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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
The Part Played by the Arranger in
the Composition's Final Popularity
A Letter From Arthur Smith, Head of the Arthur Smith Music Co., Tampa, Fla., Paying Tribute
to These Men Who Are Often Neglected in Recognition of Their Work's Merit
E have often heard expressions of opinion
lhat much of the present day popular mu-
sic was over-arranged and no doubt in instances
there has been basis for such conclusions.
More recently, however, there has been a trend
to give more recognition to the music arranger
and with this movement the arranger is about
to come into his own. Demonstration of this
fact is given by the prices of arrangement on
popular songs which have increased consider-
ably. The work of the best arrangers is in
demand and of course the prices advance ac-
cordingly. That it is good investment is proven
in numerous instances.
That the work of the arranger is discerned in
the final products from generally unlooked-for
sources has been currently demonstrated by a
letter to The Review from Arthur Smith, head
of the Arthur Smith Music Co., of 1107 Franklin
street, Tampa, Fla., one of the most progressive
music merchants in the South. Below are given
some excerpts from his letter:
"Business is quiet down here now and so I
have yielded to the writers' itch. I have won-
dered for years who the unsung geniuses are
who give their time and talents, without public
recognition, to the making of phonographic
and player-roll arrangements. We have artistic
music publications, the more classical compos-
ers and others who frequently make compari-
sons of the better type of music with our worst
jazz hags which strikes me as unfair, and old
stuff. This indoor amusement cut its teeth in
the Garden of Eden and is right now shelling
out powder for the Liberals and the Fundamen-
talists. Even as big a man as Wagner marched
to this goose-step when he conducted a Men-
delssohn concerto with gloves on. (Dirty, low-
down music. Had to yield to a mob request.)
"It seems to me, from behind the counter,
that the shoe pinches the other foot. While the
highbrows bewail the degrading effects of our
popular dance music, dealers everywhere are
alarmed because their customers can't be edu-
cated up to buying it. They all complain our
popular music is becoming too polyphonic, too
elaborate, too symphonic for the average Amer-
ican numbskull. The cash register doesn't ring
as often as it used to. We have to piece out
our stock of records with crude, 'gyp' numbers
to boost sales. Several small companies are
living off this back-alley trade.
"I often wonder how many professional musi-
cians ever hear the best record and roll offer-
ings under favorable conditions. I have found
that those in my immediate circle have not. I
have converted not a few, by pressing them to
hear some of the better dance records, such as
the 'Indian Love Call,' by the Isham Jones
Orchestra, 'The Lady of the Nile,' by Isham
Jones and His Orchestra, and the three ar-
rangements of 'I'll See You In My Dreams,'
about which further.
"Take this last selection. There are at least
three beautiful records of it. First, there is the
wonderfully colored fox-trot arrangement by
the Ray Miller Orchestra, with one softly
played chorus which absolutely beggars words
in trying to describe it. There is also a slow,
sweet vocal accompaniment arrangement with
soft tinklings on the banjo, suggestive of a
Creole lover in ante bellum days. Then there
is a very scholarly orchestration, after the
chamber music style, like Victor Herbert's ar-
ranging, or like Tobani's method of orchestrat-
ing his 'Hearts and Flowers.' Lots of soft,
beautiful string and harp effects.
"I am tired of hearing the old complaint that
our modern songwriters all alike lack ideas. I
have just been playing the Isham Jones record
of Friml's 'Indian Love Call.' I know that the
beautiful, soft, bird-like flute arpeggios are in
MAY
16, 1925
artists as Anna Fitziu, Alice Nielson, Fritzi
Scheff,* Eugene Cowles and others, and taking
turns at conducting the orchestra will be such
famous leaders as John Philip Sousa, Hugo
Riesenfeld, Max Bendix, Henry Hadley and
others.
Paul Whiteman will present his famous or-
chestra; Rudolf Friml, Nahan Franko and many
other famous artists will be heard in instru-
mental selections.
The concert will be privately rendered at the
Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and, by remote control radio
apparatus, will be from there broadcast over
the entire country by W E A F and connected
stations.
At this date there is every indication that,
with the addition of other artists still to be
heard from, the program will prove far and
away the most interesting musical event of the
season, as well as the most comprehensive
thing of the sort that has ever been broadcast.
the score as also the quaint Indian rhythms and
scales, but in places the orchestra seems to lit-
erally sail away into a free sea of daring harmo-
nies, for which the composer is not to receive
credit. It seems to me that not to rank these
beautiful chromatic alterations as 'ideas' is pro-
vincial, pedantic, Main-street intolerance. How
much easier it would be to see it so, if Jones
had only a long Russian name!
"But I sometimes think that our songwriters
are partly to blame. For commercial reasons,
I suppose, they feel it necessary to pin their
arrangements to a 'stuffed shirt.' Some cipher,
some rubber stamp, always gets credit for their
compositions. Let some colored nobody from
Alabam' make a shift at a 'blues,' and all the
metropolitan orchestras take it up, and make it
over into music. It brings great credit to the
orchestra to make something out of a number Written by "Jelly Roll" Morton, Leon Ropolo
that nobody else can see heads or tails to, and
and Paul Mares—The New Composition
no doubt, by comparison, makes their glory
Likely to Be Popular
shine the brighter, but it seems commercialism
in the last degree to do so without acknowledg-
CHICAGO, I I I . , May 9.—Melrose Bros., of 119
ing the arranger. It is like publicly crediting North Clark street, announce as their latest
the Washington Monument to Mike the hod- number a new Dixieland one-step entitled
carrier. There is all the difference in the world "Milenberg Joys," written by the writers of
between pig in the sty and pork on the platter, "Tin Roof Blues" and "Wolverine Blues," who
and that difference is the chef. But the chef are "Jelly Roll" Morton, Leon Ropolo, and
gets credit for it!
Paul Mares.
"Take, for instance, the Oriole Orchestra's
According to Walter Melrose, the new num-
record of Charlie Davis's 'Copenhagen Blues.' ber will be one of the biggest hits the com-
I don't know who Charlie Davis is, and cer- pany has ever brought out. It comprises a
tainly have nothing against him. He can write special orchestra arrangement that will be
a better tune than I can, which isn't saying particularly popular.
much. 'And a hell-of-a-git you've got,' the old,
ragged, starving Confederate soldier exclaimed,
when Sherman's crack regiment got him. I've
got the record in my rack and the sheet music
on my counter all right! Well, anyway, I have
often wondered what genius of a chef cooked No. 9 in Series Issued by This Publisher Con-
this spavined jackass into such a tender joint.
tains Thirty Popular Numbers All With Uku-
With severe pruning one might have expected
lele Arrangements
something like a tune from the first part of
the chorus, and there is an eight-measure in-
Irving Berlin, Inc. who recently issued a new
troduction which sounds pretty fair. On this
"Universal Dance Folio No. 9" has found a
small peg somebody has hung quite a musical
ready sale for this product. Besides the fact
composition. There may be more of Bach's
that there are thirty popular fox-trots, waltzes
'First Prelude' in Gounod's 'Ave Marie,' than of
and novelties in the folio, an added feature that
Davis's 'Copenhagen Blues' in the finished prod-
induces sales are the ukulele arrangements
uct, but it certainly rings up a sale every time
which accompany each piano selection.
it is played.
Owing to the increased interest shown in
"But the pity of it all is that the arranging ukuleles during the summer months, it is
genius gets absolutely no credit for his work- thought this added feature, as well as the merit
manship, and the trained musician has only of the offerings embodied in the folio will serve
heard the original score, from the pages of the to keep the sales for the "Universal Dance
original sheet music edition. He is so disgusted Folio No. 9" above normal.
you can't pry his ears open long enough to
make him hear the finished record."
"Milenberg Joys," New
Melrose Bros. Number
New Berlin Dance
Folio Selling Well
Memorial Concert Plan-
ned for Victor Herbert
Leading Composers, Orchestral Leaders and
Artists to Take Part in Event at Ritz-Carlton
Hotel on May 24
Under the auspices of the American Society
of Composers, Authors and Publishers a con-
cert in memory of the late Victor Herbert will
be broadcast through station W E A F of the
American Telephone and Telegraph Co., and
connected stations, on the night of Sunday,
May 24.
Tribute to Herbert's memory will be voiced
by Augustus Thomas; Gene Buck will act as
master of ceremonies, and the program, which
is being arranged by Silvio Hein, will include
a concert of Herbert's compositions rendered
by his own former orchestra of more than a
hundred musicians.
There will also be heard in the program such
Features Western Numbers
W. A. Quincke & Co. the music publishing
house of Los Angeles, Cal., is featuring numer-
ous publications by Western composers. In a
recent trip to Portland, Ore., Mr. Quincke an-
nounced the publication of works of four Ore-
gon composers, including Dr. Emil Enna, Perry
B. Arant, Cecil Teague, organist at the Majestic
Theatre, Portland, who has written a text book
on the organ, and Miss Opal McDevitt, com-
poser of a number of songs the latest of which
is "Thine and Mine Alone," the words of which
are by Dean Collins, staff writer on the Port-
land Telegram.
Summy Go. Chartered
CHICAGO, I I I . , May 9.—The Clayton F. Summy
Co., 429 South Wabash avenue, has enlarged
the business and incorporated with a capital of
$75,000 to publish and deal in sheet music, mu-
sical instruments and accessories.