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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
DECEMBER 30, 1922
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Some Untrodden Paths in Player-piano Music—Now Facing Two Distinct
and Wholly Opposed Schools of Thought in Player Music Field—An Analysis
of the Situation, and Some Suggestions That Should Prove of Interest
The musical development of the player-piano
becomes more and more interesting as time
goes on and as the technical ideas which have
been fermenting in the minds of the inventors
burst forth one by one into practical fruition.
We are at present in a situation which in many
ways is most extraordinarily interesting and
suggestive, for we find ourselves facing two
distinct and wholly opposed schools of thought,
one of which seems for the time to be dominant,
but each of which has its own special place and
its own value. There is, indeed, some danger
that one of these may be unduly neglected, but
the purpose of this article is to show why such
neglect would be most inopportune, and even
dangerous.
During the last year or so the whole tendency
of thought and action in the player business
has been towards the imitative. The player
mechanism has been developed during this time
almost entirely as an imitator, a copier, a re-
producer (the exact term matters very little)
of individual two-hand piano playing. In this
way there has been worked out a valuable and
interesting collection of specimens of the pianis-
tic style of many eminent musicians. Even if
the whole tendency disclosed were now for the
time to cease, the existing stock of music and
instruments would be sufficiently valuable to
the cause of music to require further addition
in due course.
Unfortunately, there is a side to this tendency
which is much less admirable. The anxiety to
put the new inventions to immediate use has
naturally been very pressing, and the competi-
tive battles of leading makers have been very
strenuous. There has consequently arisen a
feeling that exploitation is more important than
the production of the best possible instrument;
that is to say, that it is more important to
find ways of getting the public excited over the
reproducing piano than to improve the methods
and the ways of recording and reproducing.
This tendency will, of course, in due time be
checked and the parallel processes will be
evenly resumed; but at present we have to
remark that exploitation is getting the upper
hand and that in consequence musical interests
are rather suffering.
Development Must Be Inducive
The trade, we think, is sufficiently long-
sighted to perceive that it would be impossible
to carry on the player business if the appeal
to the public were to be based upon the single
narrow basis of ten-finger reproduction. For
however valuable, however commercially at-
tractive that line of development may be, it
cannot support the player business all by itself.
This is because it is not a big enough idea. It
is not like the talking machine, broad enough
to carry the entire weight of the public desire
for recorded musical interpretation. It un-
doubtedly will continue to refine itself until its
achievements are far beyond anything now sup-
posed to be practical; but it must not monopo-
lize the field, for if it is allowed to do so, we
shall be in grave danger of entirely losing one
of the most powerful musical weapons ever
forged.
This weapon is contained in the eighty-eight
fingers of the player-piano, but is released only
when those eighty-eight fingers are regarded,
not as usable only at the rate of six or seven
at a time, but in any number-combinations
which the learning or fancy of a composer may
cause him to select. In a word, there exists,
as we have shown in these columns already
many times, a great field for musical develop-
ment in the player-piano considered as an or-
chestral pianoforte, as a musical mechanism
equipped with almost unlimited powers of tone
emission in combinations of the widest scope
and power. Readers of this paper know that
already much has been done in this direction
by composers who have been willing to under-
take the study and labor needed to put into
practical shape the knowledge already possessed
as to the player-piano's capacities. There is,
as yet, no money in work of this sort, not a
cent. Yet the men who have been self-sac-
rificing enough to do it have shown us a whole
new world of musical beauty which we certainly
must not abandon.
Interdependence of Elements
When we discuss these matters in the musical
department of the Player Section we may con-
sider ourselves at liberty to take up points of
view not exclusively commercial. It is possible
to consider the player-piano solely as a musical
instrument. When we do that we see that the
musical value of the player-piano is inde-
pendent of its commercial interest, and yet at
the same time is partly dependent upon the
interest which the trade takes in it. For, if the
retail trade should lose interest in the foot-
pedal player-piano, the manufacturers would
lose interest too. In such a case only one pos-
sibility can be imagined. The foot-pedal player-
piano would disappear. If it were to disappear,
the art of player composition would disappear
with it.
A Way Out
But there is one way out, perhaps. If only
the work of the musicians who are interesting
themselves in the player-piano could be hooked
up with the electric-driven instrument in some
practical way, then it would be comparatively
a simple matter to keep alive the art of player-
composition. As a matter of fact, the thing
could be done, for music composed for the
player-piano can be interpreted by a player-
pianist through the medium of a suitable play-
ing mechanism, upon a recording piano. Prob-
ably this has never yet been tried, but that has
nothing to do with the case.
An Old Experiment
Some years ago the Q R S Co. published a
line of what were called, we believe, "inter-
preted rolls." These were recorded by a player-
pianist. That is to say, the original roll was
played on (probably) a cabinet player by a
first-class player-pianist, and the recording
piano to which the cabinet was attached took
down the record thus made. The results were
very good and the idea might have been prop-
erly applied to all sorts of orchestral music.
Since, however, most player arrangements of
orchestral music are taken either from two-hand
or four-hand piano scores, there is no advantage
now in using this particular method, for two
pianists can record at one piano as easily as
one can.
How It Can Be Done
But it is quite^a different matter with music
specially composed for the player-piano, or even
with orchestral music arranged for player-piano
as it ought to be arranged, namely, from the
orchestral score, with due allowance for the
player-piano's individual peculiarities. All such
music demands technical resources greater than
any number of pianists can achieve and yet it is
just as easy to record it as if it were the merest
five-finger exercise. It is merely a question of
hooking up the player mechanism to the re-
cording piano so as to make the necessary con-
tacts through the keys. A cabinet player is
exactly suited to this duty. It can readily be
imagined what an extraordinarily fine result
would be obtained from an interpretation by a
skilled player-pianist of, say, the Tminhauser
Overture as arranged for the player-piano by a
musician like Doctor Edward Schaaf. Then we
should for the first time get some idea of what
the player-piano can really do. Four-hand piano
arrangements recorded for the expression or
reproducing player-piano would seem terribly
tame and thin in face of a magnificent produc-
tion such as we are visualizing.
Experiments Needed
It would pay some one to make a series of
experiments in this direction. There is a vast
field for the player-piano, whether it be elec-
trically or pedally operated, in exploiting or-
chestral, band and other ensemble music. There
is an equally large field, in fact a larger one,
in composition for the player-piano especially
and individually, though the place and impor-
tance of this has not yet been generally recog-
nized. One would like to see some experiments,
however, made in all parts of this special field
and it is certain that the results would show
an entirely new, attractive and tremendously
important opening for the innumerable musical
powers of the player-piano.
To sum it all up, the player-piano is musically
a live proposition. It has powers within itself
which should never be allowed to go to waste.
The trade is not yet awake to all these powers,
and is therefore in danger of concentrating on
some to the exclusion of others. This mistake
must not be allowed to continue.
TO SELL FARGO MUSIC CO. ASSETS
FARGO, N. D., December 23.—Creditors of the
Fargo Music Co., this city, have been requested
by the Merchants' National Bank of Fargo,
trustee, to release the company from bankruptcy
in order to permit of the sale of the assets.
LAUTER-
HUMANA
A leader among player-pianos
because it contains so many dis-
tinctive features. Investigate!
LAUTER-HUMANA CO.
Newark, N. J.