Music Trade Review

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The Music Trade Review
K. C. Clark's "Music in Industry"
Is an Interesting Volume of Facts
/~\NE of the most imposing volumes that has
^^^ come from the National Bureau for the
Advancement of Music in many moons is that
recently issued under the caption "Music in
Industry," by Kenneth C. Clark, for some years
an important member of the bureau staff and
particularly well qualified to write on the sub-
ject at hand.
In preparing the book, Mr. Clark evidently
has hesitated about going into great detail
regarding the activities of many of the musical
units in industry, yet the volume as it stands
comprises over 380 pages, all of them replete
with worth-while information, regarding the
organization and activities of musical groups
in the industries of the country. In view of
the fact that this volume represents the first
comprehensive compilation of information re-
garding music in industry, the extent of this
phase of musical activity will probably be appre-
ciated for the first time by many of the trade.
While the author of the book, Kenneth S.
Clark, disclaims at the start any belief that the
facts presented make up a complete picture oi
the activities actually in operation, he does offer
statistics which may surprise those only cas-
ually acquainted with the subject. For example,
the book contains reports which show musical
activities as being maintained in 679 industrial
or commercial'establishments. From the plants
represented, there are recorded a total of 267
bands, 182 orchestras, and 176 choruses—be-
sides 133 plants where there is community
singing, and 273 which provide musical instru-
ments for their employes.
"As oil to the machine, so is music to work."
This heading of the opening chapter is the
basis upon which the writer builds his discus-
sion. In a later section, headed "The Benefits
Arc Mutual"—meaning, to the company and to
the workers, the author supports this latter
thesis by citing opinions to that effect from
both employer and employe, as testifying in the
reports from the individual industries. Next,
the experience of past ages is drawn upon to
show how, from primitive man onward, music
has been used as an aid to work. This narra-
tive runs the gajnut from the instinctive music
of the cotton pickers' song to the scientific
"spraying" of the modern factory worker with
music through an amplifier and loud speaker.
The reasons why the last-named device was in-
stituted arc traced through an analysis of the
relation of fatigue to production, and of
An Example of the Value
of Convention Publicity
The value of daily paper publicity in attract-
ing wide attention to the convention proceed-
ings of the various national trade associations
was emphasized recently by a letter received at
the executive offices of the National Association
of Music Merchants from Frank S. Cory, a
representative of Stickerei Feldmuhle of Suisse
in Santurce, Porto Rico.
In the letter Mr. Cory referred to a story in
a New York paper regarding the address made
by Dr. Paul V. Winslow, an eminent ear spe-
cialist, at the convention meeting this June,
when he declared that the present-day alarm
clock helped to shatter nerves, and that what
was needed was a clock that played pleasant
music rather than one that sounded a gong.
The Porto Rican correspondent sought the
manufacturer of such a musical clock, declaring
that there was a market for it in his country.
L. Schocncwald, manager of Anipico Hall,
Chicago, has been spending a few days in New
York, consulting on various problems in the ex-
ecutive offices of the American Piano Co. He
returned to Chicago last week.
music's powers as a refreshing form of rest
which counteracts some of the effects of that
fatigue.
After chronicling a few of the current mani-
festations of industrial music in other lands,
Mr, Clark points out some of the high spots re-
vealed by the survey in this country. For in-
stance, the railroads lead the van as to the
number of operations from which musical
activities are reported. Their total of 115 opera-
tions is approached most closely by that of the
department stores, which is 89. This one group,
however, would be outdistanced by the manu-
facturers of various kinds, if their joint total
of 107 plants were to be admitted as qualifying.
As to the favorite activities among these and
other classes of industry, the author shows
bands to be in the majority among the rail-
roads, and choral work with the department
stores. At the same time he shows why these
particular activities are especially suited to
those industries, whereas in other fields the
bands, though in the lead, are closely followed
by certain different musical operations which
appeal to the specific industry. In the upkeep
of all these activities, the employer assumes
the expenses in 106 establishments, while in 78
others the responsibility is somewhat evenly
divided between the firm and the workers.
Besides this recording of the facts as to
existing musical groups, the book contains one
chapter, "Here's How," which is a guide of pro-
cedure for other industries where the workers
may wish to do likewise. Here the author gets
down to the "bra,ss tacks" of organizing and
carrying on the various musical enterprises
recommended as practical for industrial recrea-
tion.
"Music in Industry," is published by National
Bureau for the Advancement of Music.
MARCH 30, 1929
Ludwig Official Dead
John J. Ryan, Long Connected With N. Y.
Piano Manufacturing Co., Passes Away
The funeral services of John J. Ryan were
held on Saturday last at St. Paul's Church Bur-
lington, N. J.
Mr. Ryan was vice-president and secretary
of Ludwig & Co. and the Ludwig Piano Co.,
with whom he had been associated since 1898,
at which time he took over the management of
the Philadelphia store. Later he became man-
aging director of the various retail stores of
the Ludwig Piano Co.
Mr. Ryan, who was sixty-one years of age
at the time of his death, was taken ill with
pneumonia about two weeks ago and immedi-
ately went to the Hahnemann Hospital, Phila-
delphia, where he passed away Tuesday, a week
ago, after only a few days' illness. He is sur-
vived by two sisters and two brothers.
Mr. Ryan was well known throughout the
industry and had always been affiliated with the
retail merchandising of pianos. Before becom-
ing connected with the Ludwig organization he
conducted a retail store in his home town, Bur-
lington, N. J. He was a member of the K\ w
York Athletic Club, Winged Foot Golf Club
and the Manufacturers' Club of Philadelphia,
and the Pen and Pencil Club.
The services were largely attended by a host
of friends and business associates including C.
A. Ericsson, L. D. Perry, W. T. Brinkerhoff
and Frank E Edgar of Ludwig & Co.
With two Lester grand pianos sold in one
week by the Union Music Co., of San Fran-
cisco, D. A. Hennessey, the proprietor, says it
looks as if old times were coming back.
John Stern has arranged to open a new
musical merchandise and radio store at Seventh
and Arch streets, Philadelphia.
A Piano Owner Has His Say About
"Care of the Piano" Propaganda
/^JAKLAND, CAL., March 15.—Editor, The
^"^ Music Trade Review: I have been reading
Wm. Braid White's articles on educating the
piano-owning public to the care of the piano,
and I, being in the piano-owning crowd, would
feel insulted if I were sent any literature,
phrased as this is, by the firm from whom I pur-
chased my instrument.
Why try to change human nature? The piano-
owning public is no different than any other
in the respect that there is a percentage who
will give their instruments good care if they
can get literature on maintenance that is to
the point and not a lot of phooey that is useless
and absolutely disgusting to have to read.
Why try to create more sales resistance for
the piano? Why not copy from the automobile
people and let every piano manufacturer publish
his own manual setting.forth the superior con-
struction of each particular instrument and the
ordinary care and attention necessary to make
it last. Remember, don't talk too much and
don't be personal or start slinging mud.
Why be rude to owners and take a chance on
creating knocks? I have an expression grand
and when it was delivered to me from the ware-
house in San Francisco—you will not believe
me but it is, nevertheless, true—four piano men
tried to put it in playing condition and failed.
Instead of putting it in playing condition they
fixed it so it wouldn't play at all. One of the
men was shop foreman for one of the largest
music houses on the Coast, and had a fine
reputation. What would a prospective buyer
think if I told him of my grief and that I had
to put the player mechanism in order myself?
Why do the makers of reproducing pianos try
to pull the wool over their customers' eyes and
not give them any more information about the
functions and mechanisms of their instruments?
One cannot hire adjustments to be made, so
why purchase a mystery?
In how many homes being built could you
put a 5'2" grand piano and have it harmonize
and not be in the way? I am sure there are
thousands of people planning new homes, and
this has not been brought to their attention. A
living room with a grand piano needs little
furniture to set it off to excellent advantage.
How many piano houses could you visit and sec
how a particular type would look in my living
room, not how many pianos the dealer has in
stock nor how many different kinds of instru-
ments a dealer carries. From my makeup, and
I guess there are others like me—when I start
out for a thing my mind is set on that particu-
lar article, so why do piano houses try to sell
a particular piano and then detract from it with
other instruments and ornaments that would
not grace it after being placed in the home?
I am a lover of good music and good furni-
ture and a radio is neither, for I have had a
radio, and now have a 7 a. m. to 11 p. m. pest
next door. Why people are not buying pianos
is not because of anything more than antique
methods of presentation. Take for instance
White's book on player mechanisms, of which
I purchased a copy to help solve my difficulties.
It is ancient. Get out of the rut and put color
and pep in the reproducing piano. Cut out the
funeral music. What is wanted is life. Being
an owner and having had a piano over a year,
and am satisfied entirely with the piano, I
thought it would do no harm to criticize from
a buyer's view.
(Signed) Warren Gould.