Presto

THE PRBSTO BUYERS'
OUIDB CLASSIFIES ALL
PIANOS AND PLAYERS
AND THEIR MAKERS
PRESTO
E.tabu.h.d t$$4 THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
ORGAN BUILDERS
ARE INITIATED
At Last Monday's Meeting the Music Indus-
tries Chamber of Commerce Manager Re-
views Work Done and Suggests
Part to Be Taken by Members.
Most of last Monday afternoon's session of the
Organ Builders' Association of America in New
York, was devoted to a report of the activities and
plans of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce
and a consideration of the standard contract drawn
up by the Chamber's Counsel for the organ builders.
The report of the general manager of the Chamber
on the Chamber's activities and plans was very clear.
The principal points made are as follows:
The membership of the Music Industries Chamber
of Commerce consists of eleven associations cover-
ing as many branches of the music industry. One
of the member associations is the Organ Builders'
Association of America.
At the Beginning.
The Chamber was born during the troublesome
war period. No time was available to weld the
membership together in a coherent unit and its va-
rious departments operated as practically independ-
ent units because of force of circumstances. This
condition existed for some time after the end of
the war, but in March of this year it was decided
to bring all the departments of the Chamber under
one management and to meet the problems of the
future with a comprehensive and definite plan of
work. The purposes of the Chamber are three-fold:
1—The promotion of the use and appreciation of
music, the real foundation of the music industry,
and the basis on which its future depends.
2—The development of the music industry along
proper and profitable lines, and its protection from
conditions inimical to the interests of those engaged
in it; and
3—The providing of a medium through which the
various branches of the music industry may confer
on matters of mutual interest.
Creating An Organization.
In order to carry out these purposes, the Chamber
has created an effective working organization, and
is further developing it rapidly. This organization
is departmentalized as much as possible, the indi-
vidual departments being known as the National Bu-
reau for the Advancement of Music, the Legal Bu-
reau, the Better Business Bureau, the Trade Infor-
mation Service Bureau, and the Export Bureau.
In order to provide the means for carrying out the
work for the present year—beginning June 1—the
directors of the Chamber have voted a budget of
$135,000, and in accordance with the Constitution and
By-Laws of the Chamber, have assessed each Di-
vision Member Association a definite amount. The
assessment of the Organ Builders' Association has
been placed at $3,000, the same as last year, although
the budget of the Chamber is double what it was.
This assessment amounts to 2.2% of the total.
Budget of Costs.
In order that I may clearly explain the activities
and plans of the Chamber, I have brought with me
a detailed statement, of the budget for this year.
More than one-third of the Chamber's income,
$50,000 to be exact, will be expended for the Ad-
vancement of Music.
I am not familiar with the volume of pipe organ
sales during the past ten years, but the sales of no
line of musical instruments show an increase compar-
able to the growth of wealth and population in this
country.
The piano industry, for instance, has for years
made around 300,000 pianos annually. Considering
the tremendous growth in population and the in-
creased spending power per family, this industry has
not retained its position, as figures would indicate.
The Pipe Organ Prospect.
Looking at the matter in a broad way, and with the
future rather than the immediate present in view,
the pipe organ depends more upon the wide-spread
appreciation and desire for good music than upon
anything else. If I am not mistaken, the organ
builder, with his expensive "master instrument" can-
not do much to create the desire by the individual
THE PRESTO YEAR BOOK
IS THE ONLY ANNUAL
REVIEW OP
THE MUSIC TRADES
/• c w . ; $2.00 a r««r
prospective customer, as the seller of phonographs
can.
Most of the work for the advancement of music
falls into two classes: first, that work which might
be termed propaganda, and second, work to stimu-
late other organizations and individuals to spread
the gospel of appreciation and use of music. This
is work which requires the services of specialists—
research clerks, speakers and writers. Accordingly,
about $26,000 of the $50,000 will go as salaries for the
Director of the Bureau, his general assistant, a spe-
cial assistant on periodical publicity and booklets,
special writers, additional assistants for special cam-
paigns, stenographers, typists and clerks. The other
major expenses are: Printing, $3,500; Music Weeks,
special campaigns and deficits on activities intended
to be self-sustaining, $3,500; postage, $2,000; Tele-
phone, telegraph and sundry office expenses, $1,500;
co-operative advertising campaigns, $1,500; travelling
(practically in all cases to address associations which
can themselves advance the cause of music) $1,000;
electros, drawings and photographs used in publicity
$750; and prizes in various music contests, $500.
Pipe Organs Not Taxed.
There will be an organ builder appointed as a
member of the Advisory Committee to the Bureau
for the Advancement of Music. It is hoped espe-
cially that his knowledge and experiences of the pipe
organ business will enable him to make valuable
suggestions for methods of promoting music which
will be of particular benefit to the organ builders.
You are familiar with the work of the Chamber
at Washington. All tax provisions affecting the pipe
organ were entirely eliminated. Of the most direct
interest to the Organ Builders has been the success
of the Chamber in preventing the government from
taxing organs which have a piano or player element
incorporated in them.
If this attempt of the Treasury Department to tax
the pipe organ industry had been successful, it would
undoubtedly have been followed by other rulings
which might have nullified to a large degree the ex-
emptions which your branch of the industry has
enjoyed.
Chamber's Legal Bureau.
During the coming year, the Directors of the
Chamber anticipate accomplishing even more im-
portant work through its legal bureau and has set
aside a little less than $20,000 for this purpose.
On August 1, our new Export Bureau will be in-
stalled under the supervision of a manager of 20
years' experience in export trade. It is planned to
spend between $10,000 and $11,000 during this year
in developing the work of this bureau.
The opportunities of exporting pipe organs are
limited, yet the activities of this Bureau will undoubt-
edly be of some value to organ builders.
Next Annual Convention.
The next annual convention of the Chamber will
be held in Chicago in May. The expenses are esti-
mated at $2,500.
The work of the General Office, including the sal-
aries of the General Manager, and all aids and cler-
ical service given division member associations and
local associations, are estimated at between $28,000
and $29,000. About $9,000 has been set aside for un-
foreseen expenses, bringing the total to $135,000.
BAYLEY'S DETROIT SKYSCRAPER.
Bayley's Piano House, Detroit, Mich., of which
Frank J. Bayley is proprietor, has been in business
for 54 years. His father, Volney P. Bayley, was orig-
inally a bookkeeper at the old Whitney Music Co.
in Detroit. Frank J. Bayley has a wonderful ac-
quaintanceship with leaders in Detroit's activities.
He is general manager of the Masonic Magazine of
Detroit, and is prominent in other ways. His lines
include the Boardman & Gray pianos, which his
house has represented for forty odd years; the Ange-
lns line and the M. Schulz Co. line. His new 14-
story building is to be erected at 92-104 Broadway.
It will occupy a site 90 by 110 feet, adjoining on
the north the new Colonial Theater, that is to be
erected. The outer walls are to have surface of
white terra cotta. Beside the Bayley shops and
music studios there will be three recital halls on the
top floor.
William Armstrong, piano tuner of 422 North Sec-
ond street, Elkhart, Ind., came into Lyon & Healy's
store, Chicago, on Wednesday of this week with a
party, including persons from the C. G. Conn band
instrument works, to hear the Estey pipe organ
concert.
WHY GRAND DESIGN
IS SO APPEALING
Interesting Reason for Desirability and
Spreading Demand for Grand Piano Is
Outlined by Gordon G. Campbell, Vice-
President of the Brambach Piano Co.
It is generally admitted that the grand style of
instrument represents the superior form of piano.
Not only so far as tone is concerned, but also as
regards its architecture, the grand piano has a charm
which is distinctly its own. It is an established truth
that it has been the ambition of most owners of
upright pianos to some day own a grand This de-
sire alone is an uspoken testimonial of grand piano
preference, writes Gordon G. Campbell, of the Bram-
bach Piano Co., New York.
But why is grand piano design preferred to that
of the upright instrument? Why is the grand piano
chosen as a superior piano equipment? As was said
in the preceding paragraph, it is not only because
the tone of the grand piano is larger and better, but
also because grand piano architecture is in line with
the modern tendency of furniture design. The lines
in present day house furnishing run horizontally
rather than upright, and furniture instead of being
built to stand high against the walls, is universally
lower in design than in previous years.
Old Designs and New.
Let us make a comparison between the old bed-
stead of colonial days with that of the popular bed-
stead of today. The old bedstead of the time of
Washington extended up the entire wall along the
ceiling and perhaps draped over the edge of the foot-
board in the form of a canopy. Today it is difficult
to tell which is the head or the foot of the bed, both
boards being about the same size. Library book-
cases of not so many years ago covered practically
the entire wall. Today the designs are simpler,
rarely extending over four or five shelves in height.
The Queen Anne design of furniture, with its elabor-
ations, has been discarded and in its place comes the
simpler, more practical modern furniture of today.
The American home of these years is simpler,
more dignified than the home of any other period in
history. In addition to dignity, the American in
furnishing his home has added a touch of sensible
practicability; each article in his home must answer
a definite purpose and offer him the maximum of
service possible.
Horizontal Lines "Fit" Well.
The makers of the Brambach baby grand piano
say that the popularity of that instrument is due to
the fact that it fits in admirably with the modern
trend of home furnishings. Its horizontal lines "fit*
in" with the general trend of home furnishings which
are being placed in the American homes today, and
its tone volume and minimum space requirements
answer the necessary demand for efficiency and prac-
ticability.
The old bug-a-boo of space restriction, which
brought about the popularity of the upright piano, no
longer exists. The small grand has eliminated the
one reason for the upright piano, namely, space re-
quirements, and in addition is being manufactured
in such a way that it can be purchased for about
the same price.
Pleasing to the Eye.
I have recently heard a very logical explanation
for the preference for the new horizontal line furni-
ture. It is naturally conceded that the eyes travel
more easily over the horizontal than they do up and
down over the vertical line. This is best illustrated
by a book or newspaper reading across the lines
rather than up and down. Whether our horizontal
tendency is due to the habit of reading across the
line or whether type is placed across the line due
to a natural tendency has not been determined, but
the fact remains that the condition exists, and with-
out a doubt is responsible for a tendency, today, of
furnishing homes in which the general lines run hor-
izontally rather than high up on the walls to the
ceiling.
This horizontal tendency is not a momentary fad,
but one which, I am certain, will remain with us
permanently, for it must seem unnatural to all of us
to own house furnishings of any kind that run in de-
sign so considerably above the level of the eye.
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