Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
AUGUST 7,
1920
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
PUBLIC PRESS SHOWS GROWING APPRECIATION OF MUSIC
WEBER CO. CASE PUNT EXPANDS
Editorial Recently Published in the New York Sun Anent Annual Convention of the National
Association of Organists Pays an Impressive Tribute to Music and Musical Instruments
Weber Piano Co. to Take Over Farmer Factory
of M. S. Wright Co., in Worcester, to Pro-
vide Additional Room for Case Making
Daily newspapers generally have for some
time past displayed a new appreciation of music
and the instruments that make music in the
handling of their news and editorial matter.
The New York Sun particularly has found on
several occasions that certain musical matters
were worthy of editorial comment, and has dis-
played that tendency most interestingly in con-
nection with the recent convention of the Na-
tional Association of Organists. The editorial,
written by a man evidently well acquainted with
the importance of the organ of to-day, reads,
under the caption, "An Art and an Industry
Great and Growing":
"Two of the most interesting conventions
held recently in New York City were those of
the National Association of Organists, a society
in which many of the American masters of this
magnificent instrument hold membership, and
of the Organ Builders' Association. These as-
semblies served to direct attention to the no-
table growth of popular interest in the art of
the organist.
"It is not too much to say that the most
famous organs of a generation ago, fine as
they were, would be regarded as primitive in-
struments to-day, not in their tonal qualities
but in their range and equipment, were they
put in comparison with the present products
of the successors of their builders. In no in-
dustry has greater thought been given to the
application of modern scientific devices to
familiar methods than in organ construction.
As a matter of fact, practically every great
organ in the country is a modern organ, in that
it has been rebuilt in accordance with up-to-date
practice and mechanically made new.
"While the installation of organs in churches,
lodge rooms and other places of assembly of a
similar character has gone forward at an accel-
erating pace as the country has grown in num-
bers and wealth, two factors have contributed
materially to the extension of the organ indus-
try. The more important of these is the de-
mand of motion picture theatres for a musical
instrument of wide range and flexibility, con-
trolled by a single performer, to provide the
accompaniments for the displays on the screen.
The number of motion picture houses in Amer-
ica having organs of first-class construction and
capacity is remarkable. In many of them per-
formers of high skill are engaged. There is, in
fact, a wealth of fine organ music, programs
frequently attaining the standard of those pro-
vided in formal recitals, for patrons of the mo-
tion pictures, which means practically the whole
population of the land.
"It would not be fair to speak of this aspect
of the organist's profession without remarking
the ingenuity and good taste shown by individ-
ual performers in fitting music to pictures.
While music directors of acknowledged ability
employed by the picture producers prepare sug-
gestions for the guidance of the men at the
theatre keyboards, the organists frequently
allow their own conceptions of the pictures
before them to dictate their interpretative selec-
tions and in so doing add greatly to the interest
of the production.
"Motion picture theatre managers often pro-
vide special programs for their patrons, and
numbers repeated by request are a feature of
practically all performances.
Invitations to
audiences to sing the choruses of familiar songs
or of songs undergoing commercial advertise-
ment often produce extraordinary effective sing-
ing. As the accompanying instrument to com-
munity singing the organ is positively un-
rivaled.
"Organs are naturally selected by individuals
and organizations for erection as memorials,
and the monuments of this nature which have
been built and are building have greatly in-
creased the proportion of fine instruments in
the country. It should be borne in mind that
a fine organ need not be a large organ physi-
cally. The problem of the builder is to fit the
instrument to the room in which it is to be used.
The musical possibilities of a relatively small
or medium-sized instrument enlist the skill of
the most accomplished organist, and the results
obtained by an artist at the keyboard will thrill
every lover of music whatever the dimensions
of the mechanism he operates."
PIANOS SELLING IN PORTLAND
Ampico Featured in Concerts and Many Sales
Are Made—Large Organ for Columbia Theatre
PORTLAND, ORE., July 28.—The Ampico, with
the Knabe, was heard in Tillamook, Ore., on
the evening of July 20, with Miss Leah Leaska,
dramatic soprano, as vocalist. The Ampico ac-
companied Miss Leaska in a number of her
songs and also played some remarkable solos,
reproducing the works of celebrated pianists.
H. H. Princehouse, of Lipman, Wolfe & Co.,
looked after the setting up of the instrument and
arranged the stage settings, which were very
artistic.
To sell a Hallet & Davis Virtuolo player-piano
and a Chickering concert grand both in one day
is pretty good business for hot July weather,
says Wm. A. Hodecker, of the Seiberling-Lucas
Music Co. Mr. Hodecker made these sales early
in the week, the player-piano to the "Volunteers
of America" and the Chickering to Mrs. Knight,
a prominent musician of Portland and conductor
of the orchestra of the Monday Musical Club.
Business at G. F. Johnson's has materially im-
proved this week. A number of pianos were sold
by J. F. Matthews and H. L. Stoner and some
Chickering Ampico sales have been almost com-
pleted. Prospects are very good now and July
is ending much better than was expected.
The Columbia theatre has given an order for
a three-manual Wurlitzer organ to be installed
during the month of August.
A three-manual orchestral organ is the largest-
sized instrument possible to put in an auditorium
the size of the Columbia. The new Columbia
organ will resemble in many ways the one put
in the Majestic Theatre of this city only last
year.
GETS STOCK OF INSTRUMENTS
Wm. F. Lamb, Pottstown, Pa., Merchant, Con-
ducts Successful General Music Store
POTTSTOWN, PA., August 2.—William F. Lamb,
proprietor of Lamb's Music Store, piano
and Victor dealer of this city, recently returned
from New York, where he succeeded in secur-
ing several carloads of instruments, including
Janssen players, Becker Bros, and Stultz &
Bauer pianos and Premier baby grands. Mr.
Lamb is very successfully conducting his busi-
ness on the general music house idea and re-
ports that his musical merchandise and sheet
music departments are also proving very suc-
cessful, this in spite of the fact that one of the
stores of a large five and ten cent syndicate
with- ten cent sheet music adjoins his ware-
rooms. Previous to his visit to New York,
Mr. Lamb had made a tour of the country ex-
tending as far as the Pacific Coast with the
Rajah Shrine Band of Reading, Pa., in which
he plays a B. B. bass Sousaphone. He is also
leader of Lamb's Orchestra, a large and well-
known ensemble of musicians in this section.
WORCESTER, MASS., July 31.—The piano case
manufacturing activities of the Weber Piano Co.,
New York, which have been conducted at a
plant in this city for some time past, are to
be materially expanded as a result of the taking
over by the Weber Co., a subsidiary of the
Aeolian Co., of the former plant of the M. S.
Wright Co., manufacturers of vacuum cleaners,
player-piano parts, etc., who had moved to their
new works on Tremont street.
The Weber Piano Co. will take over the for-
mer Wright plant on September first, and it is
expected at that time to increase its working
force from 200 to 300 hands. The present plant
of the Weber Co. contains about 100,000 square
feet of floor space, and the latest acquisition will
provide 65,000 additional feet, for which a full
equipment of new machinery will be provided
at once.
The enlargement of the case manufacturing
business is in line with the general program of
expansion being carried on by the Aeolian Co.
in the various departments of its great busi-
ness.
EXPLOITING CLARENDON PIANO
Instrument Made for Many Years by Haddorff
Piano Co. Handled by Many Dealers—To Be
Featured Very Extensively in the Future
The Haddorff Piano Co., of Rockford, 111.,
is exploiting somewhat more extensively than
formerly the Clarendon piano, which has been
made by them for the last twenty years. Ac-
cording to E. W. Furbush, manager of the
Chicago office, this piano has had a very large
production for a long time, and is sold by many
of the largest and most representative dealers
in the country. "The Clarendon piano," said
Mr. Furbush this week to a representative of
The Review, "represents splendid value, as may
be attested to by many representative dealers
throughout the country who have sold it for
many years. This instrument- embodies many
individual characteristics which have made it
a particularly easy seller and has an enviable
reputation from Coast to Coast."
EXCELLENT KROEGER PUBLICITY
Kxoeger Piano Co. Using Envelope Stuffer Con-
taining Extract From Speech of Gen. Boyle
on the Need for Greater Production
STAMFORD, CONN., August 1.—The Kroeger Piano
Co. of this city is using an envelope stuffer in
its mail which contains some very excellent food
for thought. It is entitled "Our Common In-
terest" and runs as follows:
"The one product the world over that seems
plentiful is talk. If in place of strikes and lock-
outs an epidemic of lockjaw and work should
suddenly afflict us the present hysteria that now
afflicts us would subside. On the platform, in
the pulpit, on the street corner, in legislative
halls, in the newspapers and magazines, all we
find is words, words, words. The people and
industry need steel, lumber, coal, shoes, clothing
and food. These needs can be supplied in but
one way, and one way only—production. The
only way production can be secured is through
work. This includes the man at the desk as
well as the man at the lathe. The mandate 'In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread' is a
little old fashioned but nevertheless it comes to
us from excellent authority."
The paragraph is an extract from a speech
which was recently delivered by Gen. L. C.
Boyle, Washington, D. C.