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Music Trade Review

Issue: 1905 Vol. 40 N. 17 - Page 38

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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
38
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
HOHNER'S HARMONICA ASSORTMENT
METEOROLOGICIAL AEOLIAN HARP
In Great Demand Throughout the Trade—
Splendid for Window Display.
Working Over an Old Idea in France—More
Odd Than Useful.
The season, as it advances, does not seem to
show any falling off in the demand for the Lyre
Harmonica Assortment, which is one of the spe-
cialties of M. Hohner, the manufacturer and im-
porter of musical merchandise at 354 Broadway,
New York. This has been one of the biggest hits
of the season for him, and he reports that there
has been a constant re-ordering from the dealers
who have placed a sample card in their stock.
Mr. Hohner will continue to keep this as one of
his leading features, as he finds it seasonable at
all times of the year.
When it comes to producing something odd in
a musical way, the French are never lacking. The
latest scheme of a Parisian is a gigantic meteoro-
logical aeolian harp somewhat along the same
lines as that which was constructed more than a
century ago by M. Veritan Provost, at Burkli near
Basle. This harp consisted of fifteen iron wires,
each being no less than 320 feet long, stretched
between two poles, and thus very much resem-
bling the modern telegraph wires. They were
two inches or three inches apart, and varied from
a twelfth of an inch to a sixth in thickness. They
were stretched from north to south at an angle
of twenty or thirty degrees with the horizon, and
the proper amount of tension was kept upon them
by means of rollers at each end. The wind was
the performer that played upon this instrument,
and wonderful and weird were some of the effects
produced.
Sometimes it was like the hissing sound of a
mighty waterfall, at others like that of a har-
monica, and on other occasions the music was
like the distant chimes from a belfry or an organ.
The inventor found that brass wire was no good
for the purpose, and also that even iron wire was
useless when stretched from east to west. As
it was, his meteorological harp sometimes gave
forth such loud music that concerts which were
being conducted in the adjoining house had to be
stopped, as the performers could not be heard.
PIANO STOOL PLANT SOLD.
H. D. Bentley Estate Disposes of Plant to O. B.
Bidwell.
(Special to The Review.)
Freeport, 111., April 22, 1905.
The H. D. Bentley piano stool plant and
eighteen lots belonging to the estate of the late
well-known manufacturer, were sold at public
auction this morning to O. B. Bidwell, president
of the First National Bank. I t is understood
that the consideration was $5,150.
LOVED THUNDER OF BIG DRUMS.
The story is told of an English nobleman, Lord
Sandwich, who was fond of seeking bizarre musi-
cal effects. This nobleman had a passionate lik-
ing for the thunder of big drums, and to gratify
this taste to the full, he had the whole of one
side of his large music room—an apartment in
which oratorios were frequently performed—-cov-
ered with parchment, so that when it was struck
with a massive stick i t gave forth a terrific
roar which was enough to terrorize anybody. I t
was said that even men with strong nerves who
had heard this drum struck once declined upon
any pretext ever to enter the apartment again,
lest they should be treated unawares to a second
performance.
GOOD DEMAND FOR SMALL GOODS.
Ands. Koch, the importer of small goods, at
296 Broadway, New York, finds that despite the
lateness of the season, there is a good demand for
small goods of every description. The western
and northern trade has been particularly strong,
and the local demand has not shown any falling
off. "This activity," he says, "is not confined to
any one class of goods, but embraces all In a very
even proportion."
The hardest wood is not ebony, but cocos. It
grows in the West Indies, and is used for making
flutes and similar instruments.
There Is a great call these days for Black Dia-
mond strings.
HAVE YOU A
TALKING MACHINE DEPARTMENT?
T
HEN T H E TALKING MACHINE WOULD
will be of the greatest possible service
to you. It is the only journal published
In America, devoted exclusively to
the interests of the trade which its name
indicates.
It is filled with news and
chatty items, contains a list of all month-
ly records issued by the various firms,
patents and technical articles of an In-
structive nature.
5 cents per copy
Fifty cents a year
EDWARD
LYMAN
BILL
PUBLISHER
1 MADISON AVENUE,
NEW YORK
If you desire anything in the
line of
SMALL GOODS
Something entirely up-to-date, it
will pay you to write
The Thiebes-StierliiY Musical
Instrument Co.,
ST.
LOUIS,
BLACK
1VI O .
DIAMOND
STRINGS
NEW
F»RQCESS
Are the finest manu-
factured. Used by all
prominent artists
National Musical String Co.
NEW
BRUNSWICK,
N.
J.
VARNISH OF VIOLINS.
Endeavoring to Discover the Secret of Old
Makers.
A recent publication by George Fry, F. C. S., of
London, on the varnishes of Italian violin mak-
ers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, gives a minute description of the old
violin varnishes used by the best Italian makers.
Such knowledge is of importance to the violin
and varnish maker of the present day, as it is en-
tirely out of the question to remove the varnish
from Stradivarius violins and analyze it. Mr.
Fry devotes a chapter to the influence of varnish
upon the tone of violins, in which it is shown
that it has a decided influence and that oil, rather
than spirit varnishes, are to be preferred. He
also thinks it more reasonable that the varnishes
used in Italy were made from the materials close
at hand—turpentine, linseed oil and rosin, the
latter oxidized by treatment with nitric acid than
from some remarkable mystical gum.
SOME IMPORTANT OFFERINGS.
The assurance of ample entertainment for the
Harlem and Bronx patrons of Proctor's 125th
Street Theatre is found in the announcements of
these spring weeks. Especial energy is now be-
ing devoted to the securing of the big dramatic
successes which have met with triumph on
Broadway, or in other of the two dollar houses.
Just such a play was found in the German mas-
terpiece, 'Old Heidleberg,' in which Mr. Richard
Mansfield starred with great success, which was
produced for the first time at Proctor's 125th
Street on April 24. On May 1 a slight change
from solid drama to rollicking Irish comedy will
be made with "The Shaughraun," Dion Bouci-
cault's best work. As the play on May 8, "Dor-
othy Vernon of Haddon Hall," in which Miss
Bertha Galland starred, will be produced at the
125th Street Proctor house. These are important
offerings and they require the most elaborate
stage settings. In the case of "Dorothy Vernon"
the entire original production used by Miss Gal-
land will be seen in the Proctor performances.
An assistant manager has been engaged by
R. H. Macy & Co., one of New York's prominent
department stores, as an aid to Miss Kinnear, in
the buying of musical merchandise and sheet
music. Price is the main consideration in a busi-
ness of this kind.
—THE—
WM. R. GRATZ IMPORT CO.,
11 East 22nd St., New York City,
Sole Agents for
ANTOINE COURTO1S AND BOHLAND & FUCMS 1
Band Instruments and Saxophones;
LEFEVRE, LECOMTE AND MERCAD1ER
Clarionets;
Friedrich August Helmerdlng, Chadwick, J. Strauss,
Koschat, E. Bausch, Hammig and Bauer & Durr-
schmidt's Violins and Bows; Qustav Bernadel and
Koschat Rosin; Imperial, Empress, U. S., and Grand
Solo Accordeons, and Concertinas; Empress Mouth
Harmonicas.
Catalogs forwarded on request free of charge.
Entire Stock of
REGAL
MANDOLINS, GUITARS,
and BANJOS
Selling out, while they last,
at HALF PRICE.
Write to-day for bargain list.
LYON & HEALY
CHICAGO, ILL.
—YORK—
Band Instruments
SSlfD FOR MEID
ILLUSTRATED CJtTJtLOGUB
J.W.YORK BISONS
Makmrmof tha hlghmttgradm
Be^nd Instruments
GRAND HAPIDS
MICH

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