Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
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AA*
The......
Aeolian
Company
18 W. Twenty-third
Street, New York
Aeolian Orchestrelle.
WIDOR
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::
Boston—The M, Steinert & Sons Company
Chicago—Lyon & Healy
Philadelphia—C. J. Heppe & Son
Montreal—Pratte Piano Company
The great French organist and composer endorses the Aeolian.
i;
A
splendid tribute from one of the leading musicians of Europe*
About two years ago some one sent me from New York a program of a concert given in the large hall of the Mendelssohn Club—
a program on which appeared the names of Bach, Saint-Saens, Verdi, Brahms, Max Bruch, Svendsen, etc., and of which the second part
commenced with the "first hearing in America ** of my Symphonie Gothique.
I mistook at first the performer for a man, and supposed Monsieur Aeolian was some great virtuoso. As the Symphony had only been
published two months, I admired the power for work, the intelligence of an artist capable of assimilating so rapidly, and for a public produc-
tion, a work exceedingly complex and technically so difficult.
"Who was this Monsieur Aeolian, of whom, till now, nobody had ever heard? Where did he come from? Some clippings from news-
papers which came with the program, and giving an account of the evening, explained the mystery.
The Aeolian is an instrument which affords a mechanical substitute for the fingers of the human performer. It differs essentially from
the known systems from the fact that the nuances, the tone colors, the varieties of rhythm and execution, orchestration—even the character
of the piece—are not imposed upon us, but remain subord-'nated to our fantasy. You can play the Passacaglia or the Toccata in D minor of
the great Sebastian Bach without touching your hands to the keyboard. All you have to do is to register the piece—that is to say, to draw or
push in the stops of the instrument according to the necessities of the orchestration.
Thus, through an execution mechanically faultless, you express your musical sentiment and intelligence. Thus, without any power of
virtuosity, if you are incapable of playing a sonatina of Clementi, you can accompany with all the time variations and shading any performer
in any piece. Thus, hereafter, the composer can register and define his thought, inscribing it with the utmost exactness on a roll of paper,
which can be shipped by parcel post to the Antipodes, or it can be preserved on the shelves of a library, with a guarantee against error or
misunderstanding of interpretation either now or hereafter.
The inventors of the Aeolian have already transcribed an entire repertory of the master works for orchestra, organ, and piano. They
keep in step with the musical movements of the entire world— u up to date," as the Americans say. . . .
• Lately they gave us some idea of their repertory by playing successfully the Rhapsodies of Liszt, the Sonata Apassionata, Le Rouet
d'Omphale, the Danse Macabre; then they accompanied Delsarte in whole series of pieces for the 'cello. They are engaged in transcribing
the entire works of Bach, which will soon be finished.
The music for the Aeolian is in the form of paper rolls. You have only to insert them in the sockets and conform to the indications in-
scribed measure by measure on the paper which unrolls before your eyes; crescendos, decrescendos, ritards, repeats of a movement—all are
scrupulously noted. . . .
Is it not truly delightful to be able to register the interpretation of a musical work with absolute exactitude, and be able to know that
these instructions will remain as an unalterable document, as a certain witness, true to-day, which shall not change to-morrow—the typical
interpretation which shall not vary in all eternity?
The Aeolian has rendered signal service in America. It has carried the good message into regions previously ignorant of artistic matters,
and enabled far-off communities to glimpse the horizons of high art.
CH. M. WIDOR.
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