Presto

September 22, 1928
PRESTO-TIMES
STRINGLESS PIANO
IS IMPRACTICAL
Frank Bayley's Visualized Piano Commented
Upon by Dealer in Letter and by Piano
Manufacturers Whose Opinions Were
Sought by This Paper.
The following letter from a dealer gives his views
as to the necessity for discarding the piano as it
exists, or for building a piano on entirely new lines—
a stringless instrument—as suggested by Frank J.
Bayley in his Toledo address at the Ohio Music
Merchants' Association convention last week.
Mr. Bayley's views also brought out a number of
opinions by piano manufacturers for the inquiring
Presto-Times reporter.
Most of the comments
termed Mr. Bayley's idealizations impractical.
The Dealer's Letter.
5815 St. Johns Avenue, Kansas City, Mo.
September 18.
"How to tear down this fifty-year-old 'perfected'
piano and rebuild it on modern lines, is not for me
to say," was vhe surprising remark of Frank J. Bay-
ley, the Detroit music dealer, to the convention of
the Music Merchants' Association of Ohio. It is
somebody's job, though, in his opinion, although he
had a moment of inspiration about it himself, when
he continued:
"I can visualize an instrument, retaining the key-
board but not necessarily the strings, intensifying the
tone from the lowest base to the highest treble in
contrast to the present piano as ihe new dynamic
radio speaker to the old phonograph. With such a
new instrument I believe public interest could be
aroused, a complete new market created, the problem
of the trade-in solved and salesmen enthused. And
herein lies our only hope of reestablishing a volume
business for She piano."
Fails to Envision It.
"I reread the paragraph and tried to see with Mr.
Bayley—visualize a piano with keys but minus
strings, that would put the piano as we know it in
the discard and perform a whole flock of miracles
for the piano trade. But I couldn't conjure up the
appearance of such a hybrid as Mr. Bayley saw so
plainly. No matter how I tried to see with him, to
my vision only appeared something from which the
piano's vital organs had been removed and the key-
board left as a kind of architectural relief. No matter
how I blinked my eyes in desparation, the vision had
'radio' stenciled on the false fallboard.
No Piano Revolution Needed.
"The necessity is not for any astounding revolution
in the apearance or structural character of the piano.
No piano manufacturer ever claimed his piano had
reached final perfection and it is that thought that
stimulated the makers to bring the instrument to its
present state of perfection. Purity of tone is an ad-
mirable achievement in the piano and it is loud
enough for its purposes. The dreadful ability to in-
tensify the tone in loud speaker fashion, in the man-
ner of Mr. Bayley's visualized piano, is something to
give the music lover temperamental shivers.
"Mr. Bayley disregarded the facts when he told
his hearers that 'the piano you are selling today has
not been improved the past fifty years, and the great
interlying cause is with the manufacturer.' He pos-
sibly means that the outward appearance of the in-
strument had not changed in a marked way. A good
piano man like Mr. Bayley should be well aware of
;he vast improvements in the structure and tone of
the piano within half a century. Now and then piano
manufacturers have introduced pianos in cases
allegedly more artistic than the existing ones but
their appearance were incidents that made little dis-
turbance in the trade. Even piano manufacturers do
a little visualizing once in a while.
Why "Tear Down."
"There is no reason for 'tearing down' an instru-
ment so closely associated with art as the piano.
When Mr. Bayley originated the phrase—'The piano
is the basic musical instrument,' he voiced a truth
every day exemplified in the world of music. Let
s range innovations come to further engage the ac-
tivities of the piano men who adopt them, but why
think of eliminating the piano as it now so admirably
serves musical art and rewards the dealers who dili-
gently and intelligently strive for sales? The piano
business may be sick, as Mr. Bayley says, but we
cannot affect a cure by tearing down an instrument
of so many admitted fine musical qualities, and capa-
bilities.
"The remedy for the sick piano trade is not an ope-
ration but the observance of a new mode of life. To
revitalize piano sales the desire to play the piano should
be reestablished among the youth of the country and
that necessity suggests Mr. Bayley's name. His
speech was of particular interest because I have been
an admirer of his energy in promoting piano playing
contests as aids in stimulating piano sales. His name
in the headline was a promise of another expression
of his enthusiasm for piano class promotion in
schools with results effectively displayed in local
tests and a grand final for the winners as a great
piano event.
"While Mr. Bayley's speech denoted a continuation
of his belief in the merits of the piano and the justice
of the claim that it is 'the basic musical instrument,'
it also suggested a doubt as to its qualities for satis-
fying public taste today. And when it is remembered
that musical merit in a musical instrument or in
music itself does not influence the public in the old
way, Mr. Bayley's meanings are more easily under-
stood."
JAMES J. ("RAIN.
FRANK F. STORY'S VIEWS.
Frank F. Story, vice-president of Story & Clark
Piano Co., Chicago, said the present general con-
struction of the piano was a development of many
years of adaptation to the very nature of music
itself. He intimated that nature had established
her own chords and harmonies and adjusted the
human ear to comprehend and enjoy them. Men
studied for generations to build an instrument to
interpret these harmonious tones—give expression to
them.
"No radical change in the build df'^H'fcflin had
been made in some hundreds of yea¥3 : , 'and none
could be made in the piano," said-' 'Mr^' ; Story, "be-
cause, then you wouldn't have a ; pi&rto, 'But some-
thing else. The piano is the basic 1 "musical instru-
ment, the foundation of tone for an orchestra or for
guiding the human voice into key, the instrument
upon which all other forms of music must lean for
the fundamentals. Therefore the piano would always
be needed, always be manufactured. And, further-
more, piano trade is getting better every day and
this is going to be a very good piano year."
Feasible on Xylophone Principle.
Mr. Bayley's suggestion is feasible on something
after the xylophone principle of construction, in the
opinion of L. J. Rahn, treasurer of the P. A. Starck
Piano Company, and superintendent of the Starck
factory, Chicago. The keyboard would be main-
tained and the keys would have to strike on metal.
He was aware that Max Richtsteig, of Richmond,
Ind., formerly of the Gram-Richtsteig Piano Com-
pany, Milwaukee, VVis., had been working along the
invention of something of that kind for years. Mr.
Richtsteig's instrument is 43 inches long and has 88
keys.
John Hays Hammond's Invention.
L. P. Bull, treasurer of the Story & Clark Piano
Company, Chicago, recalled that experiments with
electrical attachments vo pianos had been going on
for many years. John Hays Hammond had a key-
board instrument that he had displayed in various
GULF ASSOCIATION NAMES
NEW LIST OF OFFICERS
Chester D. Anderson Elected President of Ohio
Merchants' Golf Assn.—Other Officers Named.
Following the ninth annual tournament at the
Highland Meadows Country Club, near Toledo, last
week, the Ohio Music Merchants' Golf Association
elected Chester D. Anderson president. Other offi-
cers elected were: C. G. Lyderickson, vice-president;
Otto B. Heaton. treasurer, and Henry C. Wildermuth,
secretary.
The prize winners of the tournament were: Henry
C. Wildermuth, Toledo; Henry Hewitt, Chicago; H.
F. Stucke, Toledo: Arthur L. Wessell, New York;
Fred Harlow, Boston; Roy Hibshman, Chicago; F.
H. Harrison, Columbus; Corley Gibson, New York;
James T. Bristol. Chicago: W. C. Heaton, New-
York; Chester Anderson, Dayton and George L.
Ames, Chicago. Gordon Laughead presided at the
dinner which followed the tournament, in the absence
of William R. Graul, president, who was ill.
Much of the success of the tournament is attributed
to the Toledo golf committee, which comprised
Henry C. Wildermuth, chairman; Carl S. Landgraf.
Henry F. Stucke, Charles H. Yahrling, Henry Dre-
her. and William S. Graul.
AN IOWA REORGANIZATION.
The Emerson-Hiltbrunner Music Co. is the new
name of the Hansen Music Store in Oelvvein, la.,
following reorganization. The officers of the com-
pany are: C. O. Hiltbrunner, president; C. W. Han-
sen, vice-president and treasurer, and Lee Hiltbrun-
ner, secretary. The manager of the Oelwein store is
Otto G. Emerson, and C. W. Hansen directs opera-
tions in the store of the company at Cedar Rapids.
BURTON COLLVER IN CHICAGO.
Burton Collver is now in Chicago as the mid-west
representative of the Hardman, F'eck & Co. instru-
ments. On April 28 Mr. Collver started Crowley,
Milner & Co.'s piano department at Detroit, Mich.,
with a complete line of Hardman, Peck & Co. instru-
ments.
parts of the country, a device that amplified the
sound of the wires, above or below. Mr. Hammond
had his device exhibited in Chicago, New York and
other centers and it attracted some attention from
the curious.
The Choralcello Was Another.
Harry B. Bibb, of the Chicago headquarters of the
Sonora Phonograph Company, Inc., 7th floor of the
Lyon & Healy building, recalled that the Choral-
cello was another departure along this line. It was
managed in a large establishment in Chicago near
the Municipal Pier by a very enthusiastic man, but
its production finally fell through. It did not have
any wires, but it made no pretense of being a piano.
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