Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
A JOURNALISTIC JUDAS.
OURNAUSM—that word covers a wide
range—including, as it does, all the varied
branches of secular, religious and special lines of
regular publications. Trade journalism is one of
the most powerful of all the divisions, because in
the main, it is conducted by men of broad and
cultivated minds, men who have both a literary
and commercial training. This, in many cases
augmented by a technical knowledge, makes
them authorities in their special spheres. Un-
fortunately, the music trade has been infested
by a species of journalistic adventurers, who,
either by threats or blackmailing, have extorted
money from our manufacturers. They are unfit
to be classed as journalists. They are vampires.
They have tended to degrade music trade
journalism, they have contaminated it by their
touch. Not satisfied by trailing the name—
journalist—in the mud, by attacks upon success-
ful men, they sink even lower. A short time
ago we were called upon to record the financial
embarrassment of a great piano manufacturing
concern—Hardman, Peck & Co.—Truly a trade
calamity, and one which effects indirectly every
house in this country, in such times as we are
now passing through. No sooner is this event
recorded in the financial world than the bunco-
journalist rushes into print with columns of
abuse and cutting sarcasm upon Mr. Peck, whose
bread he has begged and eaten. He tries to
fasten the odor of distrust and suspicion upon
Mr. Peck and his methods, and, poor, foolish
knave, by so doing he strikes a blow at the en-
tire music trade. Let sensible men reason for
one moment. Could not Mr. Peck, if his motives
had been other than honest, easily have increased
his liabilities ? His credit was excellent—
never better—up to the very day of his mis-
fortune, and his assignment a great surprise.
But it is not for us to defend the principles of a
man who has built up a magnificent business,
and who, like many others, was forced to suc-
cumb to a condition of finances, the like of
which this country has never experienced. How
many of our great industrial institutions have
been shaken by the financial storm through
which we have been passing ? How many to-
day have been compelled to resort to methods
heretofore unknown to them ? Is not a man
who throws discredit upon a concern like Hard-
man, Peck & Co. in such times as these worse
than a Benedict Arnold ? Piano manufacturers
should weigh this ; we cannot tell whose turn it
will be next, but they should consider, if one
unfortunate receives such abuse, what one of
their number will be exempt ? They should
ponder well, that a dollar given to support such
an individual means helping an enemy to hold
a position—yes, worse than an enemy—a
traitor to the cause he pretends to uphold.
They should also understand that the honest
journalist conducts a business establishment,
and pays his bills. Dollars given to men who
do not pay their honest indebtedness, even their
tailors' bills, and subsist by journalistic high-
waymen methods, is placing the honest journal-
ist at a serious disadvantage. The question is :
will members of the piano trade to-day support
f
an individual who is doing his worst or best to
discredit their standing at our banks ? Will
they pay their dollars to a man who is trying to
undermine the whole trade, both in credit and
in standing ? Will they give alms to the man
who, like the fawning cur, bites the hand that
feeds him ? Will they strengthen the position
of a traitor ? Will they ? We shall see.
spring we published a book, contain-
mg one hundred pages, of convenient
pocket size, entitled '' The Piano.'' The book
is filled with practical instructions, easily under-
stood, for piano tuning and repairing. The
book was written by Mr. Daniel Spillane, one of
the best, if not the very best writer on the sub-
ject of the piano in America ; his experience
having been acquired by years of careful study,
and practice as well. Our book has met with
wide approval, its sale exceeding our most san-
guine expectations. Orders by mail from all
parts of the country for this book are received
daily, and not one single instance can be re-
corded where satisfaction has not been abundantly
granted by the perusal of its pages, which are
printed in clear, bold type, and freely illustrated.
Here's what Governor Fuller, of Vermont,
has, without solicitation, said of the book : " I t
is a well written book, and contains an amount
of information of value to the tuner. I hope
you may be successful in getting it into their
hands."
revolutionary action of the members of
the United States Senate in attempting to
defeat the will of the majority is a crime, and
an insult to the great constituency they have
been delegated to represent. And the question
which must now be determined Is, whether that
body shall nullify the first essential principles
of our government by conferring upon the
minority the power to make the laws, or to pre-
vent legislation ? It would be well for these
men to recollect the words of the great Lincoln,
who said in his inaugural speech : " It is my
desire to carry out the will of the people, my
rightful masters."
The Piano Manufacturers' Association of New
York, at their last meeting, took action regarding
this matter, and sent the following to Senators
Hill and Murphy : '' The Piano Manufacturers'
Association, of New York City and vicinity, in
regular meeting assembled, urgently request
that you use your influence and best endeavors
to secure the passage of the bill before the
Senate repealing the silver purchasing clause of
the so-called Sherman law.''
This was signed by William Steinway, presi-
dent, and N. Stetson, secretary, of the associ-
ation.
That is the kind of sentiment, and every
board of trade and industrial association
throughout the United States should take just
such an action as the Piano Makers's Associa-
tion of New York. It is this kind of action
which will bring the obstructionists to their
senses, if anything can, and will help the
majority to uphold their constitutional rights.
CHARLES FRANCOIS GOUNOD.
was announced by cable, from Paris, Oc-
tober 17th, that Gounod, the great com-
poser, had died from an apoplectic stroke.
Although generally credited, it proved that the
report was premature. He rallied, and on the
evening of the 18th he passed painlessly away.
Charles Francois Gounod will live in the
history of classical music as an anomaly. He
was a combination of mysticism and voluptu-
ousness, a thorough master of the the orchestra,
and of a singular temperament, in which the
philosopher and religious enthusiast were
blended.
He was born in Paris on June 17, 1818, and
his first memory of music was when as a boy he
listened to his mother, a distinguished pianist.
She gave him his first insight into a musical
education.
After finishing his classical studies at the
Lycee, St. Louis, he took his degree as Bachelor
of Letters in 1836 and entered the conservatoire,
where he was in Halvey's class for counter-
point, learning compositions from Paer and
Lesneur.
His first success in musical composition was
in 1837, when his cantata, " Marie Stuart et
Rizzio," obtained the second prize of Rome,
which entitled him to study in Italy.
For several years he studied in Italy as a
pensioner of the Academie de France. A few
years later he determined to study for the priest-
hood, and devoted two years to reading and at-
tending a course of theology. He discovered at
the end of that time that he was not destined
for the priesthood and never took orders.
Then followed long years of study of the
works of Schumann and Berlioz, and then he
suddenly appeared for the first time in the
musical world, making his debut in London,
where he produced his first opera, "Sapho,"
in 1851, with Mme. Viardot in the principal
part.
In rapid succession he composed choruses,
masses, symphonies. His opera, " The Nonne
Sanglante," was produced in 1854.
But it was not until he produced " F a u s t "
that he took front rank as a composer.
His compositions embraced almost the whole
field of higher music, with efforts at times in
lighter veins.
His last opera, produced in 1878, " Pol-
yenete," contained flashes of the great com-
poser's power, but it never was classed by
critics with " Faust." " Faust " is as beautiful
to-day to us as when it was first heard by the
generation of three decades ago. Gounod has
written, perhaps, greater music, but none that
has now so universal acceptance.
What a grim satisfaction it must have been to
the great composer to have witnessed the 500th
representation of his masterpiece, "Faust," a
work which contains the elements of classic
beauty, romantic, mysticism and religious
fervor—a masterpiece which had been rejected
by presumably intelligent judges and which he
was compelled to dispose of for a mere pittance !
With what grim satisfaction must he have re-
called the adverse criticism of the Paris scribes
when they just heard that immortal composi-
tion !