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THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
New England Music Trades Association i
Holds Annual Festive Night in Boston
Newly Elected President, R. G. Kneupfer, Presides for First Time—Members, of Which More
Than 100 Were Present, Entertained With Elaborate Program
O O S T O N , MASS., March 6.—The annual fes-
•'-'tive night of the New England Music Trade
Association proved to be all that its promoters
promised. It was purely an evening of enter-
tainment; there were no speeches except a brief
word from President R. G. Kneupfer, who was
R. G. Kneupfer
elected to this post at the annual meeting a few
weeks ago. There were fully one hundred pres-
ent. A blank on the back of the menu card
was filled in by those present with the names
of prospective members. These men will be
properly approached and it is expected that it will
not be long before the list is considerably aug-
mented. The dinner was a good one and the
room at one end of the Hotel Lenox in the
Back Bay lent itself admirably to a function
of this sort. Harry L. Spencer, ably assisted
by Secretary William F. Merrill, acted as master
of ceremonies, and as soon as the dinner was
finished the talent was brought on in rapid suc-
cession. First there was the double playing of
Nelson Waring, who is always glad to help out
the association, and Rollo Hudson, both play-
ing Baldwin instruments. Then came Miss
Kathryn Crosbie in character songs, Ary Dufler,
a talented Dutch violinist who was accompanied
on the piano by Hans Ebell, and Scott and Bair,
a black-face team, in songs and dancing. One
mustn't forget Morey Pearl's Orchestra which
played during the early part of the dinner. A
guest from New York was Gordon Campbell
of the Brambach Piano Co.
Colonel Ed-
ward S. Payson, now an honorary member of
the association, also was present at the head
table.
A word about the new president, Mr. Kneup-
fer. He was born in Maine and began the
study of the violin when he was five years old.
He went to Lawrence when quite young. His
father was a professional musician. The son
studied at the New England Conservatory of
Music and while there became interested in
piano building and, unbeknown to his father,
he worked in the Hallet & Davis factory every
afternoon. In time he became a fine piano
tuner and tone regulator, and at the present
time he is an expert in this line. At the age
of eighteen he traveled over the country with
opera companies, and for six months he played
the viola in a hotel at San Diego, Calif. He then
went back to his home city of Lawrence where
he taught music, tuned pianos and played in an
orchestra with the idea of going into business
as soon as he could get enough money together.
When he had saved $1,100 he started in a modest
way. He was then twenty-two years of age. But
it was hard sledding for a long time. Mr.
Kneupfer had a partner for a time, Mr. Dim-
mock, but later he bought out his interest and
has since conducted the business alone. To-day
he has one of the finest piano houses in New
England, an entire building of six floors devoted
exclusively to music and is one of the leading
houses in the field.
Music in the Detroit Schools—(Continued from page 3)
As an outgrowth of the instrumental classes,
we now have: 1. Forty-two schools receiving
instrumental training. 2. Seven district centers.
3. Advanced pupils receive class instruction at
Cass. 4. Class instruction in string bass and
French horn at Cass. 5. Twenty-one part-time
teachers of instrumental music. Three full-time
violin teachers. 6. Fifty school orchestras.
7. Two All-City orchestras, one junior and one
senior. This orchestra meets every Saturday
for two hours, using five teachers for sectional
rehearsals. 8. An All-City elementary school
band of sixty pieces, meeting three hours a
week, under the same plan of organization as
outlined for the orchestra.
We have enrolled 4,000 elementary pupils in
instrumental work since the inauguration of the
plan. The annual expenditure is approximately
$10,000 a year.
The elementary schools, out of their school
funds, derived from entertainments, have pur-
chased $2,000 worth of instruments, which are
loaned to the pupils.
Intermediate schools carry on and augment
the work of the elementary schools along prac-
tically the same lines, with all-city bands and
orchestras. The work of the intermediate
schools is under the direction of Clara Ellen
Starr, supervising instructor of intermediate
music.
Piano Work in High Schools
The high schools where music is elective offer
training to talented pupils in every phase of
music, theoretical and technical, on every instru-
ment and in composition.
About three years ago an All-City High
School Orchestra was organized under the
direction of Arthur H. J. Searle, supervising in-
structor of high school music, made up of the
best musicians from all the high schools of the
city. This orchestra meets for rehearsal once
each week at the Case Technical auditorium.
The complete ensemble is preceded by sectional
rehearsals under competent directors. The total
membership of the orchestra is 120.
Within the year an All-City High School
Band has been formed with the same general
plan of organization, with Clarence Bryn, con-
ductor, head of the Music Department at Cass
Technical High School. There is an enrollment
in the band of 110 players.
Two competent band instructors conduct
classes in band instruction in all high schools
where this instruction is not offered vocationally.
The Cass Technical High School, an essen-
tially technical school, offers the following cur-
riculum:
First—A four-year vocational music course
with applied music instruction throughout the
full four years. This course requires of every
student a study of piano, voice, ear training,
theory of music, harmony, musical history and
orchestration. Each student is given a detailed
knowledge of all the band and orchestra instru-
ments, is taught to write for them in various
combinations and to play at least one wind
and one string instrument. In addition to the
theoretical and technical instruction, two years'
daily ensemble singing and playing is required
for graduation.
Second—A two-year post-graduate course is
given in conjunction with Detroit Teachers'
College. It prepares the student to teach in-
strumental music in the schools and entitles the
MARCH 13,
1926
graduate to a State life certificate of teaching.
Third—A special course designed to take care
of students beyond high, school age who wish
to study music but cannot take the academic
subjects necessary for graduation.
The Detroit Teachers' College carries on the
work of the high school and trains teachers of
music to take their place in the school system,
which has given them their training.
Thomas Chilvers, supervisor of all the public
school music in the city, has seen the city grow
from a small town to a great metropolis and
has given the best years of his life to building
into the public schools a musical and art life
that does him and the city credit.
Our superintendent, Frank Cody, is primarily
interested in developing good American citizen-
ship. He believes that music plays an impor-
tant part to that end. Under such leadership
the music department of the public schools of
Detroit, 200 strong, can go forward with real
inspiration to carry on and build for more and
better music in the lives of the coming gen-
eration.
Philip Werlein, Ltd., Try
New Plan for Display
Exhibit Instrument and Give Recitals in Model
Home in New Orleans With Excellent Re-
sults in Sales
NEW ORLEANS, LA., March 6.—A plan believed
by New Orleans musical instrument dealers to
be unique as a method of demonstrating phono-
graphs, player-pianos and radio receiving sets
was put into execution the last week of Febru-
ary by Philip Werlein, Ltd.
What is said to be the first "radio home" was
opened in Trianon Plaza, a new fashionable
street at the intersection of Fontainebleau
Drive and Broadway, in the upper section of
New Orleans. The house was being erected by
a prominent architect as a model semi-Spanish
home when the music store acquired the right
to use it for display. Through advertising in
the daily papers the store invited the public to
attend two concerts on consecutive nights.
Ampico and Orthophonic Victrola concerts be-
gan at noon on both days.
Rachmaninoff,
Levitski, Mero and Schaffner were featured in
the Ampico concerts. Radiolas 28, 25 and 111-A
and Kennedy receivers in two sizes were fea-
tured. All musical goods, including radio receiv-
ing sets, were priced complete and the public
invited to buy on Werlein's easy payment plan.
The unusual method of display attracted three
classes—music lovers in general, prospective
builders or purchasers of fine homes who con-
sider musical instruments both as such and as
pieces of furniture, and the curious who came
to see what all the fuss was about. All groups
remained to place orders for instruments, inter-
ested through seeing them in an attractive home
background.
Enters Automobile Field
CANTON, O., March 8.—Harry H. Hough, prob-
ably the best-known piano salesman here, for
the past fifteen years identified with the piano
department of the Klein-Heffelman-Zollars Co.,
has resigned to become associated with the
automobile business here. Mr. Hough is a life
resident of Canton and is known to the piano
trade throughout all eastern Ohio.
Radio Tube Prices Reduced
The Stewart-Warner Speedometer Corp. has
announced a reduction in price of its radio
tubes effective on February 18. Model S01A,
six volt tube, has been reduced from $2.50 to
$2. Model 499, 3 volt tube, from $2.50 to $2.25.
The piano house of Melville Smith & Son,
formerly of Augusta, Me., has opened a new
store in the Hallowell Bank Building, Hallowell,
Me., handling a full line of pianos and players.