Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1926 Vol. 82 N. 3

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
REVIEW
VOL. LXXXII. No. 3 Piblished Every Satirday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. Jan. 16,1926
8lB|
g.,S o g l ; i° ea ° ent8
Pianos Shown at the Paris Exposition
of the Decorative Arts
French Manufacturers United With Leading French Decorators and Furniture Designers to Exhibit Many
Instruments Which Showed Wide Departures From the Traditional Form of the Grand Piano
Case—Rosewood Leading in Popularity, Judging by the Instruments Exhibited
NE of the outstanding features in the re-
cent Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts
was the large number of exhibits of
French piano manufacturers of specially de-
signed instruments, most of them the work of
leading French furniture designers and interior
decorators. Many of the cases appeared radical
in design and conception to American observers,
habituated as the latter are to the American
type of case which departs no more from ac-
cepted design than in its adaptation to accepted
period styles, and that a movement which has
O
direction the French industry has produced ex-
cellent instruments. But as the first quality
of a piano is to be a very good instrument, it has
become a habit among certain people during the
past few years to consider it as a piece of pre-
cision machinery, of which the exterior lines,
uniquely dominated by construction or usage,
are similar to such mechanical designs as the
safe, the motorboat or the automobile.
"This thesis can be sustained, and a great con-
cert grand, with its simple and clear form, its
massive and solid legs, with a dark varnish and
They are furniture sober in line and decoration
and of a very careful workmanship. There
is no doubt that these ideas could not be im-
mediately applied to -ordinary pianos but they
are at least the proof that the construction, the
form and the decoration of the piano case are
not so perfect that they can not be improved."
In the instruments exhibited the designers of
the cases made many attempts to change the
traditional form of the grand. While some re-
tained the classic silhouette of the harp, others
produced rectangular instruments, and others
Four Gaveau Pianos Which Were Shown at the Decorative Arts
Exposition in Paris and Which Are Typical of the Radical Departure
From the Traditional Forms
only come into the American industry widely
during the past few years. French manufac-
turers, however, if they are to be judged by
their exhibits at the exposition, have gone much
further than this in an attempt to create case
designs that, despite the limitations set by the
acoustical requirements of the instruments,
would give new styles radically different from
those to which the trade and public have been
accustomed by long habitude.
Their aims perhaps are best expressed in a
review of the piano exhibits by Andre Frechet in
"Musique et Instruments."
"To judge a piano," he writes, "it is necessary
to consider it as a musical instrument and as a
luxurious piece of furniture customarily given
the place of honor in the room which re-
ceives it.
"A quality instrument must have a proper
mechanism. Its tone has breadth, volume, flexi-
bility and variety. These qualities, due to scien-
tific and careful construction, can not be ob-
tained save by the continual collaboration of
manufacturers, engineers and musicians. In this
almost a metallic lustre, is a mathematical and
frank solution of the problems posed. How-
ever, this solution has not yet been adopted by
all manufacturers, as for the greater number of
purchasers a piano should naturally be an ex-
cellent instrument, but it must also be a piece
of artistic furniture which has an essential part
in the furnishing and decoration of a room.
"The Exposition of Decorative Arts, the prep-
aration for which created among all artistic
industries such rivalry, gave to the piano in-
dustry an opportunity for the study and design
of piano cases which were simultaneously re-
markable instruments and beautiful modern
furniture. As the manufacturers and engineers
rightly draw inspiration from the advice of
musicians constantly to perfect the piano mech-
anism so did the manufacturers think to as-
sociate with them in their production decorators
and furniture designers in order to create new
styles. The pianos which have resulted from
this collaboration have in general the charac-
teristics of the greater part of the good furni-
ture which was exhibited at the Exposition.
instruments of which the two wides are straight
with a simple curve to connect them. Many
instruments were shown that had four, five or
six legs, distributing them in a fashion so that
the masses of the case would appear differently
from what is the ordinary course of design.
Only in three of the instruments exhibited was
the traditional lyre departed from as a support
for the pedals, though in its retention in many
instruments it went through considerable modi-
fication. The fall boards gave the designers
considerable scope to show their ingenuity and
naturally it was taken full advantage of.
The same author, in speaking of the woods
used in the cases, has the following to say:
"Macassar ebony wood, which had been the
vogue in the salons of modern decorative art
of 1922 to 1925, has not entirely lost favor. It
is a very beautiful wood. The play of black
veins, cut by light ochre lineaments, takes on an
extraordinary richness under polish. That is to
say, macassar can only be used with success in
amply thick veneers, and by concerns in which
(Continued on page 7)
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Steinway Officials From All Sections
of the World Gathered at New York
Dedicatory Ceremonies at the New Steinway Hall in This City Notable for Gathering of Officials
of Steinway & Sons From All of Firm's Wide-flung Activities
them, it being the first occasion upon which so
many representatives were gathered together.
In addition to the headquarters staff, includ-
ing members of the Steinway family, there was
HP H E dedicatory exercises at Steinway Hall,
•*• New York, in October were notable from
many angles, not the least important feature be-
ing the fact that the importance of the event
JANUARY 16, 1926
There is also presented herewith the latest
photograph of the members of the Steinway
family now connected in an official capacity with
Steinway & Sons, with President Frederick T.
Steinway seated in the center.
Salt Lake City Trade
Prospects Are Bright
Money Appears to Be Plentiful in Utah—Glen
Bros.-Roberts Co.'s Prosperous Year—Or-
chestra Suffers in Blizzard
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, January 9.—The music
Members of the Steinway Family Actively Engaged in Firm
First Row, Left to Right—Henry Ziegier, Vice-President; Fred T. Steinway, President; William R. Steinway, Euro-
pean General Manager. Second Row—Theodore Cassebeer, Director and General Factory Manager; C. F. M. Stein-
way; F. A. Vietor; P. H. Schmidt; Theodore N. Steinway
"^^
B ^ -yar ^ ^ ^ . ,
•' *
•
w^
.
1
tf
'
Is
I
business here seems to be holding up rather
well following the Christmas rush. One reason
for this satisfactory state of affairs is the ex-
cellence of the industrial situation. There is
more money in Utah now than there has been
at the beginning of January for many years and
music merchants of the city and the State gen-
erally are delighted with the outlook. There is
much room here for development in this field,
for, although there has been considerable ac-
tivity during the past year or two in the pro-
motion of amateur bands and orchestras, the
surface has as yet scarcely been scratched.
Herbert Gould, the Chicago basso who was
here during the holidays for the purpose of tak-
ing his annual solo role in The Messiah, was a
guest of Royal W. Daynes, general manager of
the Consolidated Music Co., while in the city.
Extensive alterations and improvements of the
famous organ in the great Mormon Taber-
nacle on Temple Square are on the way. The
Austin Organ Co., which enlarged and electrified
the instrument a decade ago, has been awarded
the contract.
The Glen Bros.-Roberts Piano Co., of this
city and Ogden, has announced its quarterly
dividend on the 8 per cent preferred stock, and
also a 6 per cent dividend on the common stock.
President George Glen of the company enclosed
a statement with the dividend checks saying
that their business in 1925 was 10 per cent
ahead of that of the preceding year. The Glen
Bros.-Roberts Co. began in 1907 as a $5,000.00
concern.
Warner Stone, of Provo, Utah, and formerly
of Salt Lake City, well known as a musician and
a music merchant, and a number of members
of his orchestra were badly frozen and other-
wise suffered great hardship while stranded as
the result of a blizzard in which they .were
caught while traveling in the Northwest.
J. C. McClain, secretary and treasurer of the
Utah Music Co., is lying seriously ill at his
home.
"We have been selling more high-grade band
instruments than for many years," said Dean
R. Daynes, of the Consolidated Music Co., the
other day. "Conditions here are very satisfac-
tory."
Art Walsh as Song Writer
if
•
*
™
•••
' • " '
-
i.iw^iiiHiitfiiii^iii^^iMtNiii
- I , , , mi- inMimi
*
m&
Directors, Managers and Assistant Managers of Steinway & Sons
Top Row, Left to Right—George Stark, Paris Representative; C. F. M. Steinway; F. A. Vietor; Paul H. Bilhuber;
R. E. Wells, Cincinnati Manager; Byron H. Collins, Sales Manager. Center Row—Albert Sturcke; Ernest Urchs;
T. E. Steinway; W. R. Steinway, European General Manager; Paul H. Schmidt, Assistant to President; Hermann
Irion; Theodore Ehrlich, Director Hamburg House. Bottom Row—F. Reidemeister, Treasurer; Henry Ziegler, Vice-
President; Fred T. Steinway, President; N. Stetson, Secretary; Theodore C'assebeer, Factory General Manager
served to bring the New York headquarters,
Steinway executives and representatives not
only from various sections of the United States
but from European countries. When the offi-
cials were grouped at Steinway Hall advantage
was taken of the opportunity to photograph
present George Stark, Paris representative of
Steinway & Sons; R. E. Wells, manager of
Steinway's retail store in Cincinnati, O.; William
R. Steinway, European general manager from
London, and Theodore Ehrlich, director of the
Steinway business in Hamburg, Germany.
Arthur Walsh, musical director and adver-
tising manager of Thos. A. Edison, Inc., finds
time at intervals to do quite a bit of popular
song writing. He manages to have them pub-
lished and sees them become popular, which
is the final test. Among recent songs for
which Mr. Walsh is responsible are: "When
Dear Old Summer Goes," "What a Smile Can
Do," "As a Porcupine Pines For Its Pork,
That's How I Pine For You," and his latest
effusion: "When I Sit on the Sofa With
Sophie." It will be seen from the titles that
Mr. Walsh is not serious minded when it comes
to composing. The various numbers are pub-
lished by the Joe Morris Music Co., New York.
Robert N. Watkin, of the Will A. Watkin Co.,
Dallas, Tex., is expected in New York during
the week of January 18, for the purpose of visit-
ing the companies with which his house does
business and also attending the mid-Winter ses-
sion of the executive board of the National
Association of Music Merchants.

Download Page 3: PDF File | Image

Download Page 4 PDF File | Image

Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).

Pro Tip: You can flip pages on the issue easily by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.