February 21, 1925.
PRESTO
is also an opportunity. The future prosperity of the
player and reproducing piano industries and also the
roll industry is bound up in the state of musical
culture of the masses. An improvement in musical
taste means an improvement in the sales of the means
to reproduce the finer kinds of musical compositions.
To have permanent prosperity in the player and re- A. G. Gulbransen Calls Players and Reproduc-
Relation of One to the Other Well Understood, producing piano business the dealer must have pros-
ing Pianos Greatest Aids to Familiarizing
pects among a relatively high state of musical taste.
Public with Beauties of the Classics.
But When Is a Music Roll Popular
When it comes to pass that the bulk of the people
will
appreciate
the
good
in
music,
the
popular
music
The daily papers print Gulbransen news items and
Is Query Sprung by Veteran
will be the fine music.
the circulation of papers that published these items
Traveler.
from December 15 to January 15 amounted to 1,914,-
Noting the Difference.
842. The wide range and interest of the subjects
It is difficult for the ordinary person to draw a which were published are worthy of comment. They
fast line between good and bad music. Much of the dealt with expenditures for musical instruments, steal-
POPULAR CLASSICS
so-called artistic music made into rolls is absurd and ing of jazz music from the classics and the familiarity
without appeal to the naturally tasteful person with-
Seemingly Paradoxical Phrase Explained in Prefer- out musical training. But many customers in the with and enjoyment of opera.
Perhaps the most interesting article is the one
ences of Foreign Groups for Opera and
roll department unerringly choose the good kind be- which is given herewith # quoting A. G. Gulbransen,
Fine National Music.
cause it soothes, exalts or inspires them. And president of the Gulbransen Company:
It is generally agreed that the success in player- whether you call it classical or not, the more they
"Grand opera will be popular with the multitudes
piano sales is considerably dependent on the desire get of the music that inspires them and makes them when more people can whistle an aria and pick out a
for the instrument engendered by the player music more appreciative of their players and their repro- theme from its bewilderment of harmonies," accord-
rolls. And that being the case, the identity of the ducing pianos, the better it is for them, for the ing to A. G. Gulbransen, a strong advocate of the
variety of music that does the most engendering is dealer and for the music industries.
desirability of including music in general education.
highly important. How much of the urge is used by
"Three classes of people really enjoy grand opera.
Success of Reproducing Piano.
the "popular" and how much by the more decorous
They are professional musicians; people with a nat-
The success thus far of the reproducing piano ural love of music and some musical education who
kinds of music? In i division on that question you
proves there is a normal desire in Americans for choose the opera they know or study the score before
would find vociferous voters on both sides.
good music. The thing that holds the phonograph
If popular music in the rolls has been potent in steady against the rush of radio is the record of the hearing a new opera; and Italians, French and Ger-
creating the desire for purchases of the playerpianos, better class. The high-class record and the high- mans who fill the top galleries and to whom music is
a knowledge of the many varieties of popularity class reproducing piano music have done as much for as much a part of their lives as their daily bread.
"11 Trovatore fills an opera house in spite of the
might be helpful. The first tune lilted by one of our the advancement of music as the music conserva-
progenitors with imperfect vocal organs might be tories. The same principle applies to the player roll fact that it no longer is fashionable because every-
called a popular. Folk songs from the earliest times and the consequences should interest every dealer. body who can distinguish between Yankee Doodle
may be set down in the popular category. In fact, Make the player business prosperous by encouraging and Doxology knows the 'Miserere' and the old
the popular is as old as the race and has maintained good music by a definite policy of promoting it. gypsy's 'Home to Our Mountains.' People who did
a prominent place since the beginning of the art of When the good compositions become more familiar not learn a piano transcription of the opera in their
music. The popular simply has always been what to the class which buys players they will be the satis- youth can thank the hand organ and the street piano
for their knowledge of the opera. In later years
the people liked.
fying populars.
M. D. S.
these means of education have been supplemented by
Satisfying the Customer.
the phonograph and the registering piano. The num-
When the playerpiauo dealer puts forward the so- URGE ACTION ON PULLMAN RATE. ber of the people who learn to play any instrument is
called populars of today, plays them in demonstrating
A committee representing various traveling men's necessarily limited and mechanical instruments make
the player for the customer and throws in free a associations, visited Washington last week to urge it possible for all people to know good music and
collection of the same kind of roll when the sale is House members to accept the Senate rider to the In- bring an intelligent delight to grand opera, symphony
made, he believes he is satisfying a primitive urge in dependent Offices Appropriation Bill eliminating the concerts and chamber music. Knowledge of good
the customer.
50 per cent Pullman car surcharge. The committee music is the one thing necessary to make it popular."
A Chicago manager of a playerpiano department was headed by D. K. Slink, secretary-treasurer of the
discussing the subject said the hits of today should be International Federation of the Commercial Travel-
FEATURES REPRODUCING PIANO.
more correctly called familiar rather than popular. ers' Organization, and among the enthusiastic advo-
Ben Lindoff, formerly in charge of the piano de-
He doubts the power of that kind of music to en- cates of the bill are members of the Piano Travelers' partment of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co., Chicago, has
gender the desire for a playerpiano in a listener while Association.
opened the Apollo Studio in the Belmont Hotel, 3156
it is being played. He believes in the powers of na-
Sheridan road, Chicago. Mr. Lindoff features the
tional music to influence people towards buying
reproducing
piano in keeping with the character of
MERGER IN BRAZIL, IND.
playerpianos, and he explains that to a great many
the instrument, and has created an atmosphere.
The Horace Link Furniture Co., Paris, 111., has
prospective buyers of playerpianos in our large cities
their national music is the true popular music, some- purchased the Brazil, Ind., Furniture Co.'s stock and
HIS COLLECTION.
thing to be enjoyed at all times; something to per- the C. S. York Piano Store of the same city. The
Wife: John, the bill collector from the piano house
petuate the owners' appreciation of their player- Link company is one of the largest furniture stores
in southeastern Illinois. The Brazil establishments is at the door.
pianos.
will be consolidated and enlarged under the new
Slow Pay: Tell him to take that pile of unpaid
Points of View.
management.
ones on my desk.
So you can see that the meaning of popular music
with the younger American dancing set is far differ-
ent from the meaning understood by the various
groups of foreign-born citizens among whom the
dealers in many places depend largely for playerpiano
sales. Italian opera is popular music to the Italian
customers of a dealer of Forest Park, 111., who has a
big clientele among that race in that and the adjoin-
ing towns of Maywood and Melrose Park. For dem-
onstration in selling a playerpiano he uses a bit from
a Verdi opera founded on Italian folk music and
therefore in tune with the national feelings. Dealers
in other sections peopled largely with foreign-born
citizens find the same conditions and determine the
really popular music to fit the particular cases.
Sometimes the dealer is blamed for not giving the
classical music more prominence. You can hardly
blame him for the proneness of the American-born
young person to sway and shake and shimmy to the
rhythm of jazzy dance tunes. The bands and orches-
tras in the places of amusement give him or her
nothing else. So when the dealer demonstrating a
Manufactured by Experts for the Best Class
player for the newly-weds and with no qualms of his
of
Trade. No effort to compete with indif-
musical conscience puts on a popular instead of a
highbrow roll, you can hardly blame him.
ferent pianos, but an unfailing striving to
produce as fine a musical instrument as
Dealer Sees Easy Way.
money and skill can create.
"Safety first" is the motive of everybody in busi-
ness, and the surest means of interesting the player-
A Trial Is What We Ask
piano prospect and keeping him interested when he is
transformed into a buyer is the practical way of the
Illustrated Catalogue sent on application and
/ / you have discriminating compe-
music dealer. He associates the jazzy stuff, the
inquiries solicited.
tition please write for literature.
rhythmic tunes of the popular dance-song composi-
tions, with every customer coming to the store or
found in the home. And he does so until he dis-
NOT QUANTITY BUT QUALITY GRANDS, by
covers the customers belong to a class which can
appreciate the meritorious things in music. Perhaps
the PIONEER GRAND PIANO INDUSTRY
you might call them forerunners of the properly
Washington
harmonious state towards which America is approach-
ing by the. syncopation route.
New Jersey
—Established 1909—
But while the playerpiano dealer uses the jazzy
roll way to sales he should not disregard a duty which
POPULAR ROLLS
AND PLAYER SALES
PLAYER-PIANO BREEDS
LOVE FOR GRAND OPERA
Auto de Luxe Grands—Welte Mignon (licensee)
Reproducing Grands
Jflorep
SMALL GRANDS
Movty
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/