Music Trade Review
Issue: 1892 Vol. 16 N. 7 - Page 7
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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
AND
THE NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY,
JJJK PRIVATE letter, dated Chicago, Septem-
®h ber 3d, says : "The New England Con-
servatory is coming here to start a school for
tuning. . . . Mr. Tourjee, Jr., called on
me and got points on the N. A. of P. T. He
wants me to take the principalship of the tuning
department, and run it in conjunction with the
Association." As a bit of news, this is choice.
It is also a '' straw '' that shows that the As-
sociation has been heard of, and an admission
that it is likely to become a power in the musical
world.
While the writer of the above extract no doubt
feels himself highly honored by Mr. Tourjee's
offer, I am inclined to hazard the opinion that
the chair of the principal in this to-be temple or
college of tuning will be vacant for many moons
before it is occupied by any member of the N. A.
of P. T.
The Association has started out with high
aims and an ambition to become a power in the
land for good. It proposes to include in its
membership those, and those only, who are tun-
ers. It proposes to force a dividing line between
those who arc tuners, and those who pretend,
to be, but are not. It is not the mission of the
Association to go out into the highways and in-
vite people to learn the art of tuning. Neither
does it stand in the way of any one learning in
a proper way, and when they become competent
to meet all the requirements of the Association,
its doors are open to them. We do not ques-
tion Mr. Tourjee's right to attach to the New
England Conservatory of Music a '' department
for the propagation of wire-pullers,'' but the As-
sociation cannot endorse his scheme, because
the art of tuning and the many etceteras that
go to make up the requirements of a first-class
tuner, can no more be learned in a school than a
man can learn to swim in a bath-tub. The As-
sociation doubts if there ever was a graduate
from the New England Conservatory, or any
other similar institution, that was fitted to be
trusted as a tuner. It also doubts if one of
them could come fresh from the school and pass
the examination required by the N. A. of P. T.,
even if it were four times as easy as it is. The
factory and repair shop is the only school that
turns out good workmen, and the only one that
ever will. It was your writer's fortune to run
against a specimen of this school-graduate tuner's
work but a few weeks ago. The piano, a square
grand, had just been brought from Massachusetts
to a town in New Jersey. It was in a fearful
condition, and, upon examination, I found over
a dozen cork wedges driven betweenth e strings,
completely damping two, thus leaving it a
unichord instead of a trichord. Investigation
for the reason of this unique treatment disclosed
the fact that many of the tuning pins were too
loose to stand any strain, so instead of wedging
or using larger pins, he resorted to the cork
treatment. The old lady who owned the piano
remarked with unmistakable pride: "The last
time that piano was tuned, it was tuned in Mas-
sachusetts, and done by a Massachusetts tuner.''
I intimated that if that style of work was peculiar
to Massachusetts, I hoped it would remain there,
as it was entirely out of place in New Jersey.
There was anger in her voice now, as she re-
torted, " he was a first-class man, sir ; a gradu-
ate from a Boston school of tuning, which I
think is more than can be said of many Jersey
tuners." Who could combat such a conclusive
argument? I didn't try. A few years ago
'' telegraph colleges '' were in full blast all over
the country ; now, but few exist. They were
without exception absolutely fraudulent. They
were so necessarily, for, beyond the simplest ru-
diments, nothing was taught, and even that
much often taught erroneously. The '' gradu-
ate " invariably found that instead of having
mastered the art, he had been made a fool of,
and usually secured the privilege of practicing
in some country office for a year or so, or gave
up the whole thing in disgust.
The first-class telegrapher almost invariably
begins in the office as messenger and works his
way up by actual practice. So, too, it is with
1
' commercial colleges.'' The merchant who
wants a first-class book-keeper does not send to
the college for a graduate. He has no time to
spend in instructing him how to keep a set of
books. The only experts are those brought up
on actual practice and not on theory. I believe
the same rule to hold good in tuning. There
are a thousand and one things that the tuner
must be familiar with or he is not a tuner. He
must have actual practice on pianos of different
makes and in all stages of debility. He must
be able to know exactly what to do in all cases
without resorting to guess-work experiments.
To master all the details of the business in a
school is simply impossible. To attempt it is
an absurdity ; and to accept money for tuition
whereby anything near competency is promised
is little short of false pretence. As an institu-
tion of musical learning, the New England Con-
servatory ranks high, and the elder Tourgee has
earned well-merited fame. If his son will limit
himself to teaching or causing to be taught, in
conjunction with the regular musical course, the
principles of temperament, thirds, fourths, fifths
and sixths, and their relation to each other, so
that people can tell when their pianos are pro-
perly tuned, the Association will not only endorse
him but do all in their power to assist him, for
its members had far rather do work for people
who know good work from bad than for those
whose complete ignorance leads them to find
fault or be as well satisfied with poor work as
with good. This it is possible to do without
much difficulty, but to teach people how to do
it is another thing. A man may be a critic on
painting, and yet not be able to paint a picture
that would do credit to a Bowery dime museum.
Farther than this the Association cannot afford
to be in conjunction with the tuning school, for
the simple reason that there is but one way in
which the art can possibly be acquired, which
we have already mentioned.
Mr. Tourjee, Jr., says his tuning department
is the best paying of any in the Conservatory.
This would seem to indicate that money is the
mainspring, of his scheme. The Association
admits none to membership who have not had
at least four years' experience, for the reason
that it is considered impossible to become an
expert in less time, even under the most favor-
able conditions. By the time young men have
paid for four years' tuition and spent all this
time in constant application and practice, which
they must do, we predict they will feel that
their time and money might have been put to a
far better use.
We don't know how rapidly Mr. Tourjee pro-
poses to turn out " graduates," but if, with all
the facilities of the factory and repair shop, it
takes four to five years to become proficient, we
are naturally curious to know how long it will
take when facilities are necessarily meagre. No,
gentlemen, the N. A. of P. T. cannot, and will
not, endorse your tuning school. To do so
would be to give the lie to all its pretentious
and promises, by lending its aid to increase the
already great army of incompetents. There is
i55
no feeling of jealousy in this. We oppose you
because we believe you are wrong, because you
attempt the impossible. When, however, you
can bring one of your "graduates" to our
examining board who can pass the same exam-
ination that other members have, then we will
admit we were mistaken—not before.
CUSTOM HOUSE, BOSTON, MASS.,
)
Collector's Office, Sept. 17, 1892. }
Exportation of Musical Instruments from the
Port of Boston, Month ending Aug. 31st, 1892.
To Netherlands :
Two (2) organs
-
-
-
-
To Turkey in Europe
One (1) organ
- - - - -
To England :
One hundred and eighty-one
(I8I) organs
-
-
$9,813
One (1) piano
. . .
225
All other and parts of
-
- 3
$100
$75
$13,509
To Nova Scotia:
Four (4) organs
Eight (8) pianos
All other and parts of
-
- $280
1.725
220
:
$2,225
To British East Indies :
One (1) organ
One (1) piano
All other and parts of
$75
242
222
-
$539
$16,448
Total
Importations of Musical Instruments into the
Port of Boston, Month of August, 1892.
Countries :
Germany
-
-
Switzerland
. .
England
-
-
-
.
-
-
$7,185
5,390
-
177
-$12,752
U/«?ll U/ortl? S e e i t ^ .
of the best stage delineators of the ludi-
^5
crous side of English character that has
visited America recently is Mr. Charles Blake
Cochran, who is now in this city as a competitor
for American renown. Mr. Cochran is a humor-
ous vocalist of the funniest and most able order.
He has a choice repertoire of racy comic songs,
and his imitations of the London cabman, coster-
monger and other grotesque and outlandish
types of English eccentric character are true to
nature and irresistibly laughable. His power
of imitative facial expression is wonderful, he
gives the English dialect '' patter '' to perfec-
tion, and altogether his characterizations are
inimitable. Mr. Cochran has delighted large
and fashionable audiences at St. James' Hall,
London, the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, and in
the principal cities throughout England, Ireland
and Scotland, and has won the most favorable
encomiums from the'press of those countries.
T|QNE
MR. WALES, late with W. J. Dyer & Bro., St.
Paul, Minn., has been engaged to take charge
of the tuning department of Messrs. Kops Bros,
music store in Fargo, N. D. He will divide his
time between Fargo and Grand Forks.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
AND
THE NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY,
JJJK PRIVATE letter, dated Chicago, Septem-
®h ber 3d, says : "The New England Con-
servatory is coming here to start a school for
tuning. . . . Mr. Tourjee, Jr., called on
me and got points on the N. A. of P. T. He
wants me to take the principalship of the tuning
department, and run it in conjunction with the
Association." As a bit of news, this is choice.
It is also a '' straw '' that shows that the As-
sociation has been heard of, and an admission
that it is likely to become a power in the musical
world.
While the writer of the above extract no doubt
feels himself highly honored by Mr. Tourjee's
offer, I am inclined to hazard the opinion that
the chair of the principal in this to-be temple or
college of tuning will be vacant for many moons
before it is occupied by any member of the N. A.
of P. T.
The Association has started out with high
aims and an ambition to become a power in the
land for good. It proposes to include in its
membership those, and those only, who are tun-
ers. It proposes to force a dividing line between
those who arc tuners, and those who pretend,
to be, but are not. It is not the mission of the
Association to go out into the highways and in-
vite people to learn the art of tuning. Neither
does it stand in the way of any one learning in
a proper way, and when they become competent
to meet all the requirements of the Association,
its doors are open to them. We do not ques-
tion Mr. Tourjee's right to attach to the New
England Conservatory of Music a '' department
for the propagation of wire-pullers,'' but the As-
sociation cannot endorse his scheme, because
the art of tuning and the many etceteras that
go to make up the requirements of a first-class
tuner, can no more be learned in a school than a
man can learn to swim in a bath-tub. The As-
sociation doubts if there ever was a graduate
from the New England Conservatory, or any
other similar institution, that was fitted to be
trusted as a tuner. It also doubts if one of
them could come fresh from the school and pass
the examination required by the N. A. of P. T.,
even if it were four times as easy as it is. The
factory and repair shop is the only school that
turns out good workmen, and the only one that
ever will. It was your writer's fortune to run
against a specimen of this school-graduate tuner's
work but a few weeks ago. The piano, a square
grand, had just been brought from Massachusetts
to a town in New Jersey. It was in a fearful
condition, and, upon examination, I found over
a dozen cork wedges driven betweenth e strings,
completely damping two, thus leaving it a
unichord instead of a trichord. Investigation
for the reason of this unique treatment disclosed
the fact that many of the tuning pins were too
loose to stand any strain, so instead of wedging
or using larger pins, he resorted to the cork
treatment. The old lady who owned the piano
remarked with unmistakable pride: "The last
time that piano was tuned, it was tuned in Mas-
sachusetts, and done by a Massachusetts tuner.''
I intimated that if that style of work was peculiar
to Massachusetts, I hoped it would remain there,
as it was entirely out of place in New Jersey.
There was anger in her voice now, as she re-
torted, " he was a first-class man, sir ; a gradu-
ate from a Boston school of tuning, which I
think is more than can be said of many Jersey
tuners." Who could combat such a conclusive
argument? I didn't try. A few years ago
'' telegraph colleges '' were in full blast all over
the country ; now, but few exist. They were
without exception absolutely fraudulent. They
were so necessarily, for, beyond the simplest ru-
diments, nothing was taught, and even that
much often taught erroneously. The '' gradu-
ate " invariably found that instead of having
mastered the art, he had been made a fool of,
and usually secured the privilege of practicing
in some country office for a year or so, or gave
up the whole thing in disgust.
The first-class telegrapher almost invariably
begins in the office as messenger and works his
way up by actual practice. So, too, it is with
1
' commercial colleges.'' The merchant who
wants a first-class book-keeper does not send to
the college for a graduate. He has no time to
spend in instructing him how to keep a set of
books. The only experts are those brought up
on actual practice and not on theory. I believe
the same rule to hold good in tuning. There
are a thousand and one things that the tuner
must be familiar with or he is not a tuner. He
must have actual practice on pianos of different
makes and in all stages of debility. He must
be able to know exactly what to do in all cases
without resorting to guess-work experiments.
To master all the details of the business in a
school is simply impossible. To attempt it is
an absurdity ; and to accept money for tuition
whereby anything near competency is promised
is little short of false pretence. As an institu-
tion of musical learning, the New England Con-
servatory ranks high, and the elder Tourgee has
earned well-merited fame. If his son will limit
himself to teaching or causing to be taught, in
conjunction with the regular musical course, the
principles of temperament, thirds, fourths, fifths
and sixths, and their relation to each other, so
that people can tell when their pianos are pro-
perly tuned, the Association will not only endorse
him but do all in their power to assist him, for
its members had far rather do work for people
who know good work from bad than for those
whose complete ignorance leads them to find
fault or be as well satisfied with poor work as
with good. This it is possible to do without
much difficulty, but to teach people how to do
it is another thing. A man may be a critic on
painting, and yet not be able to paint a picture
that would do credit to a Bowery dime museum.
Farther than this the Association cannot afford
to be in conjunction with the tuning school, for
the simple reason that there is but one way in
which the art can possibly be acquired, which
we have already mentioned.
Mr. Tourjee, Jr., says his tuning department
is the best paying of any in the Conservatory.
This would seem to indicate that money is the
mainspring, of his scheme. The Association
admits none to membership who have not had
at least four years' experience, for the reason
that it is considered impossible to become an
expert in less time, even under the most favor-
able conditions. By the time young men have
paid for four years' tuition and spent all this
time in constant application and practice, which
they must do, we predict they will feel that
their time and money might have been put to a
far better use.
We don't know how rapidly Mr. Tourjee pro-
poses to turn out " graduates," but if, with all
the facilities of the factory and repair shop, it
takes four to five years to become proficient, we
are naturally curious to know how long it will
take when facilities are necessarily meagre. No,
gentlemen, the N. A. of P. T. cannot, and will
not, endorse your tuning school. To do so
would be to give the lie to all its pretentious
and promises, by lending its aid to increase the
already great army of incompetents. There is
i55
no feeling of jealousy in this. We oppose you
because we believe you are wrong, because you
attempt the impossible. When, however, you
can bring one of your "graduates" to our
examining board who can pass the same exam-
ination that other members have, then we will
admit we were mistaken—not before.
CUSTOM HOUSE, BOSTON, MASS.,
)
Collector's Office, Sept. 17, 1892. }
Exportation of Musical Instruments from the
Port of Boston, Month ending Aug. 31st, 1892.
To Netherlands :
Two (2) organs
-
-
-
-
To Turkey in Europe
One (1) organ
- - - - -
To England :
One hundred and eighty-one
(I8I) organs
-
-
$9,813
One (1) piano
. . .
225
All other and parts of
-
- 3
$100
$75
$13,509
To Nova Scotia:
Four (4) organs
Eight (8) pianos
All other and parts of
-
- $280
1.725
220
:
$2,225
To British East Indies :
One (1) organ
One (1) piano
All other and parts of
$75
242
222
-
$539
$16,448
Total
Importations of Musical Instruments into the
Port of Boston, Month of August, 1892.
Countries :
Germany
-
-
Switzerland
. .
England
-
-
-
.
-
-
$7,185
5,390
-
177
-$12,752
U/«?ll U/ortl? S e e i t ^ .
of the best stage delineators of the ludi-
^5
crous side of English character that has
visited America recently is Mr. Charles Blake
Cochran, who is now in this city as a competitor
for American renown. Mr. Cochran is a humor-
ous vocalist of the funniest and most able order.
He has a choice repertoire of racy comic songs,
and his imitations of the London cabman, coster-
monger and other grotesque and outlandish
types of English eccentric character are true to
nature and irresistibly laughable. His power
of imitative facial expression is wonderful, he
gives the English dialect '' patter '' to perfec-
tion, and altogether his characterizations are
inimitable. Mr. Cochran has delighted large
and fashionable audiences at St. James' Hall,
London, the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, and in
the principal cities throughout England, Ireland
and Scotland, and has won the most favorable
encomiums from the'press of those countries.
T|QNE
MR. WALES, late with W. J. Dyer & Bro., St.
Paul, Minn., has been engaged to take charge
of the tuning department of Messrs. Kops Bros,
music store in Fargo, N. D. He will divide his
time between Fargo and Grand Forks.
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