Music Trade Review

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EDITORIALLY
most humble homes, musical appreciation in this country
would have been far more limited than it is at the present
time and confined to those with sufficient financial resources
to gratify their tastes for culture.
This invention of the music-reproducing mechanism by
Edison, in itself, made possible a great broadening of the field
of the music dealer, not only in the sale of phonographs,
records, etc., but in meeting the demands for other instru-
ments for self expression, interest in which was directly
traceable to the developed musical tastes inade possible by
his great invention. Although Mr. Edison's individual part
m the development of the radio was not so outstanding,
nevertheless, his inventions and discoveries held an impor-
tant place in the early activities of that great industry
Mr. Edison has been so widely eulogized by the press of
the country and the leaders of the nation that further words
are unnecessary, but the music trade should always keep
fresh in mind the memory of the man who was instru-
mental in broadening the field of good music until it ex-
tended into the most humble home in the land.
JOHN ERSKINE GIVES SOUND
ADVICE TO PIANO DEALERS
I
N John Erskine, president of the Juilliard Musical Founda-
tion and a member of the Board of Control of the
National Bureau for the Advancement of Music, the
piano has found a firm champion who is far from pas-
sive in his support of that instrument and its study. On
several recent occasions Mr. Erskine has seen fit to write
strong articles, published in leading magazines, advocating
the training of the youth of the land in personal perform-
ance of music, with the piano generally held forth as the
basic instrument for study.
Perhaps the most interesting of Mr. Erskine's writings,
however, appeared in the New York Herald Tribune Sun-
day Magazine on October 18, which is reprinted, in part,
elsewhere in T H E REVIEW.
In the article Mr. Erskine urges strongly that the piano
dealers of the country make available facilities in their own
warerooms or elsewhere for practice hours and recitals of
young student pianists in groups. He declares that this
group practicing and playing overcomes the shyness so often
found in young students, arouses the spirit of competition
and takes the piano lesson out of the "chore" class. As the
trade knows, the writer of the article has had enough direct
contact with the piano dealers, and recently, to enable him
to talk with authority on that phase of the question and his
suggestions are so sensible and so generally recognized that
they should not be allowed to lie unheeded.
Mr. Erskine's advice to the public about keeping their
pianos in tune and to the teachers to overcome their petty
jealousies, for their own lasting benefit and that of the pupils
studying under them, is also direct and to the point. It
would be a fortunate thing for the piano and piano study
if copies of Mr. Erskine's article in the Herald-Tribune
Magazine could be placed in the hands of every music teach-
er and every piano dealer in the country for close study, and
also placed before every parent whose child is being trained in
music. Perhaps the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce
or the National Bureau for the Advancement of Music can do
something about it.
PROHIBITION LAWS THAT
CURTAIL INSTALMENT SALES
T
IN THE PASSING OF EDISON
MUSIC HAS LOST A FRIEND
W
I T H the passing, last month, of Thomas Alva
Edison, both the music-lovjng public and the
music trade of the country suffered the loss of
one who, during his busy life, contributed more
than any single individual to the musical development of the
nation.
Through his invention of the phonograph, over a half
century ago, Mr. Edison opened the way for the widest
possible education of the public at large in the good things
in music and those who created it.
Were it not for the
phonograph, and the music-reproducing instruments of simi-
lar character that followed it, to bring the voices of the
great artists and the music of the great masters into the
8
HERE has been so much talk about instalment buy-
ing and its benefits or evils, in this country, that the
manner in which business men and governments in
other countries meet the situation that has developed
is particularly interesting.
An outstanding example is in
Norway, where the government has placed severe restric-
tions on the articles and commodities that may be purchased
on deferred payments. The restrictions rest chiefly on those
articles classed as luxuries and which depreciate in value dur-
ing the period in which payments are being made.
It is significant that pianos, radio sets, sewing machines
and similar objects arc not on the forbidden list which in-
cludes, however, ready-made clothes, shoes, glassware, cook-
ing utensils, draperies, furniture, etc. Under any conditions
those who sell articles retailing at less than 500 kroners
(about $130) must have special licenses from the police
and own their own premises. It is believed that the law
will enable the public to obtain necessary articles for cash
at lower prices and also prevent people from living beyond
their means.
It would be interesting to observe any attempt to pass
such a restrictive law in the United States. With each in-
dustry insisting on having its products put on the open list
and competing products on the restricted list the lobby in
Washington would make the tariff hearings seem like prayer
meetings. Then picture the bootlegging that would develop
with such a restrictive law in force and imagine the music
merchant leading a customer around to the back door, nod
to Gus and then try to sell him a player-piano or saxophone
with a demonstration that the police could not hear. Life
would not be the same if father wandered home in the wee
hours with arms full of band instruments all because he
hadn't the courage to say no when the boys insisted on a
lively evening in musical speakeasies.
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW, November, 1931