Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1946 Vol. 105 N. 3

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Established 1879
;
March, 1946
i
Vol. 105, No. 3
THE
PIONEER
2794th Issue
PUBLICATION
OF T H E M U S I C
INDUSTRY
Colleges Teach Piano Mechanics
and Business Management
" T ' V E been studying music and
playing the piano for fourteen
years." said a young woman
student in Syracuse University recent-
ly, "but I never knew until I took this
course under Prof. Schmitt that there
was so much to learn about what
goes into the making of the music
that comes out of a piano."
ing. The students are permitted to
ask any questions they desire and
urged to examine the piano carefully.
As a grand piano is used in most
cases many times students are found
on the floor underneath the piano
studying its construction.
"You know, the piano is the only
stringed instrument which the per-
This remark was prompted by in- former does not have to tune." Prof.
struction which is now being given to Schmitt pointed out as he told of the
upper classmen and women by Pro- interest which young women students,
fessor Elvin Schmitt, professor of particularly, a piano and a concert pianist in his ©wn classes, bekeved to be the first along
right, who besides leaching students these lines in any college or university.
how to play the piano also gives them
Not only do the new classes, open
instruction in how a piano is made. only to junior and senior piano stu-
how the action works, how the iron dents, prepare them to know the re-
plate is produced as well as the keys, quirements to look for in selection of
sounding board, hardware, etc.
a piano, but also piano owners are
'"My earliest musieal education,'" better equipped to advise tuners. "And
said Prof. Schmitt recently, "ignored what is very important, piano per-
the fact that some knowledge of the formers know how to attain desired re-
construction of the piano is essential. sults from their playing." Mr. Schmitt
Upon going to Europe to study my added.
eyes were opened as to the great im-
"In order to sesure resonant tone
portance of that study I am now carry- and ease of technique", he continued,
ing out what I decided upon at that "she must know the intricacy and deli-
time. My students must have access cacy of a fine repetition action. One
to the knowledge that was denied rue learns that the piano key is one of the
for so many years."
most ingenious tools ever made and
The photograph reproduced on the that any mistreatment of it will result
front cover of THE REVIEW this in a labored technique and a poor
month is that of Prof. Schmitt and command of tone. So sensitive is the
one of his classes. A few students key to the human tuoch that, with prop-
are assembled around the piano at a er control, a tremendous range of
time and the various parts explained multi-colored tonal gradations can be
to them, what the function of each is. secured. The key may be depressed
how it is constructed and what must slowly or as quickly as lightning, the
be done to keep a piano tuned and attack may be direct or gradual, but
regulated in order to get the best tonal the fallacy of ruthlessly hitting the
results as well as technique in play- keys or of relentlessly pushing them
i
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MARCH, 1944
down onto their beds becomes evident
to each observer after he has seen a
demonstration.
As one co-ed sums it up, "Mr.
Schmitt is giving to us pianists as
great a familiarity with our instru-
ments as players of other instruments
have with theirs. Maybe we will even
learn how to tune them someday!"
Offers Business Courses
At the School of Music of Indiana
University, training in music is com-
bined with journalism, radio, business
and dramatics.
Under new curricular combinations
students in music who do not wish to
follow a professional career as soloists
or become music teachers may fit them-
selves for many music-related positions
which an extensive survey by a School
of Music committee has found to be
open to young men and women with
the proposed combined traini«g. Tkese
include positions as music critics, mu-
sic publishing, music salesman, record
department managers, »adio announc-
ing, artists managers, music store de-
partment managers, and business man-
agers for orchestra, opera and other
musical organizations.
The new combined courses, which
were offered for the first time during
the semester opening Feb. 11, are ex-
pected by the committee to open up an
entirely new area of vocational op-
portunities for musically trained stu-
dents. For those who are graduated
from any of the combination of courses
the new degree of bachelor of science
in music will be given.
The School of Music committee
which worked out the new curricula
is headed bv William E. Ross, pro-
fessor of voice and a graduate of the
University of Wisconsin School of
Business, and includes Newell H. L«ng,
assistant professor of music, and Miss
(Turn to Col. 3, Page 6)
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Breakfast Meetings, Marked Ballots
Innovations at NAMM Convention
A new system of holding meetings
will be in vogue at the forthcoming
Convention of the National Association
of Music Merchants which will be held
at the Palmer House in Chicago from
July 14th to 18th. Instead of hold-
HUGH W. RANDALL
ing the meetings throughout the day
they will be held in the mornings and
terminated by 10:30 A.M. This plan is
to be pursued so that there will be lit-
tle if any interference with the visit-
ing for exhibits. President E. R.
McDuff has appointed Hugh W. Ran-
dall, pi"esident of the Bradford Piano
Co., Milwaukee, as Chairman of the
Convention Committee.
The other
members are W. E. Guylee, Cable Piano
Co., and John C. Weisert, president of
the Bissell-Weisert Co., Chicago. Col-
laborating with them will be Webster
E. Janssen, president of the Jans-
sen Piano Co., New York and E. F.
Story, treasurer of the Story & Clark
Piano Co., who were appointed by
Chauncey D. Bond, president of the
National Piano Manufacturers Asso-
ciation.
The nominating committee will be
under the chairmanship of Louis G.
LaMair. president of Lyon & Healy
Inc. Other members of the committee
are Win. H. Richardson, of the Birkel-
Richardson Company, Los Angeles;
Jerome F. Murphy, Steinert & Sons
Co., Boston; Otto B. Heaton, of Heat-
on's Music Store, Columbus, Ohio; E.
E. Forbes, of E. E. Forbes & Sons,
Birmingham; J. M. Wylie, of the Wylie
Piano Co., Fargo; and Robert W.
Strobel of Strobel's Music Shop, Nash-
ville, Tenn.
This committee will nominate 48 in-
dividuals for 24 offices. The commit-
tee will meet and make public its
nominations well in advance of the
date of the annual meeting. The vot-
ing this year will be by marked ballots
in accordance with the new by-laws
a dopted last year. As each member
registers he will be given a ballot
upon which will appear the names of
those nominated on which each member
will vote and deposit the ballot in a
ballot box at a designated place.
There will be exhibit rooms as well
as a booth display and allocations of
this space will be made within the
near future.
The tentative plans for the trade
show include the use of the seventh,
eighth and part of the ninth floors of
the Palmer House for exhibit pur-
poses. The seventh and eighth floors
have 174 rooms. There will also be ap-
proximately 100 booths in the open ex-
hibit. Secretary Mills of the NAMM
states, however, that it will absolutely
be necessary to ration exhibit space
and the committee has recommended
"that no firm be permitted to use more
than three units—three rooms, booths
or a combination of the two." The al-
COMING NEXT MONTH
Commencing with the April Issue,
The Review will publish a series
of exclusive articles by Steve Car-
roll of the Clark Music Co., Syra-
cuse, N. Y. embodying courses of
instruction with which to train
(il veterans to become piano sales-
men. These courses, developd by
Mr. Carroll, have been accepted
and are now being used by Syra-
cuse University.
basis. An attempt is being made also
to keep the various types of exhibitors
grouped, pianos together, band insru-
ments together etc.
It will be some little time before it
will be possible to formulate a definite
program but tentative plans so far in-
clude an opening luncheon which will
be the only industry wide lu'ncheon
during the week and that meetings will
be held in the mornings and be termin-
ated at 10:30 a.m. sharp. Wednesday
morning will be devoted to the allied
trade groups. On that day the ex-
hibits may be closed until noontime.
On that morning the NAAM group
will meet for presentation of its sales
manual.
The general banquet will be held on
Thursday night at which the new of-
ficers will be announced and the
awards given to those travelling men
who have secured new members.
B. K. Settesgren Back at Office
After being confined to the hospital
and his home since November 3rd,
owing to a broken hip, B. K. Setter-
gren, president of the Estey Piano
Corp., Bluffton, Ind., visited his office
on March 8th. Mr. Settesgren is now
improving steadily and will again soon
be at his office regularly each day.
COLLEGE COURSES
(Continued from Page 5/
LOUIS G. LAMAIR
location of space will be made accord-
ing to a formula worked out after a
conference with the Exhibitors Advis-
ory Committee.
According to Mr. Mills allocation in-
volves new problems this year due to
the combination show and the limited
amount of space and the need to scale
down requests and ration on a fair
Montana L. Grinstead, assistant pro-
fessor of piano. As a basis for the
course combinations, the committee in-
terviewed nearly a hundred leaders in
the commercial music field, all of whom
endorsed the plan. In supporting the
idea, those interviewed declared that
in the music-related fields many fine
employment opportunities are lost be-
cause of lack of "secondary training
on the part of the individual."
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MA«tCH, 1946

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