Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
-—3—vEDWARD LYMAN BILL-*—*
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
~
3 East 14th St., New York
specialism, events have so shaped them-
we fling the infamous insult, this atrocious
selves that there became a necessity for
lie back into the Courier teeth for future
factories in which special parts of instru-
mastication.
ments could be manufactured at a saving
from a trade publication, shows either ma-
of
licious intent or lamentable ignorance of
time, labor and annoyance to piano
manufacturers themselves.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United .States,
Mexico and Canada. $i<.oo per year; all other countries,
$3.00.
ADVERTISEnriNTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
NEW YORK, JULY 16, 1898.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745-EIQHTEENTH S1REET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review will
contain a supplement embodying the literary
and musical features which have heretofore
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
trade paper.
the underlying laws which are operative
This does not alone apply to the piano
trade, but to every branch of industry.
an
action
manufacturer
in every industry.
The man who offers a finished piano for
It is not hypocritical or contradictory to
say that
Such a statement, coming
sale, completed in his own factory, is as
can
much a legitimate manufacturer, as if he
produce actions more cheaply when he is
grew the elephant whose tusks produced
manufacturing three hundred sets a week
the keys.
than one can in making ten sets during
the same period.
Apply the same law to the publication
of papers.
There are a number of papers
In the first place the action manufac-
that we can name in every city of impor-
turer invests capital in labor-saving ma-
tance in the land where the typesetting,
chinery, and his energies are being de-
press-work, binding and editing of which,
voted to one special branch of industry,
is all done at different points and still
hence it is the aim of his life to produce
those papers are not stencil or illegitimate
the best goods that he can at a minimum
publications.
Every man in business contracts for his
cost.
Not only the purchasing trade receives
work
as his means and ideas permit.
a large benefit accruing from his industry
Does a reader in criticising a paper com-
and application, but the purchasing public
plain to the typesetter for an occasional
as well.
error or misprint?
The same applies to case making
Does he censure the
PIANO LEGITIMACY.
—to the manufacture of sounding-boards,
man who runs the press, for an inferior
T H E dying throes of the Courier-Annex
and everything else used in the construc-
grade of press work?
tion of musical instruments.
blame the paper mill for a qiiality of paper?
. are indeed ludicrous to behold. There
is now and then evidence of a little life in
There are examples in this trade, as in
the Annex body as seen by a spiteful kick
all others,
at some particular non-supporter.
reached such an enormous output weekly
A rather peculiar issue, raised in this
where
manufacturers
have
that from their vantage ground they can
Does he praise or
No, it is all concentrated at one point,
whether praise or censure, it rightly falls
upon the publisher's shoulders.
Does a purchaser of a piano blame the
attenuated sheet which is obviously made
well afford
to cover an attack on Henry F. Miller, is
parts of the instrument.
Their output is
the action manufacturer for a slight here
that no piano makers are really manufac-
of sufficient magnitude to justify a large
or there, the varnish maker for poor var-
turers until they themselves make all parts
investment in special machinery, and by
nish?
of the instrument, such as actions, cases,
maintaining a large output they are en-
No, it is always the maker, the man
abled to keep a sufficient corps of trained
under whose roof all its parts are grouped.
men at work in the special departments of
They are placed there by his own instruc-
plates, etc.
Why not go a step further and add to
it, until they raise the elephants in Africa,
have iron mines in Alabama, mahogany
forests in South America and all that ?
No matter where a man may purchase
to manufacture the special
their business.
tions, by his own directions, and he is the
We are neither arguing for nor against
the manufacture of all parts of the piano
by manufacturers.
case manufacturer for some imperfection,
That is purely a per-
responsible party.
At least such is the case in this land of
commerce—this home of piano makers.
parts of anything, the whole is greater
sonal matter and only interests the manu-
With the
than any of its parts, and it is for that
facturer himself, whether he can produce
blumenbergs
whole
that
manufacturer
cease from troubling and
stands
cheaper or better work within his own
the weary piano makers are at rest, we are
sponsor whose name appears on the fall
lines—made under his own supervision—
not acquainted.
board
No matter
or whether he proposes to place his work
be acquired later—maybe.
whether the keys are made in Kamtschatka,
with outside specialists, and have his work
or the ivory taken from some pre-historic
prepared according to his own specifica-
tusks
tions and suggestions.
of
the
other land, where the marc-
the instrument.
found
within
the
Arctic circle,
certainly as long as they are
A knowledge of that will
EXHIBITING INVOICES.
T H E R E are still a few men in the world
grouped
We repeat, it is unnecessary to enter into
together in one factory and one man stands
an argument anent the benefits accrviing in
sponsor for the perfected instrument then
either case.
he is as much a manufacturer as if every
must be decided by the individual.
They are purely personal and
If the
—some inside of the barbed
wire
fence surrounding the music trade—who
make a point of exhibiting invoices of
pianos to customers.
These invoices were
part were made under his own factory
manufacturer can contract for a thousand
gained, in many instances,
roofs.
sets, or any number for that matter, of
period while they held the agency of the
actions per year with a reputable maker at
pianos named in the invoice.
It is a question of material—of scale—of
finish;
a question
of
labor, of
correct
a lower rate and obtain eminently satis-
during
the
They do this with the direct idea of not
supervision, of attention to details in every
factory results, we presume that it is his
only injuring the sale, but of killing the
department that assists to create a perfect
own affair whether he wishes to do this,
reputation of their competitor.
piano.
It is the unfinished product which
is really the cheap piano of to-day.
As
the age has gravitated
towards
Invoices
or whether he wishes to embark in action
should never be exhibited, and any dealer
making on his own account.
But as far as
who shows an invoice of a piano of any
the legitimacy of a finished product goes,
make to a customer with the direct idea of