AMERICA
WANTS
MUSIC
Four Nationally Known
Leaders Pay Tribute
to Music
Chicago Music Festival Luncheon, August 17, 1939, Stevens Hotel. Left
to right: Miss Marjoric Farrage, John T. McCutchcon, George
Ade, Henry Weber, Edith Mason, Philip Maxwell.
MR. MAXWELL ORGANIZED ONE OF THE MOST
MAGNIFICANT MUSIC FESTIVALS IN AMERI-
CAN HISTORY AT SOLDIERS FIELD, CHICAGO
, / T F YOU want to promote something that is worth while
I and cultural, promote a great music festival. America
is waiting for just such promotions. If you desire to put
on a music festival in your city, you must be musically mind-
ed—and a good business man," states Philip Maxwell, Direc-
tor of Chicagoland Music Festival.
"You music dealers are in a business of which you can be
mighty proud. Music means a lot to the hospitality of people
and the joy of a gathering. Pianos give harmony of love,
life and good fellowship. I believe the piano dealer should
do more to win the new generation. Invite boys and girls to
visit your stores. Give them demonstrations of how a piano
is made. Start right now w ith the young generation and
teach them all about the piano. Young Americans are going
to be the future buyers. Get out of the children's mind the
idea that you have to be a sissy to be a pianist.
"You have the right to be the greatest movement in your
city for the promotion of music. Say to your fellow towns-
men : 'My store is the headquarters of music. I don't want
to sell a thing, but I feel that I am helping to educate our
youth.' Formulate a plan to put on outdoor festivals. Music
should be the dominant source of happiness in every town.
Put yourself into the life of your community and you will
get many rewards in the joy of seeing that community go
forward in American citizenry."
* * * * *
GREAT MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT
AHEAD FOR AMERICA
Mr. Thomas A. Lowery, Advertising Counsel of the Chicago
Daily News, made some telling comments recently about the
future of music in America. He said, "We have not begun to
see the real field of music in America yet. There will be
more progress along musical lines in the next ten or fifteen
years than we ever dreamed of. This means development
not only in the quality of music but also in the larger num-
ber of persons participating in music as performers, and in
the vastly increased groups of listeners. America is on the
verge of a real Musical Renaissance."
[ P A G E
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND PIANOS
"THE American Public Schools," according to Helen Howe,
Director of Music for the Chicago Board of Education, "are
the most dominant force in the world behind all musical in-
strument business. With the cooperation of the piano manu-
facturers in the Chicago area who furnished pianos to the
public schools, class piano instruction came into the school
system as an extra-curricular subject. This spring 1,000 stu-
dents took part in three piano festivals sponsored by the
schools. Then, too, there was a large spring festival of bands
and orchestras."
INTERESTING
FACTORS IN MUSIC
By W. J. Cameron
The Ford Company
On Sunday evening, October 22, Mr. W. J. Cameron of the
Ford Motor Company, devoted his talk to the place and im-
portance of music in American life. He said that 65 per cent
of the ten to thirteen million people who listen to the Ford
Hour are of the rank and file. They evidently approve of
"good" music, a combination of what may be called "popu-
lar" in the highest sense of that term.
Pianos are played by about 9,000,000 persons in 5.865,296
families. There are approximately 150,000 piano teachers in
America. According to various estimates a million pupils
study the violin in the schools. Nine hundred thousand play
for their own pleasure.
" ; ••""••
There are more than 6,000 High School bands and orches-
tras. To these add the professional, church, and fraternal
bands and orchestras, and the number is great indeed.
Mr. Cameron said; "We believe w r e have given American
music a worthy place in our program-making, but there is
one thing we hope never to lose sight of, namely, that the
tone world is universal, that in the great Republic of Music
no national, racial, nor language boundaries exist nor can
exist.
E I G H T ]
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