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WESTERN COMMENT
Aladdin and the Djinn
preciation and performance of music represents a social asset of
such imponderable but priceless value that no material wealth can
counterbalance it. Never were truer words spoken. There is in this
{.resent day no greater need than the need for a great deal more
of individual accomplishment in activities not directly connected
with the making of money. Never has been so much material
prosperity, never so much spiritual discontent, boredom and un-
happiness. Never was the mere making of a living so easy, never
was there so much complaint about life being boring, uninterest-
ing, meaningless. Without attempting to analyze the causes of
this patent fact, it may be said plainly that one of the needs of the
moment is the revival of the great truth that anything which is
worth doing at all' is worth doing badly, as Chesterton, paradoxi-
cally but quite correctly, puts it. In a word, it is better to play
golf badly than to hire someone else to play it well, better to strum
on the piano oneself than to listen to a much better pianist per-
forming correctly. Nothing which oneself does is really done badly,
for every bit of oneself participates in even the simplest act of cre-
ation. Now let our slogan be made the stimulant to a campaign,
directed towards making music the prized accomplishment of all.
RKVIKW OFFICE, CHICAGO, 111., February 11, 1929.
So the music industry has its slogan. The richest child, says the
lady who thought it all up, is poor without musical training. The
formula rather grows upon one. The character-
Meet
istic reference to the standard of raw wealth is
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acute. Here we have a definite challenge to the
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Slogan
.
notion that so long as one has money one needs
nothing else, neither education, nor manners, nor kindness, nor
judgment, nor balance, nor gentleness, nor culture. Coming at a
time when there is actually arising some forthright criticism of
the current material standards, it may do some good. That is to
say, if every music dealer and every musician, too, carries this
thought with him, broadcasts it to the best of his ability and bases
on it his own personal relations to the public, it may do some, in
fact, a great deal, of good. But I should rather, according to my
custom, direct attention to some of the less obvious applications
of the matter. There are, it seems to me, two rather important
points, not to be overlooked, neglect of which will probably, if not
certainly, neutralize altogether the clever formula which the clever
lady so cleverly thought up.
AND the first of these is that, at best, slogans are magic, a species
of mental sleight-of-hand, whereby one tries to induce a desirable
frame of mind in others without doing any work
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on the case oneself. We are all at heart hope-
° f rn
less romantics, dreaming of the day when we
shall barter a new lamp for an old one, and then,
rubbing the dulled surface, rind ourselves in presence of a terrify-
ing but omnipotent and obedient Djinn, ready to carry out instantly
our slightest command. To a disquietingly great extent advertis-
ing is an experiment in lamp-rubbing. We all know that, within
pretty wide limits, advertising does pay. We all know that adver-
tising can and does create states of mind. In a word, advertising
can bring a prospective customer to the point of deciding that it
might be well to go down and look in at the window of a store;
but advertising does not, and cannot, drive into the store that pros-
pect determined to buy one specific thing, unless that thing be small,
cheap, portable and of universal immediate interest. This adver-
tising can make a customer go into a drug store, demand a bottle
of "Blisterine" and refuse any substitute; but advertising cannot,
or at least does not, drive a customer into a piano store with a defi-
nite demand for a certain make of piano, a demand proof against
any substitute offering. Every piano merchant knows that quite
well, even if it be admitted that perhaps one or two makes of pianos
are habitually asked for by name; and that is admitting a great
deal. Now what all the powers of advertising cannot do, the mere
invention and broadcasting of a slogan will not do. A slogan, be
it ever so ingenious and powerfully suggestive, can do no more than
start a flow of thought. To do so much is indeed to do a great deal;
but the magic is decidedly Magic Limited. The Aladdins of the
piano trade will have to be content with a Djinn of distinctly nar-
row powers, willing and obedient but by no means omnipotent.
BUT there is a second point. We are about to approach the pub-
lic of 1929 with appeals to them based upon the beauties of the
piano and the delights of acquiring ability to play
The
it. Now frankly, are our pianos good enough for
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1929's taste and ideas? This is no mere rhetor-
Hand
ical question. The piano of 1929 is the piano of
1879 in all essentials. The piano of 1929 is smaller and on the
whole much better built than was the piano of 1879, but the piano
in 1929 is tonally not better than the piano of 1879. In very fact
the small pianos of to-day, although they are as good tonally, tak-
ing everything into consideration, as larger pianos were fifty years
ago, are yet tonally in the same class. Their real properties have
not been built up according to any definitely worked out standard,
for no such standard has existed. The tonal possibilities of the
piano are very great. It is extremely probable that these are much
greater than has .yet been suspected by the generality of us. It is,
in fact, quite certain that the duration of sound throughout the
scale can be increased, that the woodiness of the high treble can
be improved, that the gumminess of the low bass can be smoothed
out. It is equally certain that the action can be made still more
delicate and that more direct control over the vibration of the
string can be had. Not impossible at all is the ideal of producing
a piano of which the sounds can be swelled or diminished at will,
and in which too the player shall have direct command over tone
quality through a shiftable striking point. None of these things,
or anything like them, however, are possible, unless, and until, the
whole trade understands that they are called for and that they, or
parallel improvements, simply must be brought into existence in
some way as soon as possible. But it will be out of the question
lor such understanding to be attained by the trade, unless, and
until, the trade is willing to study something more profound than
slogans. Slogans can produce, in favorable circumstances, desir-
able states of mind; but slogans cannot of themselves sell pianos.
Slogans must be backed up by solid performance. Solid perform-
ance for the purpose of this discussion means pianos satisfactory
to the taste of 1929. I do not say that the present piano is not at
all satisfactory; but I do say that it is not good enough. I say
that even if the improvement shall only be slow, it will be enough
to initiate improvement, so only that it be initiated. The piano of
the future, the piano of which pianists dream, may not be ready
for some years yet; but it must be got ready. And a start in get-
ting it ready can, and should, be made now.
W. B. W.
So it all goes back to poor Mr. Merchant and poor Mr. Salesman.
Each will have to work just as hard as ever. But this much is
undoubtedly true: if the slogan is broadcast, it
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will make many thousands do some thinking. If,
and
what is more important by far, its spirit is adopted,
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if the idea behind it is taken up, analyzed and
put before the public in all its many implications, then what would
otherwise be merely a mild interest may easily be worked in any
community up to a pitch of genuinely active participation. The
meaning behind our slogan is plainly that some ability in the ap-
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