of Howard Wurlitzer, Muenchen, wishing to obtain a duplicate of the
famous cembalo, contracted with Carl A. Pfeif-
who underwent'a serious operation a week ago
is reported to be in a most satisfactory condition. *fer, a well-known piano maker of Stuttgart, for
Piano merchants are commencing to take notice the construction of a similar one. The original
of the establishment of music roll departments in was placed at the disposal of the manufacturer
electrical and cigar shops, quite a number of who finished two examples in 1909. One was
these springing up during the past month. They placed on exhibition at the Muenchen Museum
are to be found in the outlying districts. In some for Physical Science, and the second was pur-
stores cables of electric wiring are almost nudging chased by Mr. Worch. The masterly care in-
player rolls. It is understood the association now culcated in its construction carries with it a
in process of formation will ascertain whether guarantee that this instrument will be in a
their new competitors are paying occupational serviceable condition for at least 150 years.
taxes in order to help along the city's finances,
which, like other towns in the State, are not LIVE KOHLER & CAMPBELL PUBLICITY
flushed by any means.
The series- of newspaper cuts prepared for
the use of Kohler & Campbell dealers released
during September have in every way kept up
to the standard of this service during the past
year. Both illustrations and copy follow a dis-
tinctive trend and offer the Kohler & Campbell
dealer a newspaper presentation that will be
reflected in their early Fall sales. Mats and. if
necessary, electros of these four splendid illus-
ESTABUSHED--IN--I83Z
trations may be obtained by request directly to
ALBANY, N. Y.
Kohler & Campbell, Inc., New York.
GETS COPY OF BACH HARPSICHORD
OARDMAN
4&QRAY*
PlANOS
Business men should feel no great concern
over the majority of the failures now being
reported, as these failures are mostly among
the concerns which grew up almost over night
in war time, due to the unusual opportunities
then presented. The elimination of these mush-
room business houses is only in the natural
course of events, according to a circular issued
by the American Exchange National Bank.
The concerns which rose up on the waves of
speculation developed by the conditions grow-
ing out of the war had no part or place in the
distributing machinery of the country before
the war and their development would have been
impossible under normal conditions, while their
elimination, once the condition that -produced
them had passed, was certain. The article says:
"The legitimate mercantile interests of the
country are not being hurt; in reality they and
the public are being benefited. If any of the
old established merchandising houses should go
down with the wreckage they will suffer be-
cause they succumbed to temptation and let
go their anchorages in sound business prin-
ciples which saved, and will continue to save,
the houses which are rooted firmly in the prac-
tices upon which the business superstructure
rests. Nine times in ten the opportunist mer-
chant is a profiteer, and it is safe to assert that
V9 per cent of the profiteering charged to mer-
chants in the last year arose out of the char-
acter of the competition brought into merchan-
dising by these newcomers. The merchants who
have survived are the merchants who adhered
as closely to their principles as circumstances
allowed, and they will go on serving the public
in the future as they have in the past, and there
is no reason whatever to regret the passing of
those who may fail to measure up to the rigid
standards of sound merchandising.
"Few of us fully appreciate just how much
of a disturbing factor the mushroom merchant
really was. Except for the fact that he did
perform the function of passing goods on from
the producer to the seller, he was not actually
a merchant. Of course, he bought in the low-
est market he could find and sold in the high-
est, and thereby justified the terms in which
some still define a merchant; but the modern
merchant who is in the business to stay does
neither of these things; instead he buys with
discrimination and sells at a price that will yield
him a reasonable profit—the mushroom middle
man was not a merchant in that sense. He
was a plain opportunist who had the wit to
see what was coming in the way of increased
demand for goods and the money to go into the
markets and bid against the established con-
cerns, or he was a small trader who found him-
self shoved into what looked like success by
the rushing tide of events and, generally speak-
ing, lost his head in the process. In either case
he was doomed to find his way back to the ob-
scurity from which he came, little better off
than he was before, but leaving wreck in his
wake. It would be unfair to charge the mush-
room trader with all the evils from whose after-
math we are suffering, but his responsibility is
large, and it would be foolish to ignore it or
regret his elimination."
Consult the universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.
DECKER
mJ
EST. 1856
51 SON
PIANOS and PLAYER-PIANOS
697-701 East lSStb Street. New York