PRESTO
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT -
Editors
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Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
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spondents, and their assistance is invited.
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
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Wednesday noon.
incorrupted by the continual jangling of
strings out of tune.
The need of a better understanding of the
piano's care is still apparent. And Mr. Gul-
bransen's suggestion seems timely. To keep
the piano in the place its deserves, and to
continue to extend its popularity and demand,
requires some such procedure as the Chicago
manufacturer proposes. We hope that the
response may be of a kind to eventually in-
sure the piano against the neglect or abuse
which has followed its delivery from store to
home, in thousands of instances, every year.
Competent piano tuners, whether as an as-
sociation or individuals, as well as well regu-
lated and equipped tuning schools, deserve the
support and encouragement of the industry
and trade. Mr. Gulbransen has suggested
plans which seem as applicable to all compe-
tent workers in one of the important branches
of the business.
THE INVENTIVE SPIRIT
Nothing could more conclusively dispute
the talk about "a slump" in matters pertain-
ing to musical instruments than the lists of
patents pertaining to music which have ap-
Address all communications for the editorial or business peared in recent issues of Presto. We have
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
another long list this week, and all concerned
with music trade affairs will find it interest-
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1925.
ing. And the scope of the inventive spirit
is peculiarly large, embracing almost every-
SUSTAIN THE TUNERS
thing from a child's music rack to scientific
We believe that piano manufacturers, and development, radio amplification and new
most of the serious retailers will indorse what methods for treatment of woods.
is said by Mr. A. G. Gulbransen, in this week's
Science, ingenuity, convenience and novelty,
Presto, on the need of support of the tuners' in their relations to musical instruments, are
association. For a good many years Presto all represented. Pianos, phonographs, reed
has been trying to pump into the conscious- organs and small stringed instruments are
ness of the piano trade the necessity of better among the objects of the wide ramifications
attention to keeping the instruments in order of the inventors' genius. There is also a col-
after their sale.
or piano, which appears to have been created
The slip-shod custom which has prevailed, by a descendant of the famous Munsell family
of letting the pianos take care of themselves, which, from days of the Revolution, have held
save for the solicitation often of itinerent high places in the annals of New York State.
tuners, has been a detriment to the business,
It was a Munsell that the school book story
from factory to final payment by the dealer, tells about when as a Continental soldier, driv-
and after that.
ing a heavy commissary load, he was ordered
If a history of almost any good piano sold, to turn aside to let a young officer pass. "No,"
say, twenty years ago, could be written in said the soldier, "not on such a command!"
detail, it would be surprising that the instru- And the under-officer drove around the load-
ment had lived to tell the tale. That it had ed wagon. Soon another officer came along
been the center of dispute, doubt and per- and in gentlemanly tone asked the soldier if
haps despair, on its owner's part would not he would kindly permit the newcomer to pass.
be surprising. For is there anywhere a piece "Certainly," assented the teamster, and cleared
of mechanism, even of far less delicate nature, the road. The polite officer was General
that could satisfactorily withstand the usage Washington. The driver of the heavy load
often—almost as a rule, accorded to the piano was Jacob Munsell. Presumably the inventor
in the average home? We doubt it.
of the color organ of today came from the
It is almost a marvel that, under the cir- same stock.
cumstances, the piano, as an article of trade,
And the lists of inventions includes also a
has withstood the hard usage, and worse "pneumatically played piano" by W. M. Bauer.
neglect, that is given to the beautiful instru- The inventor's name is sufficient to awaken
ments of music. While very often, to be sure, interest amounting to curiosity. For when a
the piano in the home is treasured and used Bauer in the piano industry speaks the rest
with corresponding care, in most homes it is of the piano making and selling fraternity
permitted to gradually lose its place and be- listens.
come an object of neglect of a kind to almost
The inventions of this week and last week
insure its ruin. No thought of its require- have a good deal to do with talking machines,
ments is given.
suggesting that perhaps that instrument is
Even, in not a few homes, it has proved "coming back" with a rush. There is very
rather a hurt to the sensitive ears of the chil- little that applies to radio—strangely enough.
dren than a help. There are cases, within the And the items pertaining to the smaller things
knowledge of tuners, where the families have of music, and its trade, are many, and signfi-
lost all sense of tonal sequence because of the cant of the activities of years ago. The piano
piano's condition, and after having been tuned innovations include, besides the color piano, a
the work has given dissatisfaction rather than "rectifying device for player rolls," by Mr.
the pleasure which must come to trained ears C. E. Cameron of the Lauter Company, New-
August 22, 1925.
ark, N. J., and a damper attachment by Mr.
David Mcllwrath, of the Jesse French & Sons
Piano Co., of New Castle, Indiana.
There is a sense of satisfaction in the return
of the one-time familiar trade-name of "Coli-
bri" to the list of special piano attractions.
Forty years ago—nearly sixty, perhaps—the
Colibri piano appeared in New Haven, Conn.
It was the creation of the late Frederick Ma-
thushek, and it created a sensation. It now
appears, in modern form, as a small grand
piano of peculiarly pleasing design, and is ad-
vertised in the New York newspapers by the
Mathushek Piano Co., 37 W. 37th street.
* * *
Two new instruments which seem to pre-
sent a kind of phonograph-radio combination
are announced in an article which appears in
this issue of Presto. The matter is of no small
trade interest. While the remarkable 40-min-
ute discs, or records, may not interfere with
the piano, and possibly but little with radio,
they must go far toward reviving interest in
the phonograph.
* * *
The witty writer of the anonymous dialect
letter in this issue, aimed at the Bent-Putnam
controversy may think that the Irish brogue
conceals his identity. But it is as thin a dis-
guise as if it had been clothed in the German
dialect in which his earlier "good stuff" has
appeared. It is very seldom that a poet can
conceal his identity by employing prose in-
stead of rhythm and rhyme.
* * *
Every dealer should take advantage of the de-
mand for small grands which is now at its height.
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
From the Files of Presto
(August 22, 1895.)
Governor Matthews, of Indiana, last week ap-
pointed delegates from his state to the Mexican Ex-
position, which will open next April and will con-
tinue six months. Among the number appointed was
Benj. Starr, of Richmond.
A stock company to be known as the Automatic
Musical Stenciling and Combination Piano Company
is being organized in New York for the purpose of
putting the "Pianophone" (description of which ap-
peared in Presto of three weeks ago) on the market.
All his worldly possessions the late George F. Root
left to his wife, Mary O. Root. The composer's will
was filed Monday in the Probate Court and the estate
he left aggregated something like $17,000, of which
$12,000 was personal property and the remainder real
estate.
A little machine, whose purpose is to register ex-
actly the manner in which a piece of music is played,
has been brought into use by the savants of the Sor-
bonne, in Paris. It is an adaptation of the phono-
graph, which can easily be applied to any piano, and
is capable of giving, on a slip of paper, a full record
of any piece performed, including the duration of the
notes, the rapidity of playing, the variations in touch,
etc., with an exactness which no ear could equal.
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
(From Presto, August 24, 1905.)
In the summer the special sale seems to spread
most vigorously. The dealers find things dull and
they can't stop the expenses, so they push in the
trade ethics stop and pull out the plunger that starts
price-cutting and general demoralization.
The Fox Piano & Organ Co., York, Pa., offers a
cash cut of ten dollars to every purchaser who brings
in one of their advertisements in seeking a piano.
This is a peculiar method of advertising—but not
more peculiar than some other piano methods.
Officers of the National Association of Piano Deal-
ers of America will meet in New York August 25 and
26 to arrange for an immense exhibition of musical
instruments at 1906 convention of the association in
Washington next May. A resolution will be proposed
at the meeting requiring that all pianos placed on the
market shall bear the names of their makers.
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