Presto

MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1884
Established
1881
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE JOURNAL
10 Cents a Copy
1 Year
$1.85
10 Months... $1.00
6 Months. .75 cents
CHICAGO, ILL., NOVEMBER 15, 1929
DOMINANT NOTE BY ALL=IRON PESSIMIST
American Federation of Musicians Holds Up a Metal Robot as an Entertainer
Supplanting Real Music
"Against the excellent reasons for preserving and
When stock markets go dizzily careening at a time
of year when men and women ought to be thinking fostering the Art of Music, the destructive advocates
of canned music can only advance the proposal that
of buying winter garments and laying in supplies of
coal, the shock affects many lines of business and its there is greater profit for the theater in eliminating
paid musicians.
tremors are felt through many occupations.
"The dehumanizing of the theater is scarcely true
We are—all of us—under the prevailing conditions
subject to the undertow that corru-s with the receding progress."
wave that has cast its derelicts u m the shore, but,
Some Ground for Resentment.
oh, how differently we react t(<^,," p. *|r! When
There is some ground for resentment of the intru-
financial wiggliness strikes home, soi.i* 'fine louder sion of the robot as an entertainer on the preserves
and shriller than others, but for a W-> Ihriek like of the American Federation of Musicians. "Is his
that uttered by a Hallowe'en vif.cli , * .firiock, the substitution for real music a success?" asks Joseph
American Federation of Musiciu.-s pu.AWtVd the fol- N. Weber, of 1440 Broadway, N. Y., president of the
lowing "hardest hit of all" against ^ahc use of
mechanical music in the theaters:
/
The Robot as an Entertainer.
"If a mechanical man playe I a ha p folks would
flock to see the curiosity. But few would expect an
artistic treat.
"And yet, powerful theatrical interests have under-
taken to present to the theatre-going public Mechani-
cal Music as a 'superior form of art. The purpose
of this advertisement is to invite attention to this
attempt and to point out the harm to American cul-
ture that may result.
"Synchronization of sound with motion pictures has
impressed many as a great advance in the cinema
held because it has made dialog pictures possible.
Taking advantage of this new interest in movies,
theatrical powers have sought to go further and in-
troduce a h : ghly profitable economy by substituting
mechanically synchronized music for real music in
theaters.
"Mechanical music takes on no added merit by
being synchronized, so it seems fair to say that the
'synchronization' exploitation is largely humbug.
Nevertheless it is upon the synchronization idea that
the attempt to 'sell' mechanical music is based. Am-
plified phonograph records could have been used just
as effectively years before the synchronization de-
vices were perfected. But a 'smoke screen,' such as
synchronization, was required to lend some sort of
scientific color to the substitution.
"The cultural menace of this movement to supplant
real music with the flat, savorless monotony of me-
chanical music becomes apparent upon a moment's
thought.
"In the first place, success in eliminating flesh and
Is his substitution (or real music a success?
blood artists from the theater means the eventual
corruption of public appreciation of good music DOC HOWLS AND GOD OF MUSIC WEEPS AS ROBOT
PLAYS.
which would be a cultural calamity.
"In the second place, reduction of professional
musicians to a handful of studio workers would de- Federation, at the bottom of the ad. Mr. Weber
prive the young of all incentive to develop their talent knows that nothing can succeed permanently unless
and to make music their life work.
it is an improvement, and the public will very soon
"Machinery is performing great service for man- decide that point, for as Abe Lincoln said, "You can't
kind. But a machine is not,an artist. The high pur- fool all the people all the time."
pose of machinery is to save men and women from
The federation emphasizes that America today
ignoble and soulless labor, not to perform tasks that
leads the musical world; that the greatest symphony
are only well done by the hands and hearts of gifted orchestras exist here; that the finest opera makes its
humans.
home here; that the American concert stage lures
"However perfect reproduced music may be made, the world's greatest artists.
it must always fall short of establishing a spiritual
"How long will this state of affairs continue?" asks
contact between performer and listener.
"America stands today in the front rank of the the federation. "Tn the face of a constant decline in
Musical World. Our great symphony orchestras ex- the development of musical talent, what 1 can the
cel those of Europe in quality of performance as well future hold fortli but utter death of music! "
Pessimistic New Yorker's Remarks.
as in numbers. And the vast majority of these play-
The advertisement above in quotation marks was
ers are American-born, whereas twenty years ago a
native American was rare among them. A large pointed out to us by a very pessimistic piano man of
New York—an argumentative man whose real pessi-
share of credit for this condition is due the American
Federation of Musicians, which has served to protect mism is very doubtful, for the very reason that he
and elevate the living standards of working musicians. enjoys disputation and never takes a one-sided view
Our Grand Opera and concert stage lure the world's of any matter under discussion. So one has to read
greatest artists. In the popular music field we have between the lines when he says:
no rivals the world around. America buys each year
"In sum, the piano trade is very dead. And having
more musical instruments than all the nations of
made that statement I might as well let it go at
Europe, demonstrating that our love of music is an that. Only two (2) dealers of those- I have called
active, not a passive, thing.
on are doing any piano business to amount to any-
THE
R O B O T AS A N
ENTERTAINER
Issued Semi-Monthly
First and Third Saturdays
thing, and they are both dyed-in-the-wool piano men
of many years of successful experience. They fur-
nish the proof that pianos can be sold, but there is
very slight effort being made in that direction.
Dealers are proceeding along the line of least resist-
ance, which is to sell Radio, quite regardless of
whether or not it is a money making proposition.
They will tell you frankly that it (the radio) does
not net them much in the way of earning, but they
say, 'What can you do when the people will not buy
anything else?' I pass the buck, not knowing the
answer.
"The professional musician looks at the matter dif-
ferently. He 'views with alarm' the substitution of
canned music for the 'art of music,' as note the
accompanying blast from the American Federation of
Musicians. Of course the element of self-interest is
readily apparent, but it seems more the part of wis-
dom than is the course of the piano dealer who turns
wholeheartedly to embrace the thing that has de-
stroyed the piano industry."
No Scarcity of This Ilk.
The pessimists, like the reformers, are ever with
us. There were pessimists of the New York man's
type 25, 35 and 40 years ago, and their whines were
as mournful and coyote-like as his. There have
always been he-cats yowling on the backyard fences
and inviting a shower of bootjacks, hair-brushes or
hip-flasks, just as there have always been wars and
rumors of wars.
There have always been ups and downs in trade—
not alone in pianos but in every other commodity
under the sun. So to the average man the wails of
the pessimist are of less consequence than the whis-
tling of the wind through the door of a deserted
s'.iack.
Near-by Hill Hides Distant Mountain.
All the readers have to do to get an idea of how-
trade had its set-tos and serious set-backs 25, 30
and 35 years ago is to read the "Years Ago" de-
partment excerpts in Presto-Times. These extracts
show that while business has changed, the nature of
business has not changed nor does human nature
change much despite modern educational methods.
The gambling spirit is probably not a whit stronger
in the human race today than it was in the days when
Mike McDonald was the gambling king of Chicago,
when a large number of dupes lost their investments
in Credit Mobilier, from 1853 to 1856. The near-by
hill always looms larger in the perspective than the
huge mountain in the distance.
THE BENEFITS OF
MUSICAL TRAINING
Rapid Thinking, Personal Discipline, Memory Train-
ing, Aptitude to Meet Strangers.
Trained musicians think with great rapidity is an
assertion made by the Gulbransen Company in the
sales manual which it has put out for the benefit of
its selling forces and dealers. In music study the
mental processes are accelerated to a speed many
times that demanded in ordinary thought.
Anybody who has played an instrument knows
how accuracy is developed by the study of an instru-
ment. The fingers are trained to hit the given mark
at exactly the right fraction of a second, with just
the right degree of force. No other study demands
such continuous and intensive concentration as does
that of a musical instrument. This mental and per-
sonal discipline alone makes the study of the piano
a profitable investment.
Musically trained people usually have superior
memories. The ability to play an instrument in pub-
lic cultivates a "presence," an aptitude to meet
strangers and conditions. The resultant benefits
which remain after the educational effort of the stu-
dent lias been made are incalculable. These benefits
remain a potent factor in life long after the schooling
is completed.
Lem Kline, former Chicago piano manufacturer, is
now a traveling wholesale man for the Story & Clark
Piano Company.
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/