Music Trade Review

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flattering to our pride, has been the source of a good
deal of annoyance and many times of expense.
As to the policy of our Company, I, alone, am re-
sponsible for it, as I have been for many years. What
that policy is the trade know quite well, and there is no
question as to the position that it has won for our or-
gans and our house. The trade may depend that so
long as I retain my proprietary interest in, and the man-
agement of this Company, there is no danger that we
will voluntarily relinquish that which we have worked
so hard to obtain, or throw away the reward that we
are now reaping for our steadfast fight in defense of
honest work, honest prices and honest principles, du-
ring the cheap-organ war.
Our order-book, with several hundred unfilled orders
on its pages, gives ample proof of the support and en-
dorsement of the trade, and I can assure them that I
have the hearty co-operation and support of my asso-
ciates in my determination to maintain the present high
standard of our goods.
You know best what your incentives were for making
so unjust and uncalled for an attack upon the personnel,
management and product of a friendly house that has
always endeavored to act honorably with all men; but
if you were actuated by honest motives 1 trust you will
give the same publicity to this letter that you did to
the article that called forth this reply.
Very truly yours,
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
comprises a complete catalogue of Mrs. Brown's collec-
tion, is made up of 270 pen-and-ink drawings by Mr.
William Adams Brown, of the different specimens, with
intelligent descriptions thereof, and the second com-
prises a series of explanatory essays on subjects relating
to the main scope of the undertaking. In preparing
these the authors have had the benefit, not only of the
recognized authorities, but also of valuable information
from manuscript sources, as well as the facts which are
to be gathered from various recent books of travel.
Too much reliance, however, has been placed on Row-
botham, whose somewhat fanciful " History of Music"
is often quoted from, and who, as recent developments
have shown, is far from being a trustworthy authority.
The plan of the work does not include any account of
the instruments used by the Assyrians, Egyptians,
Hebrews, Greeks or Romans. But much of what is
now known of the history and present use of musical
instruments in China, Japan and Corea, India, Siam and
Burmah, Persia and Turkey, Africa, North America,
Central America, South America and Oceana may be
found in these instructive chapters. Not the least en-
tertaining is that which treats of Chinese music, but it
J. B. WOODFORU,
Manager, Loring &* Blake Organ Co. must be confessed that this branch of the subject is one
which it is more agreeable to study theoretically than
practically, with audible illustrations. No one who has
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS-ANCIENT AND had the misfortune to listen to a bard of Chinese in-
strumental performers will gainsay this assertion. Yet
MODERN.
the native musicians who use their instruments with
HEN Mrs. Mary E. Brown began some years such distressing results are of a different opinion, and
ago to make a collection of the musical instru- take great delight in their dreadful discords and contin-
ments of savage and Oriental peoples she ual changes from major to minor. They have as poor
probably had little idea of what was to be the outcome an opinion of what pleases the Western musician as the
of her undertaking. Not only has her collection grown Japanese nobleman who is quoted as having remarked
in the number and importance of its examples brought that while European music might be very well for
from remote parts of the earth until it now comprises women, coolies and children, no well educated Japanese
266 specimens, many of which are of peculiar interest could endure it. Chinese music, at any rate, can lay
and value, but it has also been the occasion of an im- claim to great antiquity, for the Chinaman of to-day
portant contribution to the literature of the subject. sings the same melodies that were heard by Confucius,
The handsome quarto volume, " Musical Instruments six centuries before Christ.
and Their Homes, by Mary E. Brown and William
The older nations, too, can boast not only that their
Adams Brown," just published by Messrs. Dodd, Mead instruments date back to the distant past, but that in
& Co., is something more than a catalogue of the speci- some of them may be found the germs of what another
mens which have given rise to the work in question, civilization considers the perfection of a means of mu-
although that is included in its pages. With the effic- sical expression. As Mr. Engel has pointed out, the
ient aid of her son Mrs. Brown has prepared, not only Hindus maintain that the " ravanastron," one of the
an account of her own treasures, but also a useful and oldest instruments played with a bow, and a drawing of
instructive treatise on the general subject.
which appears in Mr. Brown's list, was invented 5,000
For this there was ample need and room. The con- years ago by a mighty king in Ceylon, and from this,
tinent of Europe has many collections of a similar char- or the " rabab," have come the Amati and the Stradi-
acter, some of which the traveler who is interested in varius violins, which afford us such delight. So, too, in
such matters will remember as being in one way or an- the " chang," or Eastern harp, which Mr. Brown shows
other of peculiar interest. Those which are to be seen us, we may find the progenitor, through the harpsi-
at Berlin, Wien, Nuremberg, Copenhagen and Paris, as chord, the spinet and the virginal, of the brilliant-toned
well as those belonging to the British Museum and Steinway or Chickering piano-forte of to-day. And
the East India House in London, are rich in examples yet, so slow is the progress of musical development in
that illustrate the subject in different departments from its early stages, that it took about 2,000 years to apply
those treated in this volume ; but since the acquisition, the improvement of keys to the harpsichord. In fact,
by the South Kensington Museum, of M. Louis Clapis- many of the instruments in Mrs. Brown's collection that
son's remarkable collection of European instruments, have been made during the present century are pre-
no other display can compare with its treasures in cer- cisely like those that have been in use for centuries
tain directions. The special loan exhibition made at among the nations or tribes to which they belong. The
the museum in 1871 brought together temporarily a fact that before the art of music has attained a high
very valuable and comprehensive collection of instru- stage of development, it remains for a long time sta-
ments, a series which threw a good deal of light upon tionary, is illustrated in the ancient Egyptian and Assyr-
the gradual development of some of those now in use. ian monuments. These give evidence that several
Since the excellent catalogue which Mr. Carl Engel pre- musical instruments which are popular at the present
pared of the South Kensington collection, and his other day in Western Asia are almost identical with those
work upon a kindred subject, there has been no treatise that were fashioned by Eastern craftsmen 3,000 years
written which has taken advantage of the additional in- ago.
formation that has in various ways been made access-
In other parts of the world this conservatism is not
ible. Beside this, as the author reminds us, no com-
so apparent. The chapter which Mrs. Brown devotes
prehensive work on the musical instruments of the East
to the instruments of North America, and in which a
and of savage races has yet been written, and the scat-
good
deal of information may be found that has not be-
tered monographs on special departments of the sub-
fore appeared in print, mentions the aptitude for imi-
ject are not available for the general reader.
tation shown by the natives of Alaska. One of the
In preparing a work which aims to give the most im- stringed instruments long in use there, and obtained
portant facts connected with the subject of which it from a tribe of Indians who are seldom visited by a
treats, the authors of the present volume have the ad- white man, was evidently fashioned in semblance of a
vantage of being able to furnish the latest information similar instrument seen in the hands of some chance
upon it. Since Fetis and Engel wrote, and since the visitor.
elaborate work of Hipkins and Gibb appeared, the en-
A specially interesting chapter of the volume is that
terprise of recent travelers has supplied some curious upon " Savage Music," which deals with the rude be-
facts with regard to the inventions and adaptations, in ginnings of the art in different nations, and the least
a musical way, of a number of savage and semi-civilized satisfactory is that which is devoted to the musical in-
communities, and the gleanings from different sources struments of Central and South America and Oceana.
that are embodied in the different chapters of the pres- There is but a meagre account of these, and the illus-
ent volume will supplement the previous information trated catalogue contains but three specimens of instru-
on the subject. Both sound judgment and good taste ments, a hand drum from the Gulf of Papua, New
have been shown in this particular, as well as in the Guinea ; a nose flute from Fiji and a conch shell trum-
general arrangement of the work. The first part, which pet, such as was used in the Hawaiian Islands when the
W
warriors marched to battle, or at the inauguration of
the king, or during the worship of the gods, and, later
on, after the ascendency of the missionaries, to call the
natives together to listen to the expounding of the
Scriptures.
For the information which is given respecting Fijian
and Hawaiian music and musical instruments, the au-
thors have depended, in the main, upon Ellis, whose
" Polynesian Researches" was published some sixty
years ago. It is true, as the authors remark, that there
is but a scanty stock of information accessible concern-
ing this branch of the general subject, but some of the
material which is available has not fallen under their
notice. Of the existence of Marques's carefully written
monograph on the ancient and modern music and musi-
cal instruments of the Hawaiians, the authors do not
seem to be aware. In this valuable and original contri-
bution to the history of the subject, M. Marques had
the assistance of the Princess Liliuokalani, and descrip-
tions are given by him of the "ukeke," a stringed instru-
ment made of flexible wood with strings of cocoa fiber,
which somewhat resembled the Greek lyre ; the " pua,"
a wind instrument formed from a gourd and similar to
that described by Burton as used by certain African
tribes ; another variety of the same instrument, made
of a joint of bamboo ; the different varieties of drums,
and the "kaeke"and the " puili," both of which were
percussion instruments. Capt. Byron, of the frigate
Blonde, who, after the death of the Hawaiian King and
Queen in London in 1824, carried their remains back to
Honolulu, mentions in his book, " The Voyage of the
Blonde," that the ancient ballads of the country at that
time, alluded to a variety of musical instruments
then no longer in use. He also describes the small
double flute played on with the nose. The an-
cient Hawaiians apparently depended for the attract-
iveness of the few notes of their music mostly upon fre-
quent changes of velocity and expression, and the va-
riety of accentuation given in the numerous vowels of
the language. All the early visitors to the Hawaiian
Islands seem to have found the general effect of the
native music very pleasing. A curious coincidence,
similar to several which are referred to by Mrs. Brown,
is that the chanting and the " hula," a peculiar dance of
the Hawaiians, are in many respects identical with songs
and dances seen or heard by Marques in the northern
part of Africa. The Arabians of the present day chant
on one and sing on two or three notes, precisely in the
same way as the old Hawaiians, a fact which seems to
support Judge Fornander's theory that the Polynesian
race may not be entirely foreign to the old Aryan stock.
The present King Kalakaua noticed a like similarity
while traveling in Spain, where he found some of the
Aragonese national dances identical, both as regards
the gestures and music, with the Hawaiian hula.
The work, which the publishers have presented in so
elegant and attractive a form, and which is the joint
production of two writers who have been inspired by a
like enthusiasm, constitutes a valuable record of much
that otherwise might fail to be so worthily presented,
and is in every way an admirable presentation of the
facts relating to the subject. It well merits careful
study, and the excellent illustrations, with the accom-
panying descriptions, will call attention to a collection
of the existence of which comparatively few persons
are aware, and which is now at the country home of Mr.
John Crosby Brown, at Orange, N. J. The two other
important collections in the United States of a similar
character are that of the National Museum at Washing-
ton, and that of the late Mr. Joseph W. Drexel, which
has just been opened to the public at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Neither of these has been catalogued.
The beauty of the exterior of the volume which Mrs.
Brown and her son have written is in keeping with the
excellence of its contents; and the dedication is so
graceful and delicate in its tenderness of expression
that it is a pleasure to quote it: " To the one who has
not only given the true key-note to our home, but
whose firm yet gentle touch has resolved all its trans-
ient discords into harmony, this book is affectionately
dedicated by his wife and eldest son."—New York
Mail and Express.
THE A. Meinberg Co., Omaha, Neb., have recently
leased the store adjoining their present quarters, and
will commence extensive alterations therein. This,
when completed, together with the building which they
now occupy, will give them one of the most complete
establishments of the kind in the West. They are hav-
ing extensive sales of the Weber and " Opera " pianos.