Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MUSIC TMDE
1
^£=>J[
PLAYER SECTION
NEW YORK, AUGUST 25, 1917
i\!^
The Advent of the Hand-Played Roll Gave an Invaluable Stimulus to the
Player Industry, and the Time Is Now at Hand When the Sales of Music Rolls,
Both Straight-Cut and Hand-Played, Should Be Handled More Intelligently
Any one who cares to take the trouble of look-
ing can find abundant evidence that the most
constructive minds of the player business are
fully convinced of the necessity for taking the
player-piano seriously.
In the current issue
of the Standard Player Monthly, published by
the Standard Pneumatic Action Co., there is
an article reproduced from a London newspaper
which is in effect an able and conclusive argu-
ment for artistic recognition of the player-piano,
and which shows that the serious side of this
kind of music making is being more and more
understood abroad. In fact, it is only neces-
sary to look up the English newspapers to find
that the player-piano is taken quite seriously by
an ever larger section of the intelligent public.
And what is more to the point, it is the personal-
control player, as well as the reproducing player,
which is being considered in this way.
The "Hand-Played"
It will generally be admitted that the advent
of the hand-nlayed roll saved the player-piano
from oblivion. The straight-cut roll, in the
personal opinion of the present writer, and from
his personal point of view, is preferable; but
to the vast mass of the musically uninstructed
public, the hand-played roll presents the only
possible way, universally applicable and entirely
simple of giving, with the player-piano, the one
remaining need for the production of good
music; namely, correct phrasing, and, generally,
accurate musical conception.
Now it must be obvious to the meanest intel-
lect that every kind of player-piano that can
be imagined is benefited by the existence of
such a roll as this. The hand-played roll has
been a great success, technically, musically and
artistically. Yet how little its possibilities have
been realized!
The original thought that prompted the re-
searches which finally developed the hand-
played roll was undoubtedly found in the help-
lessness of most persons before an instrument
which is able to produce any kind of music you
want; but to which you must, as it were, indi-
cate your wants first. The truth is that, whilst
we are all passively musical, most of us are not
actively so at all. We all like to listen to
music, but most of us are perfectly helpless
when it is a matter of translating, our feelings
into practical fact. We can feel, but we cannot
act. Give us a straight-cut music roll, which
must be phrased and grouped and treated ex-
pertly, and we are helpless.
We pump it
through at "any old" tempo; and then wonder
why we don't like good music.
The coming of the\tyand-played roll has changed
all this. It is now possible for the most timid
music lovers to obtain first class results in the
vital element of musical interpretation. And it
follows from this that the other elements are
also strengthened and their comprehension
made easier; for the reason that when the funda-
mental phrasing of a composition has once been
given, the accents and emphasis suggest them-
selves to any one who is not positively devoid
of all musical feeling. For every reason there-
fore that can be suggested the untrained music-
lover needs the hand-played roll.
Helping the Student
A further idea follows from the above con-
siderations. The player pianist who knows
something about the management of his in-
strument but who wishes to become better ac-
quainted with the interpretation of good music
in general can do nothing better than study
the ideas of the best artists on these subjects.
Where better can he find these ideas, for his
purpose at least, than in the hand-played rolls?
Obviously, even if a player pianist has already a
library of straight-cuts, he can be made into a
steady buyer of hand-played duplicates in this
manner, if good salesmanship is used on him.
The Reproducing Piano
In the face of all these facts, it is not sur-
prising that the reproducing piano has appeared
on the scene. Nor is it surprising that many
dealers believe that piano to be destined to
supersede all others of the player type. What
the future has in store we know not. Perchance
the day will come when a first-class reproducing
piano will be at the disposal of every family in
the land. Yet, even if that happy consummation
were to be reached, it is plain that we should
gain nothing and lose much by taking away the
player-piano of personal control. Foot-pump-
ing may be abolished, if you will; but personal
control will have to be retained if the intelli-
gence of the nation is to be attracted to the
player-piano. Perhaps the ideal instrument will
be a combination of both types, probably elim-
inating foot pumping, but putting something
else in place of that method, something else
equally efficient.
To put the matter in a nutshell, it is clear
that the hand-played roll has been a blessing
to the player-piano, and it is equally clear that
the reproducing piano has also had, and will
have even more in the future, a most beneficial
influence; especially in making intelligible to the
uninstructed music-lover a wealth of fine music
that otherwise would be almost wholly neg-
lected by him.
But when we turn to the other side of the
picture the view is not so pleasant. It is an
accusation frequently brought against the retail
trade that they take the ingenious inventions of
the manufacturers and sell them across the
counter with precisely as much interest as they
would use to sell so much soap. Now, one
of the hardest things in the world is to inspire
ordinary routine-workers with true enthusiasm
over matters or goods of extraordinary inge-
nuity. The ordinary man cannot comprehend
completely the beauties of a fine hand-played
roll; and hence he will immediately ask that a
roll easier to sell be given him.
Therefore,
of course, we have the familiar whine that we
are not "giving the plain people what they
want"; which is simply another way of saying
that we are not giving the salesman what he
wants. When we try to please the salesman
we find that he wants only what he can under-
stand; which in itself is all right. But what he
can understand is very generally something
which takes all the value out of the hand-played
roll or the reproducing piano. In a word, he
understands only the cheap sort of music and so
insists that he be given only hand-played rolls
of that music to sell.
No doubt there is a place for all the jazz,
and rag, and saxo rolls that can be turned out.
But is anybody really happy over selling noth-
ing but this sort of stuff? Does the dealer feel
that this sort of stuff is really helping the sale
of fine player-pianos? Is it not plain that rolls
of this kind which we are offering for sale be-
cause they sell easily are really doing more
harm t o . the player-piano than all the repro-
ducing pianos can undo in the next hundred
years? What is the use of advertising the finest
of reproducing pianos, for instance, when we
are selling only that class of music? What is
the use of trying to persuade our customers to
buy a Welte-Auto or an Ampico or a Duo-Art
or Artrio or any of them, if we cannot pretend
to take any intelligent interest in any of the
music which really forms the only excuse for
the manufacture or exploitation of any such in-
strument? There would be no reproducing
pianos for popular music alone! If the pos-
sibility of making fine music intelligible had not
been present from the first, there would never
have been any incentive for building any re-
producing piano at any time!
Selling Better Music
It is for this reason that one feels the neces-
sity for urging dealers to pay more attention
to the sale of the best in hand-played and repro-
duction music. If there ever was a time when
(Continued on page 5)