Music Trade Review

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THE
"THE PASSING OF THE PIANO.'
A Ridiculous Editorial Which Was Founded
on a Chain of Misstatements Showing That
the Piano is Passing into Innocuous Desue-
tude—The Contentions Analyzed.
Last Sunday's Times, contained an extraordi-
nary editorial under the caption of "The Passing
of the Piano," in which the writer displayed an
ignorance that is no longer surprising when any-
thing relating to the music trade is discussed
in the daily press.
It is evident that the writer's liver needs treat-
ment, or else his mentality is suffering from in-
digestion of these silly stories regarding the
burning of the old square pianos at Atlantic City.
This is not the first writer in the daily press
who has been mislead by this fake bonfire, and
whose "stories" unquestionably have done, and
are doing much injury to the piano business.
The editorial opens in this wise:
"There are many encouraging indications war-
ranting the belief that as an article of usual
household furniture the piano is passing into
innocuous desuetude. There are still several
pianos sold annually, no doubt, but the propor-
tion of those in nominal use which remain silent
from three hundred to three hundred and sixty-
five days in the year is steadily increasing. The
burning a t Atlantic City recently of a small
mountain of square pianos which could not be
sold and perhaps could not be given away was
indicative of something more than a change in
domestic architecture which makes the old shape
inconvenient."
It is apparent that these statements need no
refutation, so unfounded and so ridiculous are
they. The writer is likewise in error when he
states that the business of teaching the piano is
declining, for it is only necesary to look up the
rosters of the different colleges and schools to
know that this is not the fact. Here is what he
says in this connection:
"The business of teaching children and young
persons to play on the piano is declining. The
conviction is growing in the minds of parents
that it does not pay to expend considerable sums
of money to enable children without musical tal-
ent to acquire such superficial knowledge of this
instrument as will enable them to disturb the
peace and quiet of home without contributing
anything to its pleasures. Real piano playing
has been brought to a plane so high that one who
has not acquired proficiency by long and ardu-
ous study hesitates to confess to any knowledge
of it. .Amateur work has been further discour-
aged by the multiplication of mechanical devices
which, by the agency of strips of paper punched
full of holes and wound on spools, can make
music in more or less successful imitation of
great compositions or trivial ones, so far beyond
the ability of the average amateur piano player
as to discourage effort. The mastery of the in-
strument which is the possession of the few has
flooded the market with compositions requiring
half a lifetime of hard and unremunerative work
to comprehend and interpret. The futile little
Bird Waltzes, Battles of Prague and a Maiden's
Prayers, with variations, mastered with no great
difficulty by the schoolgirl after one or two quar-
ters of instruction, are things of the past."
The position this editorial writer takes in re-
gard to the mission of the piano player is not
a correct one. The piano player has not led to
a decline in the teaching of music; on the con-
trary, it is stimulating it.
A great campaign of education is'being carried
on by the piano player, and it has led to a much
higher taste in the selection of music, and in its
performance by the amateur players who a few
years ago were content with the trashiest kind
of music. The idle piano is becoming a thing of
the past owing to general use of the piano player.
This wiseacre, who endeavors to enlighten us
about the piano situation, closes his diatribe with
the summing up that:
"The net result is one of vast advantage to the
average citizen. This year he can sit at his open
window in a populous neighborhood and perhaps
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
not hear the sound of a piano once in an evening.
A few years ago he would have heard a dozen un-
der like conditions, variously tortured, and each
contributing differently from the others to his
mental and physical misery. Perhaps another
reason for this is that the public has so much
perfunctory music that it welcomes peace and
quietness. To escape from music one does not
want it difficult. If he refrains from going where
it assails him, the street band or the hand organ
will follow him. All these causes contribute to
the passing of the piano, which resents abuse at
the hands of the incompetent who has other
duties in life than to become its slave."
It is laughable to read about "The Passing of
the Piano" when every year a larger output of
these instruments is recorded. I t is true the
piano is not abused as much to-day as in the
past, simply because—as we remarked before—
there is a higher appreciation of the instrument,
and its mission in the home.
An article like this referred to, when printed
editorially, can work much injury to the piano
trade, and when it teems with misinformation
and is based on incorrect premises, it is still
more dangerous. I t would be much better if
editorial writers in the daily press would con-
fine themselves to the war in the Far East or the
political situation and leave the piano alone.
ENGLISH OPERA'S GREAT YEAR.
The Savage English Grand Opera Company
Closes Longest Tour in Its History—Plans
for Next Season.
The Savage English Grand Opera Company
closed its forty weeks'. season in Pittsburg re-'
cently after the most successful and longest tour
the Boston Impresario ever gave his famous or-
ganization. Over three hundred performances
were given, including productions of fourteen
operas. The company consisted of 150 people,
including an orchestra of forty musicians, and
traveled on its own special train of twelve cars.
Most of the operas were works that no other
organization has ever attempted in English. An
idea of the success attending Mr. Savage's enter-
prise may be gained when it is known that the
gross receipts of the season were the largest of
any during the nine years' history of the or-
ganization. Thirty-one cities were visited, three
times as many as in any former year. •
Since Mr. Savage founded his company in
Boston he has produced eighty-one masterpieces
in English, the first production of Verdi's cele-
brated "Othello" this year being regarded as the
finest triumph of American singing artists. The
number of performances this year have been as
follows:
"Lohengrin," 51; "Trovatore," "Othello" and
"Carmen," over 40; "Tosca," "Tannhauser," and
"Faust," over 30; "Bohemian Girl," 25; "Aida,"
8; "Lucia di Lammermoor," 6; "Cavalleria Rus-
ticana," 6; "Martha," 6; "Romeo et Juliet," 6;
"La Boheme," 2; "Parsifal" concerts, 3.
Puccini's "La Boheme" was a special produc-
tion at the close of the season, and with Verdi's
"Othello" and Puccini's "Tosca' will probably
be in the repertoire next season when the com-
pany will visit over fifty cities, including a tour
of Canada, the South and to the Pacific Coast.
Opera festivals ranging from one to three weeks
will be given in Toronto, Montreal, Brooklyn,
Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburg, New Orleans,
Kansas City, Denver and San Francisco. This
will be the first time an English Grand Opera
Company will attempt a complete tour of the
United States.
JEAN DE RESZKE'S SCHOOL.
He Gets $40 for Singing Lessons—Not Likely
to Return Here.
Reports from Paris are to the effect that Jean
de Reszke has set to work on his singing school
with such enthusiasm that he is not likely to be
tempted to return to the stage by any salary
that may be offered to him. As a matter of fact
his new enterprise promises to be a source of
great income to him.
That the great tenor has undertaken the work
for purely artistic or benevolent purposes, no-
body believes. It is an extremely businesslike in-
stitution, and the pupils who are received there
must pay well. The rates are $40 an hour, and
that is not for a private lesson. The pupils are
taken in clases of four and each pays $10. M. de
Reszke gives a lesson to each pupil alternately
and the other three listen. As he has as many
pupils as he can receive now, it will be seen
that his school will soon be as much a source of
profit to him as his singing, even at the rates he
used to be paid.
Even if he did return to the United States it
would be the last time that a tour for him would
be posible, and he would, of course, never receive
from Mr. Conried or anybody else the terms he
demands. So it may be accepted as practically
certain that the tenor, who was always as good a
business man as an artist, will not desert his
school for one year when i t promises to be so
profitable to him.
Xlie Musician
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