Music Trade Review

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The Music Trade Review
actual results in so far as they can be tabulated from all sources.
Within the past decade or so, the development of musical interest
in the United States has been little short of phenomenal, due largely
to promotional work carried on along various lines. The National
Btureau for the Advancement of Music has done much to arouse
and foster this interest which is quite well illustrated by the fact
that over 1,500 cities and towns this year took official cognizance
of .the National Music Week celebration. The various social and
civic organizations, and particularly the national organizations of
'vyomen's clubs, have proven a tremendous and active factor in the
promotion of musical appreciation.
\ ' Even radio has done its share in bringing into the home the
blest in music so that it may be enjoyed with a maximum of com-
fort and a minimum of cost.
•
Featuring the
Instrument
In the face of all this, however, general interest in the piano
as a distinctive instrument showed no corresponding gain and, in
fact, may be said to have registered a loss, because the promotional
work was in the interest of music as an art instead of the piano as
the basic medium for the interpretation of music. The work that
has been done so successfully this year has been designed primarily
to forward the cause of the piano itself, and the publicity that has
been received offers testimony to the logical character of the idea
and its feasibilty.
We have referred to the agencies that have had a part in the
development of this campaign of propaganda for the piano, bul
despite the excellent work done by them in mapping out and
directing the several campaigns the results would have been negative
in a national sense had it not been for the spirit of co-operation
shown by members of the retail trade in all sections who were
brought to a realization that if the industry was to progress it would
be for them and through them.
To put it bluntly and plainly, the industry had become fright-
ened. It saw real danger in the offing and followed that first rule
of nature—self-preservation. We find that dealers have overcome
their natural modesty and have shown an inclination to talk aloud
in public and to tell through the newspapers just what the piano
means in the school and in the home. Being men of importance in
their business communities their words have carried weight. Then
from authoritative sources there have come facts and figures regard-
ing pianos and piano study that, through the medium of progressive
dealers, have found their way into the public print.
That a news element can be found in pianos is proven in the
case of Charles H. Deutschmann, president of the National Asso-
ciation of Piano Tuners, who in his talks in various parts of the
country has stated frankly that a great majority of the pianos in
the homes of the country are out of tune and that a very substantial
proportion of them are so old and so in need of repair that they
are fit only for the junk heap. His statements were taken with proper
DECEMBER 10, 1927
seriousness by newspaper men with the result that on several
occasions they were sent out over press association wires and
appeared almost simultaneously in all sections of the country. If
these statements were taken in equal seriousness by the public it
would mean the elimination of this so-called junk and the opening
of a field for the sales of thousands upon thousands of new pianos
for replacement purposes.
In practically every city of the country where piano-playinjgi
contests and group piano instruction classes have been held the
newspapers have followed these events assiduously, because they
represented news, and the activities of the youngsters and their
earnest competition for such honors as were forthcoming had human
interest and made good reading.
The result has been a remarkable revival of interest in piano
playing, capitalizing which is the responsibilty of the dealers in
those instruments. The basic idea, of course, has been to develop
piano-playing interest in the younger element, and particularly to
have piano instruction included in the curricula of the schools of
the country, but experience has proven that the appeal has had its
effect upon those of more mature years, and it has become more
commonplace to find in the daily papers inquiries from men and
women of middle age, as well as those approaching the three-score-
and-ten mark, relative to ways and means for gaining a knowledge
of piano playing by some simple method. Learning to play is no
children's monopoly.
The results of this widespread publicity in 1927 will be felt
in 1928, 1929 and the years to follow. But the task is by no means
fully accomplished. This publicity for the piano, pleasing though
it is, cannot be expected to continue under its own momentum, or
to expand unless the interest of the industry in aiding its progress
continues to be active and energetic. There are thousands of towns
and a substantial number of cities where this propaganda for the
piano has not yet appeared, and although the results may have been
widespread, they are in no sense national. As a matter of fact,
the surface has barely been scratched. But those who believe that
constant newspaper and magazine reference to the piano will have
the effect of molding the public mind along lines of piano playing
and piano buying have been shown the way. It is possible to have
the piano featured in the news, the extent of that featuring depend-
ing upon the efforts of the members of the trade itself in main-
taining and creating news value for the instrument.
A Year's Summary
As has already been stated the work of propaganda and pub-
licity has been carried on through the medium of several organized
agencies operating along lines differing materially one from another,
but all working for the common purpose of creating a new public
interest in, and consequently a new sales field for, the piano. How
these several agencies have been operating and the success that has
crowned their efforts is set forth in the following pages.