Music Trade Review

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8
THE
For the benefit of those of my readers who
imagine that I may be a gray-bearded old man
delving into the records of a misty past, the
"Man on the Street" insisted that my photograph
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
designer who possesses a knowledge of color har-
mony extraordinary opportunities to produce
effective results.
As a consequence of these modern innovations
the title page of to-day is really an art print in
which the dominant feature is, or should be,
simplicity, for I have long claimed that how-
ever fanciful a design may be, and however
many colors may be used in its printing, with
out simplicity it is utterly ineffective.
There are two distinct styles of title pages in
apparent in the production of the modern title general use, the "illustrated title," which should
page. I think that I am safe in saying tell the story of the song, and the "decorative
that ten years ago Edgar Keller was just title," which depends solely upon its beauty of
as talented an artist as he is to-day— design and color scheme to attract attention.
not as finished perhaps—but the wonder-
ful creative genius which he has displayed
for years in designing the Witmark title pages
must have been just as apparent a decade ago.
Again, take Starmer, Etherington and Frew, who
like myself are "free lances," designing for any-
body who wishes to engage our services; their
versatility has surely not come to light in a day.
The question is naturally asked them, "to what
source is due the marvelous artistic strides made
in the modern title page?" and the answer lies
in the fact that the credit is largely due to the
improvement in mechanical production.
While this advance has, of course, been in line
with the steady improvement wrought in the
allied trades of printing and engraving, the pres-
TITLE I'AUE OF TEN YEARS AGO.
LINE TITLE 1'AGE OK TO-DAY.
should grace—or disgrace—the following record,
which he suggested I write for The Review read-
ers, whose knowledge of title pages necessarily
begins and ends with the selling quality of the
song, which is inserted within. • Having made
this apology, I will proceed with my subject.
At the outset, let it be clearly understood that
I am not going to endeavor to prove that the
title page sells the song, but I am convinced that
it attracts a prospective purchaser to look over a
good unknown song which would otherwise be
Either style of title, no matter how well executed,
must possess simplicity in its design. Other-
wise the use of color only tends to produce a
complicated effect which is anything but effec-
tive, and oftentimes extremely unattractive. This
fact became apparent to me in the early days
of my career, and I was not slow to discover
that the study of color effect was valuable not
alone from an art standpoint, but from" a prac-
tical printer's standpoint as well. Probably the
hardest lesson that I ever mastered was that
MARIOTCft
DARLING 3U
GENE RUCK.
ent elaborate title pages used on "popular" pub-
lications, are also directly attributable to the
latter-day competition among the music publish
ers, for, as I have pointed out, it has been
proven beyond a shadow of doubt that the artis-
tic title page has a substantial effect in bringing
a song to public notice.
Much of the credit for the development of
sheet music titles must be accorded to the two
firms of Leo Feist and Jerome H. Remick. The
latter, when proprietor of the Whitney-Warner
Publishing Co., of Detroit, was the first Ameri-
can publisher to encourage the value of art—
and by art I mean draftsmanship—as a factor in
his business. The example thus set was quickly
followed by the leading American publishers,
not one of whom to-day would think of bringing
out a popular number dressed in the old style
MODERN HALF-TONE TITLE PAGE.
of cover.
passed by unnoticed. And so, having committed
Prior to the year 1900 scroll designs of black
myself to an assertion that I originally intended and white, with simple lettering, predominated.
to keep for the close of my article, I will pro- The different mediums of reproduction being
ceed with as little delay as possible to take a lithography, steel engraving and printing from
retrospective tour over the past ten years, and wood cuts. These methods have been supplanted
compare the title pages of a decade ago with by printing from zinc etchings and copper plates.
those of to-day.
Of the latter the now famous tricolor half-tone
Let it not be supposed that the artist alone is process represents the highest state of perfec-
responsible for the vast improvement which is tion that has yet been attained, it offering the
COMBINATION IN LINE AND HALF-TONE.
the creations of the world's greatest artistic
geniuses were "great" because of their wonderful
simplicity, and it later became evident to me
that simplicity was also a safe course, when I
found I had to depend almost entirely on the
printer and engraver for my finished product.
This brings to mind the fact that the engraver
plays no small part in the production of the
title page, for without good plates it is utterly