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JANUARY 27, 1923
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
The American Piano Go.'s Move in Recording Orchestral Transcriptions Under
the Direction of a Competent Orchestra Conductor—Possible Extensions of This
Work—Difficulties, Mechanical and Incidental, Not Affecting the Fundamentals
Some recent issues of this and other trade
papers have carried an illustrated advertisement
of the Ampico instruments in which is shown
the well-known conductor, Artur Bodanzky,
directing the interpretation of a four-hand piano
transcription of some orchestral work at one
of the Ampico recording pianos. The illustra-
tion may not have created any very large
amount of comment among the generality of
readers of the trade papers, yet it is a very
significant illustration and brings up thoughts
of great breadth and scope.
It is generally admitted that no one has yet
been able to forecast correctly the precise di-
rections in which the development of the re-
producing piano idea is most likely to spread.
If any one thing is certain, however, it is that
these roads will not be few or narrow. Up to
the present time the emphasis, in dealing with
reproducing piano matters, has been placed
upon the personality of the pianists, and prob-
ably the policy was the only one practical or
even possible at the start of the movement.
But to-day it is clear to all that we cannot
build for the future on any so insecure a
foundation.
A* Significant Move
That is,why the American Piano Co.'s idea
in publishing orchestral transcriptions played
four-hands and directed by a competent or-
chestral conductor is so significant. We use
the word in its true and not in its advertising-
copywriter sense. That is to say the action is
significant because it signifies a certain condi-
tion and proclaims the existence of that condi-
tion in an unmistakable manner. In the present
case we have in this way presented to us proof
positive that the basis upon which rest the
value and selling potential of the reproducing
piano must be revised and broadened by the
inclusion of elements which were not conceived
at the beginning of the movement.
Possible Extensions
If it be possible to record four-hand tran-
scriptions of orchestral music made at one pi-
ano, it is equally possible to do the same thing
with eight-hand arrangements made at two pi-
anos. Some of the most interesting, attractive
and popular pieces of pianistic achievement are
to be found in the rich realm of the piano con-
certo, as every player pianist well knows who
has delved into it even through the relatively
unsatisfactory medium of the ordinary music
roll based on a two-piano reduction. Now
imagine a richly scored work like Rach-
maninoff's second piano concerto, with the com-
poser at the solo piano and the orchestral part
taken by eight hands at two other pianos; the
whole conducted by a competent musician!
Imagine the artistic value of such a performance
for all purposes, and for very many indeed be-
side those of mere pleasure-giving in the home.
Imagine, too, the vast possibilities which can
be visualized and must some day be developed
into practical shape in the orchestral field.
For instance, the writer possesses a consid-
erable collection of music rolls containing or-
chestral transcriptions. Many of these are ex-
tremely bare and thin, six being the merest
copies of four-hand and sometimes of two-hand
piano reductions. Occasionally, however, one
comes across a really good piece of arranging,
and one such among others is in the writer's
possession in the shape of a transcription for
player, made by the Q R S Music Co., of Rich-
ard Strauss' tone poem, "Don Juan." With this
excellent music roll (or pair of rolls, for it re-
quires two) the writer finds it possible to pro-
duce not merely in quantity, but to a very large
extent in quality too, a remarkably close ap-
proach to the atmosphere and general effect
of the orchestral score. Many musicians who
have heard it upon an adequate player instru-
ment agree with this description. Now, if it be
possible to do such remarkably good work in
an arrangement made from a four-hand piano
reduction, what might not be done with a tran-
scription founded on the score and distributed
in, say, four piano parts, played by as many
pianists and directed by a competent conductor?
With something like that, the reproducing pi-
ano might be said indeed to be entering upon
a new era.
Impersonal Interpretation of All Music
There are undoubtedly difficulties to be
cleared up, but these are entirely mechanical
and incidental. They in no way touch the
fundamentals of the situation. The important
point is that the reproducing piano cannot be
confined to the mere copying of the individual
playing of well-advertised pianists, but must
sooner or later be brought down to a practical
basis by being grounded upon the large prin-
ciple of impersonal interpretation of the whole
literature of music. When, in fact, the owner
of a reproducing piano shall be able to obtain
from his instrument authoritative interpretations
of orchestral and ensemble music in all styles,
and in adequate, not inadequate, transcriptions,
then the reproducing piano will be in a position
to command the musical situation. Until it can
do that it must remain merely a single type
among other types.
Piano Orchestras?
There is, of course, still quite a large field for
experiment in four-hand transcriptions and
their reproduction. There can be no objection
to working within these limits for a while to
come. But it is certain that public taste, as
fast as it is educated, will more and more de-
mand better things. Appetite will become more
and more fussy and will ask for something
richer and rarer. Then it will be necessary to
go from four-hand to eight-hand transcriptions
and so on until there are whole piano orches-
tras, if the term may be used, working together
under the baton of a conductor recording their
interpretations of orchestral works for the use
in reproducing pianos.
Reason for Many Pianos
It may be worth making clear one point.
The use of more than two pianos in any case
is based merely upon the fact that as the num-
ber of hands is increased so also can the or-
chestral score be reproduced with an approach
to its proper richness. The single reproducing
piano can, of course, take an extraordinarily
large number of parts without the least diffi-
culty when they have once been recorded, but
human pianists are strictly limited. If they are
not to confine themselves merely to the bare
and uninteresting sort of piano outliries which
Joseph Rubinstein and Brassin once made pop-
ular in connection with Wagner's music, they
must be linked up in some new way with the
vast possibilities of the reproducing mechanism.
Only so can they reduce to manageable shape
all the literature of great music without being
obliged to dilute their interpretations into the
wishy-washy gruel of ordinary pianistic ar-
rangement.
There is a great future for the player-piano in
its reproducing shape if it but follows the lines
of its own natural development.
Questions arise, of course, concerning the
use of the reproducing piano in connection with
special compositions for player-piano; but these
have been discussed recently and may be taken
up again at the right time.
JOINS U. S. MUSIC CO. FORCES
M. C. Buell Made Manager of Canadian Terri-
tory of United States Music Co.—J. P. Sim-
mons in Charge of South and W. S. Wheeler
to Cover the Western Territory
CHICAGO, III., January 22.—M. C. Buell, formerly
manager of the music roll division of the Otto
Higel Co., Ltd., Toronto, Canada, has been
made manager of the entire Canadian territory
of the United States Music Co., according to
an announcement emanating from the com-
pany's headquarters this week. Mr. Buell's
headquarters will be in Toronto. His wide ex-
perience in this field of the music business
makes him a valuable addition to the executive
staff of the company. For some time past he
has had complete charge of the Otto Higel
Co.'s domestic and export trade, and his knowl-
edge of the music roll business is thorough.
Another important addition to the staff of
the United States Music Co. is J. P. Simmons,
who has been placed in charge of the Southern
territory, which covers all that part of the
country south of the Ohio River. Mr. Simmons
is also widely known in the music industry,
having been president of the Junius Hart Piano
Co. for many years. His headquarters are in
Lexington, Ky., and from there he will direct
the Southern activities of the company.
W. S. Wheeler also recently became asso-
ciated with the United States Music Co. and
will cover Western territory from headquarters
in Kansas City.
MEYER MUSIC HOUSE MOVES
CARLINVILLE, I I I . , January 23.—The Meyer
Music House will move from its present quar-
ters on West Main street to larger ones in St.
George Hotel block during February.
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