Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
OCTOBER 29,
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1921
Wherein the Editor of This Player Section Gives Vent to Timely Thoughts
on Topics of Interest and Importance to the Musical Instrument Industry,
Hoping That He Who Reads May Not Run From the Ideas Presented
That Foreign-speaking Trade
The Q R S Music Co. is sending out to the
trade something new in the way of roll bulle-
tins, that is to say, it is publishing a series of for-
eign language bulletins devoted to Hungarian,
Polisih, Bohemian, German, Italian and Spanish
music in roll form. The innovation will be wel-
come to every dealer who has, or has oppor-
tunity to obtain, foreign-speaking trade. We
certainly are not one with those who believe that
foreign ^speaking inhabitants of the U. S. A.
oug'ht to be compelled, if possible, to subject
themselves to a compulsory process of "Ameri-
canization," meaning by that, in practice, a
process of destroying the native culture they
have brought with them from their far-distant
homes, without leaving anything in its place
except a superficial covering of American clothes
and New York or Chicago slang. Americaniza-
tion is an admirable ideal, but it cannot be forced
on foreign-born and foreign-speaking inhabitants
by any external process. Least of all can it
be forced on them by denying their right to
their own native culture and native speech. For
no matter how we force or try to force them to
adopt new ideas their old ideas remain with them
much longer than is commonly supposed, while
the new ideas obtain only the most superficial
contact with their mentalities. Americanization
of the alien can be attained but slowly. Mean-
while the whole nation would be richer if the
old native culture, especially in connection with
the arts, and, above all, in music, were encour-
aged, tended and cultivated.
Not Rubbing It In—But
Speaking of rolls leads us also to remark that
the close and essential relationship between the
prosperity of the player-piano trade and the
prosperity of the roll trade is becoming at least
clear to all parties. It is about time. Without
any desire to be rude or to put on airs we are
unable to conceal from intelligent readers our
satisfaction on learning that the industry is be-
ginning to see collectively what we told it years
ago and have been telling it ever since persist-
ently. For years this paper, and especially this
Player Section, has filled columns and columns
with expostulations, reproof, appeal and reason
on this matter. We have pointed out, till we
knew the arguments by heart, that the way to
sell player-pianos is to sell the desire for music
and the means for meeting that desire, and that
in consequence before a player-piano can be sold
the customer must have been convinced on the
all-importance of the music and must be trained
to expect to continue buying music from the day
the instrument is delivered and set up in the
home. Yet we all know, unhappily, that the cus-
tomer usually does not act at all as if the train-
ing had ever "taken" and are tempted to inquire
if there usually has ever been any training at all.
The right way to relieve the slackness of player-
piano sales is to encourage the sale of fresh new
music, music which will renew the interest of
those who already possess player-pianos and
therefore substitute for an apathetic and indiffer-
ent lot of possessors a live, satisfied and
pleased lot.
The Fool-proof Player
The very interesting and illuminating article
which Frederick Ede contributes to the Auto
matic Department of this Player Section this
month brings uj> once more the ever-growing im-
portance of the automatic player-piano in all
its various forms. There is evidently a growing
need for the services of thoroughly competent
repair men throughout the entire field, and it is
a most unfortunate fact that so far the attention
of tuners has been turned in any direction save
this one. There is a rather common idea afloat
among practical men to the effect that the au-
tomatic player-piano in its various forms is a
great deal more complicated and mysterious
than the ordinary player-piano and that therefore
a special course of training is needed in order
to fit a man to take care of automatic instruments
in the field. Of course, this belief is wholly er-
roneous. The electrical troubles are so infre-
quent that they may be said to be negligible, and
when they do occur the cause is nearly always
the gross carelessness or neglect of the owner.
But apart from this, which is hardly work worth
considering, the pneumatic part of the automatic
player is usually simpler and more strongly con-
structed than any other form of pneumatic in-
strument whatever. The automatic has to stand
rough usage and its pneumatic action is con-
structed with that knowledge in view. Hence,
it usually excels in simplicity and complete adap-
tation to the work it is to perform. If all tuners
realized this there would be less difficulty in get-
ting adequate service in outlying districts. Manu-
facturers in general will probably agree that if
the general body of tuners were able and willing
to look after automatic instruments, so that
these could be left to them with the same confi-
dence as is now felt in regard to pianos and
foot-power player-pianos, the expense of sell-
ing automatics would be reduced and there
would be more sales.
History's Lesson
Statistics on the early history of the player
industry are very incomplete and defective, so
that apparently it is not possible to give any
satisfactory answer to the question of how many
players in one form or another have been solid
and are in use since, say, 1896. The original
cabinet players had the field alone for some five
years, but after 1901 their vogue rapidly de-
clined before the onslaught of the irresistible
player-piano. It is a fact that, despite the ter-
rible unwieldiness of these early player-pianos,
and despite, too, their extreme inconvenience in
every respect from the point of view of the re-
pairman, the cabinet player never had a chance
against them. Yet, without doubt, a good cabi-
net action with, say, a fine grand piano, was ex-
tremely efficient and not especially inconve-
nient. Of course, the inevitable abandonment of
the sixty-five-note scale must have led to the
scrapping of many cabinet and interior sixty-
five-note players. The effective life of even
those old instruments was wonderfully long. We
have seen ancients of the kind still working,
haltingly and wheezingly, but not otherwise in-
efficiently, after twelve years of hard service.
Perhaps it is not possible to give more than a
not very close approximation to the number of
players actually in use or which have been made
at one time or another, but it is certain that
more than enough have been made, sold and
used to justify wonder that their musical in-
fluence has not been greater. And therein lies
the crux of the whole question. They have un-
doubtedly had their good effect, but they have
not had a large enough or good enough effect
upon the musical practices of the people. Has
not this been due to lax and unintelligent meth-
ods of selling? And would not a return to the
better methods which characterized the early
days perhaps lead us to something like the tri-
umphs of those days?
TH REE OCLOCK
HORNING
jl
It's
three
o' clock in the
morn
-
ing,