Music Trade Review

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THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
March 20th 1881.
DOMESTIC
NEW YOKK, MARCH
VOL. IY.
W
-AJSTD E X P O R T
NOTICE.
20TH,
1881.
69
TRADE.
No. 4
piece of wood has a ball, preferably of wood, attached by a rigid shank to
its lower end, the castenets being operated by holding them between the
E are in receipt of a large amount of matter—much of it,'we fingers of one hand and striking the ball against the metal plate.
must acknowledge, very interesting—which, owing to the No. 238,690. PIANOFORTE, dated March 8th, 1881. Richard Howson, of
crowded condition of our columns, we are absolutely obliged to
Middlesbrough, England.
leave out. Our correspondents and others must be patient with us,
This invention relates more particularly to an improvement in a previous-
for in due time we shall again enlarge the MUSICAL CRITIC AND patent by the same inventor than to pianos in general. In the present
TKADE REVIEW SO that we may accommodate all worthy comers who device what the inventor calls his vibration rail is, together with its bridge,
attached to the hitch-pin plate by means of bolts or screws.
wish to address our readers.
main feature of the invention is a sounding-board hung at one end:
The rush upon us at present of both reading and advertising by a The
hinge, and by a suitable mechanism connected with the pedal of the
matter is immense, so that, with our present facilities, we are able instrument,
brought in or out of contact with the so-called vibration rail,
to take care of but a portion of it.
thereby increasing or diminishing the volume of sound at the will of the-
The success of the MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW has performer; this result is assisted by the contact of the hinged sounding-
with sound posts or pieces of wood which project through the iron,
been unprecedented ; our legitimate circulation has increased until it board
although the inventor does not seem to attach much importance ta
at least quadruples that of any of our would-be competitors ; and frame,
their use, as he states that their number and shape are optional.
our agents are so rapidly increasing their orders fur papers, and
every day brings so many new subscribers, that we can assure our
THE MAY MUSIC FESTIVAL.
kind friends who favor us with their advertising patronage that we IN our last issue it was announced that the sale of tickets for the May
are perfectly able to cover the greater part of the field for them.
J_ Music Festival would probably begin on March 21, and those unable to
attend the sale in the usual manner were invited to forward their applica-
tions by mail to the manager. The result was the receipt of a great number
of letters, and more are arriving every day. The majority of the letter
writers specified the location of the seats and boxes which they desired to
Mr. J. Burns Brown, of the Mechanical Orguinette Co., in this city, purchase, and in a great many instances the same places were chosen by
starts next week for a tour of the New England States. He goes to intro- two or more persons. It was plain that in these cases all could not be satisfied^
duce the company's new "combination " organ—a very remarkable instru- and at any rate that if the demands of the correspondents were considered
ment, for which we predict a large sale. If Mr. Brown does not succeed in before those of the applicants at the ticket offices on the day of sale injustice-
taking a great number of orders in New England, he is not the man we take would be done them, and persistence in the original plan, therefore, would
him for, that's all.
involve the managers in an embarrassment which was not foreseen and
Mr. Milo Whitney, the organ-key maker, of Boston, is putting improved which would make the sale unsatisfactory to the public. The managers
therefore determined, after careful deliberation, to adopt a plan which would
machinery in his factory.
place everybody on an equal footing, which should be equitable to all, and
So far, the music trade subscriptions to the Fair of 1883 amount to give
no preference whatever, except such as the purchasers themselves might
$2,500, of which amount $2,000 has been subscribed by Messrs. Haines secure
on the day of sale. They therefore have resolved to abandon the
Bros., and the remaining $500 by the Mason & Hamlin Organ Co.
plan first announced, of the preliminary sale, and to substitute the auction
" Mayor Daniel F. Beatty, of Washington, N. J., gave all his last year's plan. The sale will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, March
salary for the benefit of the poor of the borough, as he had done the previous 29 and 30, in Chickering Hall, when, not the seats themselves, but the first
year," and he took great pains to advertise the fact afterwards although it was and successive choices will be sold at auction to the highest bidders. The-
by no means a large gift, as the salary is purely nominal.
price of the tickets and boxes for the season will remain as first announced,
Mr. John A. Powell, the organ manufacturer of Montgomery, N. Y., and the premium bid will be for the choice of seats in addition to the adver-
was in this city last week buying lumber. He reports his business to be in tised price, and must be paid on each seat selected under the successful bid.
Thus the price of a single season ticket, including a reserved chair on the
a flourishing condition and is anticipating an active spring trade.
White, Smith & Co., have secured twenty-four of Satter's most promin- floor of the hall, is $10. The first privilege offered will be the choice of any
ent compositions for the piano, which they will soon publish. They have seat or box in the hall. The successful bidder, supposing his accepted bid
made arrangements with the eminent pianist to publish all the music that to be $5, will then have the right to select any single chair or number of
seats up to ten in the hall, paying therefor the first price, $10, and the pre-
he composes while in this country.
mium of $5 on each chair purchased. The highest number of seats that oan
We have received from Mr. C. J. Gebauhr, the pianoforte manufacturer be taken on a single bid is ten. In the case of the boxes the sale will be on
of Konigsberg, Prussia, his new illustrated catalogue; it contains numerous the same basis of premium for each chair, as the value of the boxes varies
copper-plate etchings of the grand and upright pianofortes made by this according to location and the number of chairs they contain. Supposing
house, which are very artistic, in fact, the whole catalogue may be considered the successful bidder of a premium of $5 decides to take a box, he will pay
a work of art.
$5 for each chair in the box chosen, in addition to the advertised price of
Mr. F. H. Nichols, manufacturer of piano punchings and dealer in green the box. At the beginning of the sale a perfectly clean diagram of the hall
and punching cloths,.of Boston, Mass., has removed to No. 666 Washington will be exhibited, no seats being disposed of previous to the auction sale..
street, Boston, Mass., the requirements of his increasing business necessita- On the day after the auction sale, March 31, ticket offices will be opened foi-
the sale of season tickets then remaining unsold, in the usual way.
ting the change.
Wednesday of last week was the day appointed by certain members of
the Commission of the World's Fair of 1883 when the conditional subscrip-
GREAT BRITAIN'S MUSICAL STATISTICS.
tions, amounting to $1,000,000, should be completed. At a meeting held on
that day the committee were only able to report actual subscriptions T^EEVES'S Musical Directory for 1881, published in London, gives much
amounting to $461,410, leaving out of the question the subscription of the X \ interesting information in regard to the different musical organiza-
N. Y. Central and Hudson River R. R. Co. of $250,000, which is contingent tions in Great Britain and Ireland, and throws a good deal of light on the
on the raising of the first million. The committee state that they have condition of musical affairs there. The fact which strikes one first and most
enough more subscriptions promised to bring the total up to the required strongly in looking over this excellent work is the great number of regularly
figure; but the old adage says, " While the grass grows the steed starves." organized musical societies in the United Kingdom, each with its conductor
and board of officers, and each, it is to be presumed, in active operation.
D. L. Beatty advertises that his organ contains a stop called "The There are about 750 of these societies in all in England, Scotland and Ireland,
French Horn." Now we should like to ask: "What is the difference be- upwards of 170 being in London alone. Manchester has 25 societies and
tween an organ with a real French Horn stop in it, and one of D. F. Beatty's Liverpool 14. Scotland has a comparatively large number, there being 15>
organs?" Answer, " One is a horn in an organ, and the other is an organ in Edinburgh, 13 in Glasgow, 5 in Dundee and 4 in Aberdeen. Ireland ha*
•in a horn.' "
fewer; there are in Dublin, 8; Belfast, 6; Cork, 3. There are over a thou-
sand professional singers in London, and about fifteen hundred teachers and.
performers on different instruments exclusive of the pianoforte, harmonium
and organ. Among these are professors of the accordion, banjo, bones, con-
certina, Jew's harp, seraphine and tin whistle, and there are over six hun-
PREPARED EXPRESSLY FOR THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
dred violinists in London alone, of every degree of distinction, from the
great Joachim downward. There are about 175 bands connected with the
No. 237,850. CASTANET. Edward A. Fisher, Worcester, Mass.
The object of this invention is to provide an improvement on the well- English Army, entirely exclusive of the private bands which exist in London
known " bones "or " clappers " that are made to produce musical sounds on and the other large cities, of which there is a large number. There are about
being held between the fingers and struck together, by making them more four thousand names recorded in the Directory of musicians and teachers
throughout England, and this propably falls far short of the true number.
musical.
This would certainly seem to show that whatever the standard of excellence
The invention consists of two pieces or strips of wood, the longer of may
the practice and study of music in England is more nearly universal
which has an aperture made through it from side to Bide, near its lower end, than be,
it is in this country.
and an insulated plate of metal secured over said aperture, whilethe shorter
TRADE
NOTES.
NEW MUSICAL INVENTIONS