Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1926 Vol. 82 N. 11

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
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.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MARCH 13,
1926
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Ohio Association Makes Report on the
National Mid-Year Meeting
Report of the Delegates From the Ohio State Body Calls for Some Radical Modifications of the By-Laws
of the National Association, If, They Declare, Affiliation of Local and State Bodies Is to
Be an Actual Fact and of Value to All Organizations Concerned
F the views of the delegation representing the
Music Merchants' Association of Ohio, rela-
tive to the rules and regulations promulgated
by the National Association of Music Merchants,
for regulating the participation of State and
local bodies in the affairs of the organization,
are to be taken as a criterion, then some radical
changes will likely be necessary in those rules if
the national plan is to be successful.
The rules and regulations for the government
of the local association, as affiliates of the na-
tional body, were presented at the meeting of
the Executive Board of the National Association,
held in New York in January and were in the
form of amendments to the Constitution and
By-laws of the organization, to be acted upon
by the membership at large at the annual con-
vention in June. The Ohio delegates resent
particularly the provisions of Article XI of the
proposed amendment, which provides that all
resolutions from local bodies must be presented
to the office of the National Association thirty
days before a stated convention or board meet-
ing, and need not be presented to the convention
as a whole if the Board of Control in its wisdom
determines that the resolutions are "not germane
to the purposes, services or activities of the
National Association."
In reporting to the membership of the Ohio
Association its delegates, namely, Fred N. Goos-
man, chairman; Otto C. Muehlhauser, president,
and Rexford C. Hyre, secretary, comment in
part as follows:
"Your delegates realize that it would not be
good form for the Ohio Association to suggest
a plan of national affiliation and amalgamation.
However, the National Executive Committee has
offered a plan, and has asked the Ohio Associa-
tion to make suggestions, if they have any.
Therefore, your delegates herewith take up the
various parts of both the present constitution
and by-laws and the amendments thereto, which
in their opinion should be changed, and give
their reasons for such suggested changes:
"Article III, Sec. 12.—This section provides
that only the President, a Vice-president and
the Treasurer of affiliated organizations shall
be on the National Auxiliary Board. This sec-
tion appears to be a hardship on the affiliated
organizations, because it would be often im-
possible to have these particular three officers
serve on this board. Financial and business
reasons might make it impossible for the carry-
ing out of this provision by the officers desig-
nated. Every dealer who becomes President of
a State organization must give of his time and
money to fully and capably perform his duties.
"As a rule, the dealers occupying the lesser
positions are eventually elevated to the presi-
dency, and when they arrive there they must
expend their time and money in the interests of
the organization. It would seem that the Presi-
dent each year should be on the National Aux-
iliary Board, but that the Association should be
permitted to select any other two men in its
organization who will have the time and money
to represent it at these meetings in the larger
cities.
"Article V, Sec. 1.—This provides that each
individual member shall be entitled to one vote
and cannot be represented by proxy. The proxy
provision we feel is unfair, because the new
arrangement will permit members of affiliated
associations to be represented by delegates,
I
which is only another form of proxy. We feel
that every member should have the right and
privilege of expressing himself personally or
through a proxy at any annual meeting of the
National Association.
"Article V, Sec. 2.—This provides that all
affiliated active members shall have l/2Oth of
a vote, to be cast by delegates only. Just how
the National Association arrived at the ratio of
twenty to one in the matter of affiliated associa-
tions is not clear, nor was it explained at the
recent New York meetings. If it is based on
the matter of income, then each affiliated active
member should have 1/lOth of a vote, because
he pays $1.00 a year dues. The individual active
member has one vote and pays $10.00 a year
dues. Therefore, financially speaking, ten affili-
ated active members equal one individual active
member.
"However, the object of all association work
in the music trade should be and is for the
purpose of interesting the retail music merchant
in what is best, for himself and his business,
and to support, financially and otherwise, the
great movements in the trade for good. If
approached on this basis, it would seem that
every active member, whether affiliated through
a State organization, or individually, should be
entitled to a vote, in person if he is there, or by
proxy if he is an individual member, or dele-
gates, if he is a member of an affiliated organi'
zation.
"Article VII, Sec. 4.—This provision of the
National constitution and by-laws provides that
the Advisory Board (past Presidents of the
National Association) shall nominate all officers
of the Association. This plan was abolished in
the Ohio Association, some seven or eight years
ago, when the future of the organization was
threatened in this State, because of the claim
that the officers were selected each year by the
retiring officers. Since it was abolished, the
Ohio Association has grown and every member
feels and realizes that he has an equal chance
of holding office with any other member. Nomi-
nations in Ohio are made from the floor, con-
tests for the offices are indulged in, and each
member given an opportunity to attempt by vote
to select whom he wishes for each office. We
cannot see how the Ohio Association can enter
a national organization which does not recog-
nize this first principle of democracy in trade
association activity. This provision should be
abolished in the National constitution and by-
laws.
"Article XI. —We quote this entire article as
follows: 'The introduction of resolutions or
other recommendations assumed to warrant
action by the National Association or its officers
must be delivered to the office of the National
Association at least thirty days prior to the
next stated or called convention or board meet-
ing as may be. If, in the judgment of the
Board of Control or such officers as may be
delegated to consider it, any resolution of recom-
mendation so submitted be considered as not
germane to the purposes, services or activities
of the National Association, the Board may
return the resolution or recommendation to its
proposer explaining its refusal to approve for
further consideration.
" 'If the Board shall approve such resolution
or recommendation, appropriate action shall be
taken looking to its execution or to its submis-
sion to the next National Convention through
the usual channels.
" 'Provided, however, that all such resolutions
or recommendations as may originate with affili-
ated active members must be presented to the
National Association through the authorized
officers or delegates of the affiliated association
in which the author or authors hold member-
ship.'
"This Article XI should not occur in the Na-
tional constitution and by-laws. It is a new
addition and was proposed in New York at the
recent meeting. This article, together with the
one covering the nomination of National offi-
cers, attempts to shackle and control the various
affiliated organizations which are asked to amal-
gamate into a national organization. The free-
dom of the floor during conventions, the right
to introduce any resolution and discuss it, and
vote on it, should not be denied or abridged in
any way, shape or form.
"Again, at the recent New York meeting, the
National Association failed to take any action
upon the numerous resolutions heretofore re-
ferred to them by this organization. If this
Article XI was in effect, and Ohio amalgamated
with the National, there would be no oppor-
tunity for the Ohio Association to bring these
resolutions up upon the floor of a National
convention.
"Your delegates are sincere about this ques-
tion of real National affiliation, but we feel that
the Ohio Association, if it is wanted in this
National scheme, should be permitted to inject
the same democracy, open and frank principles
into the National fabric as exists in its own
organization.
"For these reasons, we believe that these pro-
posed and existing National constitution and
by-laws should be amended and changed to
carry out the suggestions for democracy and
fair play that we have set forth above."
Ready for Style Exposition
CANTON, O., March 8.—Nine retail music firms
here will participate in the annual Spring style
exposition to be held March 10 to 13, and spon-
sored by the Canton Retail Merchants' Associa-
tion. Music houses will present window dis-
plays in keeping with the occasion, stressing
newest in musical merchandise. Several of the
stores will hold informal musical programs for
the throngs expected to be attracted to the
downtown business section on this occasion.
Radio will be stressed more than ever this
Spring, music merchants said.
Piano Accessories Catalog
CHICAGO, I I I . , March 8.—Lyon & Healy, Inc., of
this city, has just issued a new catalog, en-
titled Piano Accessories. It shows the newest
benches, bench cushions, scarves, roll cabinets,
piano lamps and other accessories of interest
to the piano merchant. A wide range of this
type of merchandise is described and the book
will be a great help to the dealer who is finding
a growing sale for such goods.
The Sowders-Bolling Piano Co., which has
been operating for several years in Evansville,
Ind., has filed a certificate of preliminary dis-
solution.

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