December 13, 1924.
PRESTO
CHRISTMAN
"The First Touch Tells
THREE
generations of Christmans
1
have made the Christman Piano
what it is today—one of the world's
truly great pianos.
PRECURSOR OF
THE MODERN PIANO
Prominent Manufacturer Believes That the
Harpsichord Should Experience a Revival
and That in Some Respects It Has
Advantages Over Its Successor.
MME. LANDOWSKA'S VIEWS
Great Contemporary Pianist, Who Is Giving Recitals
on the Quaint Little Instrument, Discusses
Subject in Her Recent Book.
The Famous
Studio Grand
(only 5 ft. long)
This dainty little instrument is pre-
ferred by many of the foremost piano
houses and by its remarkable beauty
of design and tone quality it remains
the favorite w i t h discriminating
customers.
CHRISTMAN
Reproducing Grand
the most satisfactory both in imme-
diate profits and in building more
business.
Many More Dealers Have
Arranged to Start the New-
Year with the Entire Line of
CHRISTMAN
Players and Pianos 1
"The First Touch Tells"
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off.
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
One of the interesting performers in concerts this
season is Mme. Wanda Landowska, whose harpsi-
chord recitals have awakened new interest in the
ancient precursor of the piano. The lady has also
proved an entertaining writer on musical subjects,
and her book on "Music of the East" presents much
of permanent concern to lovers of the keyed instru-
ment.
For Mme. Landowski advances the idea that there
is nothing "ancient" in music; that the harpsichord,
which many think is a thing of the past, is as up-to-.
date as the piano; that the music of the little instru-
ment is as good or better than the more sonorous
splendor of the grand piano of today.
And in this many prominent musicians agree with
Mme. Landowska, and a few of the piano manufac-
turers believe that the piano should not altogether
supplant the harp-like tones of the older instrument.
For instance, M. H. Edgar French writes as follows:
New Castle, Ind., November 28, 1924.
Editor Presto: On page eight of the Presto for
November 22nd you have a paragraph reading as
follows:
"The thin, tinkling tones of the harpsichord are
still to be heard at fashionable freak concerts, but the
failure to arouse public interest in the forerunner of
the piano proves again that the world is not willing
to turn backward in its way of progress."
Now I believe that the old harpsichord had its
merits and there are tone qualities which are better
in certain ways than the big booming tone, and our
dulcet tone is the answer to the problem. I am sure
the failure to arouse public interest in New York is
because on the harpsichord the performer is abso-
lutely limited to the harpsichord tone, but in the
Jesse French & Sons grand the harpsichord or dulcet
tone is to be heard right along with a wonderful
volume of normal piano tone.
For this reason I would certainly appreciate the
address of a few of the "freak concert artists" who
use the harpsichords.
Yours truly,
JESSE FRENCH & SONS PIANO CO.
H. Edgar French, General Manager.
The reference to the harpsichord concerts in Presto
upon which Mr. French comments was not intended
to criticize the instrument itself so much as the fickle-
ness of the public. No doubt there is a growing feel-
ing along the line suggested by Mr. French. And,
aside from the great tone volume, the piano in its
modern perfection presents all of the advantages for
which harpsichord lovers may seek. Of course there
is in the return of the harpsichord also often the
quaint vision of a lovely woman seated at the minia-
ture instrument, attired in the costume of our great
grandmothers. Mr. French's suggestion is timely,
and, no doubt, would be profitable to piano dealers
if acted upon. In connection with what Mr. French
says the present season of harpsichord recitals by
Mme. Landowska seems to have an added interest.
Her New Book.
Mme. Landowska is as celebrated a harpsichordist
as she is a pianist, and her virtuosity on the harpsi-
chord is the symbol of her erudition in matters of
seventeenth and eighteenth century music. Her re-
cent textbook upon the music of the past is not so
much a matter of instruction as it is a protest against
the term "music of the past" and an attack upon the
whole concept of musical "progress."
"Music is pre-eminently a modern art"—how often
has one heard it said. "Born obscurely at a not very
distant date, it has during the last two centuries
made magnificent progress, and we are witnessing its
glory." Mme. Landowska devotes her first chapter
to showing how, all the way back to Seneca, the vari-
ous ages of the world have said the same thing, set-
ting the origins of music back about two centuries,
thinking that they themselves were seeing its climax.
The Lyra Gracea might have given her data for
putting it back six or seven hundred years farther.
Is It "Progress"?
Bit by bit, then, she pulls apart this idea of prog-
ress, taking the words of Victor Hugo, himself a
pioneer of progress, as her text: "The beauty of art
lies in its not being susceptible of improvement. Art
is art, and, taken in itself, goes neither forward nor
backward. The transformations of poetry are only
undulations of the beautiful."
The fallacy that old music thought only of charm-
ing the ears, that it lacked grandeur and pathos, is
the first to go, and, having made her argument, Mme.
Landowska finds a picturesque way of clinching it:
"A combative critic of the second half of the last
century, Azevedo, was accustomed to say of a score
which failed to please him: 'This score lacks gen-
darmes; it does not collar me.'
"In old music, it was bad taste to make excessive
use of gendarmes."
The Love of Change.
People, of course, like a change now and then, and
after the classic centuries came romanticism. Now
we are getting a little tired of romanticism. And
there you have the principle, not of progress, but of
undulation, says a writer in the Chicago Evening
Post.
Mme. Landowska points out how foolish we have
been to discard the harpsichord, an instrument which
goes excellently with orchestra, simply because we
have the pianoforte, a more powerful instrument, but
one which does not blend with orchestra. She also
points out that many modern writers do not seem to
know what the harpsichord is, some of them even
using the term interchangeably with clavichord.
The proof of the pudding is, of course, in the eat-
ing. Mme. Landowska has made a good and a
scholarly argument, and takes us as far along the
path to conviction as words can. The real proof,
however, will come when she and her harpsichord
have had a hearing in the course of their present
tour. There can be little doubt that they will bring
with them the final conviction. "I have been con-
verted myself," wrote Susan Wilbur in the Post, "by
less than the argument of the harpsichord played by
one who knows its technique. It was enough for me
to hear a composition of Sir John Blow played on a
little octavina—an instrument small enough to hold
on the lap—by a player whose only technique was
that of the piano."
ASKS FOR INCREASE OF
FEES ON PARCEL POST
Postmaster General Desires Power to Establish a
Charge for Return of Receipt.
The Postmaster General favors legislation to estab-
lish a charge for the return to the sender of a receipt
for any registered article. Other measures favored
are increases in fees for registration of mail matter
and an increase to $1,000 of the maximum for which
such insurance can be secured the establishment of
demurrage charges on parcels which addresses fail
to remove from the post office within a reasonable
time or their return to the sender, and the revision
of the present scale of fees for money orders are
recommended by Postmaster General Harry S. New
in his annual report, just submitted to the President.
The Postmaster General reports an increase in the
total of 148,251,039 domestic parcels being insured
during the fiscal year ended June 30 last, an increase
of some 7,000,000 over the preceding year. The fees
for this service totaled $7,460,997, and indemnities
amounted to $3,025,339. A total of 46,900,372 parcels
were sent C.O.D., an increase of approximately
6,500,000 over 1923, with total fees for the service
amounting to $4,733,623 and claims totaling $733,259,
according to report.
GOOD FELLOWSHIP LUNCHEON
IS SET FOR DECEMBER 11
To Make Plans for Year Ahead One of the Reasons
for the Meeting.
The contemplated Good Fellowship Luncheon of
the Chicago Piano & Organ Association is definitely
called for Thursday, Dec. 11, at 12:30 p. m. sharp, in
the East Room, second floor Great Northern Hotel.
The reasons for the Good Fellowship luncheon are
three in number: 1st, the good of the order; 2nd,
some plans for the year ahead; 3rd, to prevent rust
accumulating on your very valuable trade connec-
tions.
"Jot the date down on your desk-pad—right now,
then mail a note in the stamped, addressed envelope
enclosed, saying you will be there—or give me a
ring, Harrison 4015. Advance reservations are neces-
sary. Bring a friend along if you wish," is the advice
in a letter to members by F. P. Whitmore, secretary.
G. L. Brawner, of Seal-Brawner, music dealers,
Winchester, Va., has purchased the interest of his
partner, Henry Seal. The store will continue to
operate at the same location under the name of the
Brawner-Anderson Music Store in the future.
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