Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
must have happened, and the public wants
to know this. Its sympathies consequently
go out to the concern to which the caustic
or scathing reference is made. Sometimes
a "roast" turns out to be a boomerang.
D U SI NESS men generally will be inter-
ested to know that the twelfth cen-
sus relating to manufactures will be com-
pleted about the middle of next month.
A comparison of the new figures with
those of' ten years ago will undoubtedly
present some striking contrasts.
In the piano industry it will be interest-
ing to note the growth of Eastern enter-
prises. What enormous strides have been
made in piano manufacturing west of the
Alleghanies during the last decade!
A WESTERN contemporary states that
Otto Wissner is the first American
piano manufacturer to receive the personal
attention of the Emperor of Germany.
This is not so. William Steinway was
granted a private audience by the Em-
peror and Empress of Germany, shortly
after the order of the Red Eagle was con-
ferred upon him.
A CCORDING to the decision of a West-
ern judge, labor unions themselves
constitute trusts.
Why not? What is known in the verna-
cular as a trust is nothing more than a
combination made tip of business enter-
prises. A union is a combination of indi-
viduals. What is sauce for the goose is
likewise sauce for the gander.
'T'HE threatening strikes in Pennsyl-
vania will have a serious effect upon
business in many important towns in the
Keystone State where the sales of pianos
are usually large.
T H E Texas horror grows, and the death
list will reach many thousands while
the destruction of property is estimated
from twenty to thirty millions. Business
interests will naturally be seriously de-
moralized in Southern Texas for a long
time to come.
I T may be gratifying to the average New
Yorker to state that little old New
York, even without the acquisition of
Brooklyn and other outlying districts,
would still have been by 150,000 the most
popu'ous city in the United States.
Wellington Co Enlarge.
The Wellington Piano Case Co., of Leo-
minster, Mass., have broken ground for
the erection of a brick addition to their
factoiy, 100x60 feet, four stories high.
This, when completed, will enable them to
turn out about 250 cases a week.
The Subject of Pitch.
There is a prevalent idea that centuries
ago the standard pitch was very low, and
that it had been rising steadily until it had
strained voices and strings almost to break-
ing point. This is a fallacy, which can be
shown by reference to a few well-estab-
lished facts. Pitch has been lowered to
suit modern necessity. In Handel's time
there were two pitches—church and con-
cert—and the former was a whole tone
higher than the latter. Those who are fa-
miliar with Purcell's music will readily rec-
ognize the evidence it gives of two distinct
pitches. But now there is practically one
pitch there, and this approximates very
closely to that known as the "Diapason Nor-
mal. " The pitch known as the Philharmonic
concert pitch has been adopted and warm-
ly approved. By the universal adoption of
this pitch many works which are now dis-
tressful from the strain put on voices would
become comparatively easy and graceful.
Moreover, singers who travel to foreign
countries would not be confused by the
differences of pitches. The same might be
said of violin players. The adoption of
one universal pitch would also facilitate
the good time coming, when our children
will have become so naturally musical that
they will recognize any sound when they
hear it, and learn to sing by the mere
si.^ht of the notes on the stave, without
the aid of sol-fa figures, or any other
crutch invented for the aid of cripples.
The Orchestra—A National Lack.
Music has come to be a necessity of city
life. Of all the alleviatives for wear and
tear caused by the modern rush and jar,
none is more effective. If it be said that
our fathers got along comfortably with
less of it, and of a simpler kind than we
enjoy, did they not also have immunity
from those afflictions that it is one of the
missions of music to cure. They had no
clamor of elevated trains, no roar of loco-
motives, no shrieking of steam whistles,
no banging of gongs on trolley cars and
ambulances, no thunder of fire engines, no
clatter of trucks on cobble paving, no
pounding of steel beams for new build-
ings, no hum and thrash of factories, no
deafening eruptions in rolling mills and
boiler shops, nor had they the continuity
of even lesser noises, for their towns were
small and they had no street cars, electric
lights or other matters to encourage late
hours. The adoption of music into the
municipal economy of our cities has been
so general and has obtained such wide
consent that not only have we the opera
and symphony concerts, not only are song,
piano and violin recitals grown common,
not only is singing taught in public
schools, not only are oratorio and choral
societies organized by half dozens, but the
municipalities themselves provide band
concerts in the parks, and at all the pleas-
ure resorts music is as inevitable as din-
ner.
A comparison of such programs as are
given to-day at public concerts with those
of twenty-five or thirty years ago will show
a decided advance in public taste, says the
Saturday Evening Post, and in respect of
virtuosity the gain has been no less real,
but the wonder workers of the piano and
violin of a former generation would hold
places of the second rank to-day, and
some would be glad to accept a position as
kapellmeister of an orchestra. Music
schools and teachers have multiplied, band
playing has become an inevitable part of
social, ceremonial and military functions.
In view of these facts the slowness with
which the highest of all music, that of the
orchestra, has progressed in America is to
be regretted. It is only within half a doz-
en years that good concerts were to be
heard in any American city except New
York, Boston, Chicago and Cincinnati,
except during the winter season. In
Europe a permanent orchestra will often
be found in a city of 25,000 to 50,000 peo-
ple, and a pretty good orchestra, too. The
expense of such a band, where the players
are engaged by the season, is not heavy as
compared with that of many other pleasure
giving and educating institutions, and is
certainly cheaper than a theatre. Unlike
the theatre, the recital hall is seldom de-
meaned by performances that are un-
worthy to be classed as art. There are
no farce comedies, no problem plays in
music. Frivolity, thinness, cheapness
there may be, but never wickedness. It
is impossible. The best of all music, the
great symphonies and other concerted
work, has been written for instruments,
or instruments in combination with voices.
The orchestra has a range, flexibility, var-
iety and power that voices have not, and
its precision of tone and tempo is not pos-
sible to the voice, especially to the chorus.
Yet the highest in music is practically un-
known in a majority of our cities, because
they lack the agent for its interpretation.
We have the best in all else—plays, books,
pictures, professional service—and our ap-
titude in music and our need for it as a
solace and a civilizer deserve more ade-
quate recognition.
Miller Co. Enlarging.
Ground has been broken for the erection
of the Miller Organ Co. 's new storeroom
building, 736-738 Cumberland street, Leb-
anon, Pa. The new building will have a
depth of 200 feet. Business with the Mil-
ler Organ Co. is brisk.
Grollman's New Line.
Sol Grollman, the famous stool and
scarf man of Chicago, had last week the
greatest trade, perhaps, in his history.
This was due to the big crowd of visitors
during the G. A. R. encampment. Sol is
gradually building up a splendid business
—thanks to the quality of his goods and
his persistent efforts to satisfy. Mr. Groll-
man has added a new line to his business
and will hereafter handle mandolins, gui-
tars and general musical merchandise. He
has reinforced his staff by several experts in
this special line, and intends to develop
this branch of the business on the progres-
sive lines which have characterized the
stool and scarf departments,