Music Trade Review

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PLAYER SECTON
NEW YORK, MARCH 29, 1919
The Growing Importance Which Is Being Attached to Music as a Part of the
Curriculum of the Public Schools Offers an Opportunity to Open Up a New
and Immeasurably Profitable Field for the Exploitation of the Player-Piano
Chicago is having a new Superintendent of
Schools and a new chapter in the history of edu-
cational administration is to open in what pleases
to call itself, we believe, the metropolis of the
West. We might add that Chicago is some
metropolis at that, and its history, educationally,
some history. But all this does not affect the
main fact, which is that Doctor Chadsey is
among other things a very strong advocate for
the teaching of music in the schools, as a cul-
ture, as a drill and as an accomplishment. De-
troit and Denver have been former scenes of
Doctor Chadsey's labors, and they are still dis-
tinguished for the elaborate and successful part
played by music in their educational schemes.
Chicagoans may therefore look forward with
confidence to a strong revival of interest in pub-
lic school music.
Now this interest should not be academic or
confined to the individual pleasure the people of
Chicago and of the mid-West may have in the
educational improvement of their big city. It
should be partaken by all piano merchants, for
it most decidedly touches them all, and that
very closely.
The Old Idea
Public school music has undergone many
changes, and in none more than in the concep-
tion the teachers have had of it. In the begin-
ning music in the schools was a fad, pure and
simple. It began with more or less spasmodic
attempts to teach sight-singing to the children
after the Sol-Fa system of school music, which
has been so successfully worked out in Eng-
land. But singing in American schools has not
been taught with any marked success, as far as
concerns ultimate results. One supposes that
the aim of all school music must be to inspire
the child-mind with the beauty of the tone-art
and to lay the foundation for a sound taste in
this necessary cultural element.
But nobody
but a very insane optimist (and pessimists, be it
remembered, are persons who have had to live
with optimists of that kind) will suppose that
public school music teaching has rendered very
much service to American appreciation of music.
One might almost imagine that the result has
been the precise opposite to this.
But the ideals are changing, and it has come
to be seen that the function of music study in
the school is to teach the child to listen intelli-
gently above all things, and only later to teach
singing as such. American life and American
school methods teach almost everything save
listening. Now school music teachers are com-
ing to see that school music must first of all
be based upon appreciation, which means, in ef-
fect, knowing how to listen.
Where the Player-Piano Enters
Here then enters an entirely new group of in-
terests and ideas. When you introduce the ele-
ment of listening and proceed to teach this as
intelligently as yoH can, you at once introduce
the musical instrument. Now, the talking ma-
chine manufacturers have not been so foolish as
to overlook this fact.
Elaborate educational
departments have been organized, and a great
campaign carried o.n for the purpose of bringing
the talking machine into a definite living rela-
tion with the school. The element of the com-
mercial has, of course, been present, nor is there
any reason why it should not be present. But
the point to be observed is that the educational
value is there, that the talking machine has
found a place for itself in the schools and is
to-day recognized by educators everywhere as a
positive cultural weapon of positive value. The
place of the talking machine has been in the
teaching of musical appreciation, in teaching
children to listen to music ai\d to become fa-
miliar with the best that has been composed,
whether in song, symphony or any other form.
But surely what is a good field in this respect
is likewise a good field for the player-piano!
Yet we all know that the mission of the player-
piano has hardly at all been thought out in
connection with the schools. There is a field
here which the piano merchant should not only
consider, but take practical steps to master.
The "Moral Effect"
The fact that the retail demand for player-
pianos is for the moment beyond the power of
manufacturers or dealers to supply does not
mean that the present conditions will continue
indefinitely. The opening up of new fields is
just as imperative a necessity now as it has ever
been, for the days will come when business
must be sought out and hunted down once more.
But there is still another side to it. It should
not be forgotten that the moral effect, as it
were, of a player-piano in a school room is ex-
tremely great. Each child who grows to listen
understandingly to the music of a player-piano
which is teaching him or her familiarity with
good music will be at home a constant booster
for player-pianos and will be the -best possible
friend of the piano merchant.
The player-
piano in the schools will be a wonderful apostle
everywhere, both for music in general and for
the player-piano in the home.
The Need for Exploitation
But whilst he is thinking about this the mer-
chant must remember that the music roll is just
as important. And here comes in one of the
points of greatest importance. We have been
speaking about the field for the player-piano in
the schools of the country and have been sug-
gesting that the value of this instrument for
musical work in the province of education is as
big as that of the talking'machine. The point
need not be labored. The universality of the
talking machine can never compensate for the
fact that it is a reproducing instrument, while
the fact that the piano cannot reproduce sing-
ing does not alter the fact that it can be used to
unsurpassable advantage in the more intimate
parts of music teaching. Using a player-piano
the teacher of appreciation has a power over
his medium which he cannot get when he merely
puts on a record. Yet all this advantage is
lost until the case for the'player-piano is rightly
put before the educational authorities. Men like
Doctor Chadsey, who believe in good music and
in teaching it within the schools, are none too
many, and the player-piano has not had the best
of names. Yet its merits need only to be in-
telligently presented. The talking machine has
made good because its merits have had the
needed intelligent presentation. Is it not time
to try the effect of a little more organization?
The National Bureau for the Advancement of
Music might do an even more positive work in
this direction. It is a large subject, and ha-s its
complexities, but when an inviting and valuable
new field comes up for exploitation the trade
will sureiv not let it lie uncultivated.
TEL=ELECTRIC CO. DISSOLVES
preferred and common. The petition represents
that the corporation has no debts, liabilities or
assets, and that at the regular meeting of the
stockholders on February 19 it was unanimous-
ly voted to dissolve. The petition was signed
by E. F. Searles, Arthur T. Walker, William
Shillaber and Philip W. Goewey, directors. The
Tel-Electric Co. formerly manufactured the Tel-
Electric piano player, which it placed on the
market some years ago.
Application Made to Superior Court, Pittsfield,
Mass., for Formal Order to This Effect
PITTSFIELD, MASS., March 24.—The Tel-Electric
Co., organized under the laws of Massachusetts
in 1905, has petitioned the Superior Court for
dissolution. The total authorized outstanding
capital stock is $400,000, divided equally between