Presto

i
PRESTO
January 27, 1923.
CHRISTMAN
Famous
Studio Grand
Five-feet Long
"The First Touch Tells 99
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off.
CHRISTMAN
pianos are different because we
h a v e o u r own individual
methods of manufacture. If
you want proof of this just
examine, for instance, our
CHRISTMAN
REPRODUCING PIANOS
Remarkable in their distinctive
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tion, case designs and exclu-
sive features. Made in both
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CHRISTMAN
GRANDS, UPRIGHTS
PLAYERS
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REPRODUCING PIANOS
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
SECRET OF FREE
SOUND VIBRATIONS
Results of Experiments of Scientists Who
Have Made the Piano's Sound Board the
Object of Their Research and Results in
Perfecting Their Instrument of Music.
By CARL BRONSON,
(Long with The Cable Company, Chicago.)
In continuing our discussion of the sounding board
let us recollect that the air about us is filled with
atoms which, when disturbed, strike against each
other to the extent of the disturbance and return to
their fixed place with elastic precision, exactly like
the rebounding keys of the piano. If it were not
for this wonderful provision, successive sounds could
not be successfully repeated without long intervals
between the disturbances, or, more properly speaking,
pulsations. Rapid pulsations of sound are, therefore,
made possible and mose effective upon the distant ear
by rapidity of pulsation upon these airy atoms.
One could almost imagine that keyboard instru-
ments were suggested by this phenomenon of the air
and that a clear, clean-cut precision of disturbances,
such as hammers upon strings under the deft fingers
of an expert performer, might easily have been an
inspiration directly out of the air, since he is acting
in obedience to an atomic law. A great disturbance
in the atomic body, such as might be occasioned by a
great explosion, is not of far-reaching effect because
it lacks concentration; in fact, those sounds which we
call most musical are the real travelers of space.
Secret of Sound Waves.
In order to create these waves there must be a cer-
tain succession of very refined disturbances, and
these must be launched at a pitch which is easily
within the grasp of the ear or they cannot be heard
to the extent of arousing our attention or holding it.
Scientific musicianship has discovered a means of
collecting and reflecting these refined waves or pulses
in the magic of the sounding board. This contrivance
prevents the too wide scattering of the repeated
pulsations and turns noise into music.
A noise is a disturbance of atoms at random, just
as some amateurs play, while real tone is the creation
of an emotional thought. This emotional thought
needs augmenting in order that it may be picked up
and delivered to the waiting ear. The soundboard
performs this office. A valuable instrument, then, is
one which has a very responsive sounding board, if it
is a soundboard instrument.
There are many wood-wind and brass instruments
which in the nature of their quality of tone and con-
struction, reflect a carrying tone without the augmen-
tation of the sounding board; but, like the human
body, they contain all of these necessary elements
within themselves.
Revolutionary Discoveries.
Some of the greatest acoustical experts in the world
are now workjng upon the sensitiveness of sound
pulsations and their effect upon the ear, and are dis-
covering revolutionary formulas. Thomas Edison has
been wrestling with this mighty task for years, even
though he is as deaf to ordinary sound as was
Beethoven. Sound waves are now easily photo-
graphed, but this does not afford any lifting of their
veil of mystery.
We are being turned back surely to the study of
ourselves, and therein seems to lie a mine of real dis-
covery. For instance, it is a fact that an adhesion of
matter to the bones of the face materially reduces the
vibration at that point. The great secret and the
enigma of all musicianship is to volute the tone away
from the instrument freely, and not allow it to hang
around like smoke in a dead cloud. Few there are
who can acquire this great power, and the struggle
of invention is to facilitate this one possibility in the
instrument so that the performer can, without much
effort, cast his thrilling harmonies far into listening
space without descending to mere noise which has
no wings with which to fly.
Piano Hammers and Strings.
Since atoms in space act as do piano hammers on
their strings their response seems to become a mat-
ter of the skill and emotions of the performer. In
singing, nearby loudness, or mouth tones, never carry
very far, while the almost falsetto head tones cannot
be covered up by the loudest orchestra. These rap-
idly pulsing tones, imbued with the breath of an in-
ward fire, or fervor, are the waves which take wing
most freely. Being quick in themselves, they affect
the atomic keys of space just as the fingers imbued
with emotion affect the piano strings.
Freedom, then, becomes the great magician of
tone-casting. That is why the " F " holes in a violin
are of such great importance. They free the waves
of vibration from the instrument.
Must Free Vibrations.
Working out a still more wonderful discovery in
the freeing process, Charles Mehlin, a well-known
New York piano expert, has invented a sounding-
board which he constructed upon the mechanical at-
tributes of the human face and its resonating antrims,
devising an opening in the board which frees the vi-
brations just as the mouth does in the expert singer,
producing an effect in the entire scale of absolute
release of every tone, doing away with that jumble, or
muddyness, which has heretofore been unavoidable
even with expert pedaling, causing the hands of the
performer to feel as though the sounds were really
drawn from him and out of him rather than a sensa-
tion of extreme percussion.
We know that freedom in the singer is only at-
tained through the management of the breath in its
flowing activities and not in its retention; that he
who swells up fit to burst with what he is doing is
only obstructing freedom. What a revolution in pian-
istic virtuosity is dawning when the master per-
former realizes that he can produce his most tre-
mendous effects through spirit and understanding and
put away confusing and shortlived dynamics forever.
BIG MUSIC HOUSE OFFERS
$4,500,000 DEBENTURE BONDS
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company Issues Securities
Bearing Six Per Cent on Huge Sum.
The largest operation in finance ever recorded in
connection with the music industry and trade has just
been announced by George H. Burr & Co. and Halsey,
Stuart & Co., New York brokers, who offer $4,500,-
000 Rudolph Wurlitzer Company 6 per cent sinking
fund gold debentures due January 15, 1938, at 99 and
interest yielding about 6.10 per cent. The maximum
interest charges on the present offering of debentures
amount to $270,000.
The debentures will be a direct obligation of the
company and will constitute its sole funded debt ex-
cept one note of $490,000, payable $10,000 annually
and the balance in 1931. The statement is made that
the total net assets available for the debenture issue,
after giving effect to the present financing, amount
to $17,030,232, or more than three and three-fourth
times the debenture issue. A sinking fund, which be-
comes operative May 15, 1923, will retire 60 per cent
of the total authorized issue of debentures prior to
maturity.
ADVISES THE PUBLIC TO
HAVE THE PIANOS TUNED
Vocalstyle Music Co. of Cincinnati, Sets a Good Ex-
ample for Others to Follow.
The Vocalstyle Music Co., of Cincinnati, puts into
force a good idea. At the end of its February list of
music rolls the following appears in good-sized type:
"Have you had your piano tuned lately? It should
be tuned twice yearly! Ask your dealer about it!"
That is a useful thought, and if all dealers and
manufacturers of the things of music would adopt it,
the piano world would quickly be benefited. Why
doesn't the piano tuner's association encourage some
such plan by direct appeal to the industries?
The list from which the foregoing is copied is
designed for general circulation by the retailers
throughout the country.
STERLING PIANO CO. PLANS.
The Sterling Piano Company will divide its manu-
facturing operations between Derby, Conn., and the-
plant of the Huntington Piano Company in Shelton.
The wood working will be done in the Derby plant,
as there is no provision for such in Shelton. The
company will make piaiios in both places. It is not
thought that the local company will operate the
Derby plant to the same extent as formerly, as the
Shelton plant is also a large one capable of turning
out large quantities of instruments.
MRS. SNADELY.
Mrs. Jessie L. Snadely, manager of the music store
founded in Ironwood, Mich., by her husband some
twenty years ago, was a visitor in Chicago this week.
Conditions in Ironwood arc improving, since the iron
industry is in good condition, she reported. Mr9.
Snadely handles the Chase-Hackley Piano Co.'s line
of pianos in Ironwood.
A branch shore was recently opened in Albany,
N. Y., by the Larkin Music House of Binghamptoiii,
N. Y.
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