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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
VOL. LXXV. No. 23
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 373 4th Ave., New York, N. Y.
Dec. 2, 1922
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The Progress of Musical Advancement
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H E recent meeting of the new Music Advancement Committee of the Music Industries Chamber of
Commerce held in New York, under the chairmanship of Herman Irion, and attended by a score of men
of prominence and standing in the industry, served to bring forth most emphatically from the trade
angle the wide scope and effectiveness of the work of the National Bureau for the Advancement of
Music, with which it appears some members of the trade are not yet thoroughly familiar.
There is no question but that the thinking members of our industry have long been appreciative of the
good work of the Bureau and have taken material pride in its growth, but nevertheless there have been too many
who have accepted it simply as one of the activities of the Chamber cf Commerce and have given it little per-
sonal attention, for the reason that, although they came in direct contact with many of its direct and indirect
activities, those activities were not recognized as part of the Bureau's work.
One has but to read the reports of the scores of music week celebrations and music memory contests
that have become institutions in many cities and several States of the country to realize just what the Bureau
has accomplished in gaining for music the recognition of the general public. Both the music week idea and the
music memory contest originated with the Bureau, and the fact that a number of such movements are con-
ducted independent of the Bureau at present is to be attributed to the effectiveness of the primary work in
making such celebrations valuable in themselves rather than as a part of some definite propaganda.
Space does not permit of even a summary of what has been accomplished in the development of music
week celebrations, even during the current year, but there is still fresh in mind the music week celebrated in
Portland, Ore., last month when some 3,000 distinct musical events were scheduled during the seven days.
State and city officials, from the Governor down, not only participated in the various celebrations, but lent their
assistance to the music week ball which closed the program and brought in the money to pay for the work.
Even at the present time various communities that have been holding music weeks and music memory
contests for several years still rely upon the Bureau for advice and assistance, but that there are others which,
having once been started, now operate independently means that the funds and efforts of the Bureau can in
a measure be diverted to new and equally effective fields.
The success of Director Tremaine in effecting a direct tieup with the National Federation of Women's
Clubs, embracing in its membership over one thousand local organizations of club women, together with some
450 junior clubs, most of them having for their primary object the development of music interest and apprecia-
tion, is a feat that in itself has justified the existence of the Bureau, for it has meant that these thousands of
women are working for the cause of music in a large measure along lines suggested by the Bureau and with
trifling expense to that organization and those who support it.
The National Bureau for the Advancement of Music has been able to do what hosts of publicity agents
and propagandists hope for, but seldom accomplish, and that is to start the ball rolling and have outside and
disinterested agencies, from a commercial standpoint, take up and carry on the work.
To those with narrow vision it sometimes appears as though the fact that the name of the Bureau did
not appear in connection with all the musical activities of the country means that body is not connected with
those activities. As a matter of fact, the work of the Bureau is most effective for this very reason.
For those who seek proof of the direct activities of the Bureau there is available a mass of literature
issued and compiled by that organization, and a volume of statistics that have proven little short of startling
even to those who have been closely associated with the Bureau and its work. The difficulty is that the results
of the Bureau's work have become so widespread that the presenting of them in tangible form is becoming prac-
tically an impossible task.