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THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
strument presented a puzzle to all these
musicians, everyone of whom was accus-
tomed to use the keyboard every day. I
found an immense desire to know and to
learn; but almost complete ignorance.
I may add that I insisted upon every
student in the class making a careful study,
with a drawing, of the grand piano action.
Part of th.e final examination paper was de-
voted to this.
TUNING
When we turned from the construction of
the piano to the system of its tuning we
found ourselves again in what to nearlv
everyone was a wholly unknown land. It
was not that these ladies and gentlemen
could not understand my explanations. On
that point there was very little trouble.
What was peculiar about it was that most
of them had no idea at all that the equal
temperament is a mechanical artificial com-
promise, dictated by convenience and by the
mechanical limitations of a keyboard which
DISTINCTIVE
TONE QUALITY
For generations Poehlmann
Music Wire and Fly Brand
Tuning Pins have made many
pianos famous for their re-
nowned tonal qualities.
September, 1931
29
the apathy of preceding generations of
musicians has been the principal factor in
preserving until this day. Here we were on
completely new ground. I took a great deal
of pleasure in showing my class over the
field, explaining the scale, contrasting pure
with tempered intonation and demonstrating
the peculiarities of the accepted system. I
even was able to get them to hear beats in
major thirds and sixths. Before we had
finished, beats in unisons and octaves were
easy to them. I am persuaded that in each
of the communities to which these teachers
have now severally returned the standard
of requirement in piano tuning will be
markedly improved hereafter. I did not try
to teach them how to tune, but I did show
them what tuning is and why it is.
WHAT IT SHOWS
All these facts, thus lightly set forth, seem
to me to converge towards a conclusion.
As things stand today the musicians and the
tuners are alike facing a change in public
taste and a progress in scientific invention
which are bringing about a state of affairs
extremely uncomfortable to all concerned.
The demand for music study by individual
students appears to be falling off. This is
largely, if not wholly, owing to an undoubted
decrease in the quantity and quality of the
opportunities of making a good living now
available to the rank and file of professional
musicians. It is no longer certain that the
entering student of ordinary talents will be
able to earn a living from playing some
musical instrument or from singing. For
parallel reasons the tuner-technician is finding
that the demand for piano tuning is falling
off, while the maker of pianos has been ex-
periencing during five years at least a stead)'
shrinkage in sales. It is certain that unless
the art of music, with its professional, com-
mercial and technical accessories, is to decline
and die, united action is called for by all
concerned.
I have repeatedly urged the National As-
sociation of Piano Tuners to take heed of
the signs of the times and to form an alliance,
offensive and defensive, with the professional
musicians. No one better than myself has
known that this would be difficult; but the
need has been urgent and who dares nothing
nothing obtains. Yet the warnings fell on
deaf ears, and now we have the lamentable
spectacle of the National Association splitting
into regional and even local fragments. Can
anything then still be done?
DO THIS
The continued prestige of Fly Brand Pins
and Poehlmann Wire is due solely to
quality. Every detail is watched minutely.
Made from special drawn wire by men
who have done nothing else for a lifetime,
they embody every known requisite for
quality. That is why many manufacturers
of high-grade pianos demand Poehlmann
Wire and Fly Brand Pins.
I am bold enough to believe that something
can be done. Each and every local or re-
gional association which has been formed out
of the body of the National Association can
and should exert a powerful influence in its
own community. 1 once more urge these
bodies, and with them all powerful individual
tuners, each in his own community, to start
in on a campaign of education with the
professional musicians, intended to carry out
among them what, in another way, I have
been carrying out with my students at the
C.M.C. Let offers be made to music clubs,
to groups of professional musicians, and to
enterprising dealers, by men capable of doing
the job, to give talks, demonstrations or lec-
tures on the construction and the tuning of
the piano. There are many thousands of
music study groups and clubs scattered all
over the country only too eager foT knowl-
edge, but compelled to go hungry for want
of someone to provide them with what they
need and desire. During the last four years
I have lectured to colleges, universities, music
clubs, scientific groups, and public schools,
on piano construction, piano tone, piano tun-
ing and allied matters. I have found every-
where intense desire for knowledge, intense
interest, genuine enthusiasm. I believe that
if a genera] effort were made by technical
men to educate the music-loving people of
this country on the piano, its beauties and its
wonders, its construction and its workings,
its tone and its tune, there could not fail to
come about a genuine reawakening of en-
thusiasm, to the good of us all.
One man can only do a little. I am doing
my share steadily, even during these days
of rather slow business. Others can do as
much. If a hundred men were doing the
same thing this winter, throughout the coun-
try, what an awakening there would be!
Everyone will admit that there ought to
be an alliance of offense and of defense
among makers, tuners, and players of pianos.
One of the most powerful weapons such an
alliance could wield would be the weapon
of education on the mysteries of the most
fascinating of all musical instruments. The
men to forge and use this weapon are the
technical men, the tuners. Will they grasp
the opportunity?
CHAS. F. STEIN TALKS
AT TUNERS 1 CONVENTION
At the Tuners' Convention in Minneapolis,
Minn., last month, Chas. F. Stein, the noted
Chicago piano manufacturer, was specially
invited to address the organization of which
he is an earnest and enthusiastic member.
After referring to the fact that his knowledge
of the tuning business extended back at least
thirty years, he reminded his hearers of the
old-time tuner, who was a combination of
repair man, messenger boy, salesman ana
tuner. "Slowly the public is beginning to
appreciate the piano tuner for his real value
as a highly trained and skillful artisan," he
said, "and the tuner himself ought to realize
that his profession entitles him to a dignity
and rank which he hasn't hitherto claimed
for himself.
SOLE AGENT U. S. A.
WE REPAIR
American Piano Supply Co.
ANY KIND of PLAYER ACTION
Division of
HAMMACHER-SCHLEMMER
& COMPANY
104-106 East 13th Street
New York, N. Y.
Long experience • Prompt
shipments
The Moore & Fisher Manufacturing Co.
Deep River, Conn.