Music Trade Review

Issue: 1932 Vol. 91 N. 10

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
14
MUSIC
TRADE
WINDOW DISPLAY OF MATHUSHEK
SPINETCRAND STOPS TRAFFIC IN NEWARK
REVIEW,
December,
1932
CARLIN MUSIC CO. SUFFERS
HEAVY FIRE LOSS
The Carlin Music Co., 143 East Washing-
ton street, Indianapolis, suffered a loss esti-
mated at over $25,000 by a fire which swept
through the company's building recently. The
origin of the fire has not been determined
though incendiarism was suspected.
The
Carlin Music Co., one of the oldest music
houses in the city, has been in the hands of
a receiver for some time past.
NEW PACKARD PIANO CO.
IS INCORPORATED
Wilbert B. Marshall, who, with Paul E.
Gallmeier, recently purchased the assets of
the Packard Piano Co., Fort Wayne, Ind.,
t roin the receiver, have incorporated the
Packard Piano Co., Inc., for the purpose of
manufacturing and dealing in pianos and all
forms of musical instruments and merchan-
dise.
MUSIC DEALERS DAUGHTER
GIVES VIEWS OF EUROPE
Miss Jeannette Kesselman, daughter of L.
M. Kesselman, prominent music dealer of
Milwaukee, Wis., went to Germany this fall
Above—SpinetGrand
Display
in Window of
Baker Piano Co., Newark, N. J.—At
Right—
The Crowd That It Attracted
A
GRAPHIC illustration of the value
of the Mathushek SpinetGrand as a
window attraction, which has been
so often commented upon in the last year
or so, was offered in Newark, N. J., last
month, when the Baker Piano Co., at 225
Washington street, in the business center of
the city, presented the SpinetGrand in a
special display.
The instrument was shown in a window
against a typical colonial background. By
itself it served to attract scores of passersby,
but its pulling power was greatly empha-
sized when a competent pianist, a Mrs.
Douglas, dressed in appropriate colonial cos-
tume, gave short recitals. On such occasions
the sidewalk was jammed to a point where
local police were forced at times to inter-
fere. So that the crowd in the street might
appreciate the fine tone of the SpinetGrand,
a microphone was placed near the instru-
ment in the window and carried the tones
to the outer air through the medium of a
loud speaker.
Upon preparing the display, Mr. Baker
placed a large sign over the front of the
store, calling attention to the tone qualities
of the SpinetGrand, and he reports that the
success of the display, not only in the num-
ber of prospects listed but in the actual sales
booked, was so satisfactory that the demon-
stration will be repeated again at a later
date. The accompanying illustrations afford
an idea of the attractive arrangement of the
window and of a typical crowd gathered to
hear the playing of the instrument.
The Baker Piano Co. is only one of a
number of piano houses that have found
the SpinetGrand of exceptional value, not
alone for its sales appeal but also for its
strong pulling power as an unusual window
attraction.
The Year-End Luncheon
Agreeable to long-established custom the
annual Year-End Luncheon of the New York
Piano Trade will be held at the national
Republican Club on December 29.
Albert
Behning, together with A. Dalrymple, are,
as usual, looking after the arrangements and
reservations can be made through Mr. Behn-
ing at his office, 1935 Madison avenue, New
York. The luncheon is set for 12.30 p.m.
and the total fee is only $2.50, covering
everything.
for the purpose of studying music. Judging
from her letters, however, which have been
reprinted in the Milivaukcr Journal at fre-
quent intervals, she would be well fitted for
a literary career, having the gift of describ-
ing her impressions of Europe in a highly
interesting manner.
Paul II. Rinne, formerly connected with the
Rinne Music Co. and C. G. Conn, Inc., is
manager of the new store of the Indiana
Music Co., at 143 East Ohio street, In-
dianapolis, Ind.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PIANO FACTORY and
PIANO SERVICING
DR. W M . BRAID WHITE
Technical Editor
New Electric Musical
Instruments Offer New
Fields for Piano Tuners
DR. WM. BRAID WHITE
EADERS of this department are well,
perhaps painfully, aware that new prob-
lems confront them, calling for new
solutions. The ordinary routine of piano
servicing continues, of course, to have and
hold its place; but the scale of its opera-
tions has necessarily shrunk, without any
great likelihood of being restored to its an-
cient magnitude. This is not to say that
the men who know their work thoroughly
and have acquired a community reputation
for excellence in it should therefore, one
and all, sell their piano tools and turn to
something else, brewing for example; but
it does mean that even they ought to be
thinking about the possibilities of profitable
work, within their range of interests, but of a
new kind. Already I have discussed some of
these. Let me now take up some others.
R
ELECTRONICS
And in the first place I should like to
point out that the electrical generation of
musical sound is once more being heard of.
My older readers will remember the furor
which nearly thirty years ago Thaddeus
Cahill created for a season with his Telhar-
monion, which manufactured alternating
electric currents at musical frequencies, com-
bined them, sent them out over cables and
into subscribers' homes and there turned the
product into telephone receivers, whence they
The
Piano-Moth -e X
Method
Quickly—Positively doubles tuners' incomes.
Dealers—Tuners, write
THE SCHAI.L LABORATORIES
Madison Avenue
LaCrosse, Wis.
THE M U S I C TRADE
emerged as audible music. The Telharmo-
nion died, but a few years later came the
Choralcelo, which was a most ingenious and
beautiful device for exciting electrically the
strings of a piano and thereby giving rise
to a wide variety of tone qualities and tone
intensities. And there were other attempts
of the kind during what may be called the
pre-radio era.
Since the invention of the vacuum tube
valve and the consequent rise of the radio
arts, electrical engineers have worked stead-
ily and effectively in the hope of producing
musical instruments in which the sound
should be generated by electric energy di-
rectly applied, even without the interven-
tion of anything resembling musical strings.
As everyone knows, the vacuum tube valve
gives out an oscillating current which can be
held closely to any given frequency within
the range of musical sounds. It thus be-
comes possible, theoretically, and to some ex-
tent, practically, to generate oscillating cur-
rents, controlled through a keyboard corre-
sponding to the whole musical scale with ad-
ditional frequencies corresponding to har-
monic components of musical sounds. By
means of suitable and sharply tuned "filters"
the currents can be mixed in a wide variety
of composition, giving tone qualities of vari-
ous timbres, while, of course, intensity and
pitch may be controlled at will.
In all these instruments the generating
force is electrical. Amplifiers are used to
step up the current intensity and loud speak-
ers to turn the electrical into sound energy.
Now I should not wish it to be supposed
that any one of these instruments, most of
which are still in an experimental state,
are ever likely to come to be part of the
furniture of every well regulated home.
There is an enormous difference between a
scheme worked out, never so carefully, by an
engineer on paper and a practical embodi-
ment which can take a dominating or even
a favorable place in the practical art of
music. I have been listening to instruments
of this kind for five years, and it is my
deliberate opinion that none of them so far
presents features which entitle it to prece-
dence over the existing body of strings and
winds, with or without keyboards. On the
other hand, there can be no doubt whatever
REVIEW, December, 1932
that within the next few years a number of
these new electrical music makers will be
pushed forward by powerful interests, mostly
connected with broadcasting. There will
then be a strong effort to sell them to the
public; and it is quite within the range of
possibility that many of them will be sold.
GET TO KNOW THEM
In any case, since today every man who
has any mechanical ability at all knows or
is trying to learn something practical about
radio circuits and radio practice, it is plain-
ly the practical duty as a mere matter of
good sense of all tuners to make an effort
to acquaint themselves with the electrical
principles of these instruments. They will
be found to fall into two classes. One class,
typified by the so-called Neo-Bechstein, now
being shown in this country, utilizes the
sound sources of a standard instrument, usu-
ally the piano, and builds upon this along
electrical lines. Thus the Neo-Bechstein em-
ploys piano strings, action and hammers. The
vibrations of the strings cause oscillations of
magnetic flux in the fields of permanent
magnets and these in turn give rise to oscil-
lating currents which are amplified and then
turned into a loud speaker. Others, like the^
Theremin instrument, like Merthenot's inven-
tion and like the newly invented Emicon,
utilize vacuum tube valves to generate alter-
(Plcasr turn to page 16)
BADGER BRAND
PLATES
are far more
than
merely
good p l a t e s .
They are built
correctly of the
best material and finish and are spe-
cified by builders of quality pianos.
American Piano Plate Co.
Manufacturers BADGER BRAND Grand
and Upright Piano Plates
Racine, Wisconsin
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