Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
AUGUST 16, 1924
43
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC PUBLISHING
Conducted By V. D. Walsh
Need for a Higher Musical Standard
Among the Present-Day American Public
Meyer Davis, Head of Over Sixty Orchestras, Points Out the Important Part These Can Play
in Developing a Better Musical Taste Through Carefully Planned Programs
""pHE introduction of jazz into the musical
world has been, in a measure, justified from
two standpoints. First, it may be said to have
awakened a sense of music in the breast of a
certain element of the world's population which
could not have been aroused by anything less
drastic. And, second, jazz came in at a time
when the world was suffering from a severe
case of "nerves" brought on by the Great War,
and these syncopated abominations served as
an escape-valve for poor old Mother Earth's
pent-up emotions.
We now, however, live in the "piping times
of peace," our nerves should be again normal,
and the heretofore musically dormant have been
awakened. Therefore might jazz music be rele-
gated to a less prominent place than it now
occupies. The fact of the matter is that to-day
it threatens to pervert and stifle the taste for
better music and to prevent the implanting in
the people's consciousness of those gentler ele-
ments, nobler aspirations and finer sensibilities
which would be fostered by an intelligent con-
templation of the great masterpieces. Music is
a valuable, a highly important factor in our
lives and, as a general principle, it may be said
that the higher the quality of the music we can
vibrate with and respond to the higher will be
our civilization.
If we grant all this—and I think the proofs
are fairly conclusive—the question arises as to
what we shall do to better the situation, to
suppress the constantly growing dominance of
the jazz craze and to create among the people
a taste for better things.
We, with our sixty-two orchestras and over
700 musicians, are doing what we can to elevate
the public taste to a high musical standard, and
one of the chief ways in which we are doing
this is through the medium of our programs.
One of the great reasons why a taste for and
a knowledge of music have not become more
general with the American people is the fact
that orchestral conductors and managers of
music organizations have taken it for granted
that the public has a knowledge of the history
of music. The people do not possess this knowl-
edge. They have never been given the chance
to acquire it; and, without it, their interest either
lags or is entirely absent. It is akin to trying
to teach a boy the higher mathematics before
he has learned the multiplication table and the
elementary rules of arithmetic: He can't under-
stand, and—he gives it up!
In the preparation of our programs we set
forth not only the usual list of compositions to
be rendered but also give brief, concise notes
on the lives of the composers represented, upon
their environment and the motives which actu-
ated them in the creation of their works—these
motives in some instances having sprung from
events in their own private lives, in others from
events in contemporary history—also valuable
educational information regarding the relative
status in the musical world of each composer
on the program. In brief, these program notes,
in a few masterly strokes, shed a wonderful
light on all that comes forth from the orchestra
—a light which quickens the hearer's intelli-
gence, puts his emotional nature in a glow,
uplifts his spirit and enables him to participate,
to at least some degree, in the supreme joy, the
ecstacy, that possessed these gifted men, when
in the act of composing the inspired works with
which they have blessed the human race. These
notes open up a new world for us. They throw
down our guard, make us cast aside our self-
important masks, let go our customary tense-
ness, forget for the time being of our own ego,
become responsive to the magic of the "heavenly
muse," enable us to bathe ourselves in the
light and the color and the warmth and the
beauty and the glory of the tonal vibrations
flooding the air and, finally, to emerge refreshed
throughout in mind, body and soul. These
things, and more, can even a semi-knowledge of
the inside of music's history do for us—and the
work is surely well worth while.
If the controlling powers in all orchestra or-
ganizations would adopt this method in the
preparation of their programs, they would find
a quick appreciation on the part of their audi-
ences, the appetite of the public for a knowledge
of matters intimately associated with musical
compositions would be whetted, this desire would
in time become universal and the public would
demand more and more music with the result
that humanity itself would ultimately arrive at
a higher plane.
To- those managers who may regard this as
a purely Utopian argument, let it be added that
it also has its practical and commercial side
School, Lodge and
Gymnasium Marches
March Victorious
(Metzger-Wright)
Pacific Patrol
(Metzger-Wright)
Reliance March
(Clifford)
Victorious Eagle
(Rosey)
American Beauty March
(Williams)
Order Through Jobber or Direct
Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, Inc.
Publishers
New York City
because, the more widespread musical knowl-
edge becomes, the greater becomes the demand
for music, per se, with the consequent increase
in the receipts of the dispensers of music. For
my part, I find that this particular method of
educating the people to higher standards is grat-
ifying from every point of view and I seriously
commend it to the consideration of all men
actively engaged in the music world at the
present time.
Stillwell Held Over
Ray Stilwell and his orchestra enjoy the dis-
tinction of being the first dance band to be held
over at the new half-million-dollar dance
pavilion, New Euclid Gardens, in Cleveland, for
the second week. This young leader and his
organization are meeting with huge success
throughout the Ohio territory and are becom-
ing great favorites among the enthusiastic dance
lovers of Cleveland, Akron, etc. One of the
numbers being featured by them nightly and
which seems to be in great demand is "I'm
Gonna Bring a Watermelon to My Girl To-
night," published by M. Witmark & Sons.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.
IIUIHH
from
ZIECFELD
An ado fable Fox Trot Ballad
and the best song in the show!
lAdorind You
Lyrics by
JOS
EPH
MCCARTHY
M.usic b y
TIERNEY
.
FOLLIES
M Pepped Up
All that the title implies— full of /
pep and a corking fast Fox Trot/
You c a n t
6o Wrorvi wiO<
d»q FEIST