Music Trade Review
Issue: 1923 Vol. 76 N. 26 - Page 11
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JUNE 30,
1923
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
11
Cool Music for Summer's Sultry Days
Some oi the Compositions Recorded ior the Player-Piano Which Fit Remarkably Well When the Tempera-
ture Hovers in the Nineties—Sibelius, the Finn, and His Well-known "Finlandia"—Edvard
Grieg Whose Compositions Fit the Warmest of Summer Days
No one likes to be bored during the hot
weather and most of us would much rather go
fishing than listen to serious discussions on even
the subjects dearest to our normal hearts. For
in Summertime, especially when the temperature
is as it is while these words are being written
(92 degrees and still climbing), it is much pleas-
anter to think of anything in the world except
thought. Well, that being so, suppose we oc-
cupy a few inches of reading matter in talk-
ing about something just sufficiently close to
business to get into the columns of The Re-
view, but not close enough to hurt anyone's
brain if it be boiling too hard in one of these hot
days.
In a word, let us talk about cool music for
hot days. Of course, there is music which one
cannot talk about in a very cool way at all.
Sometimes this is because the music is warm
enough without any conversation; so warm, in-
deed, that one needs but to listen to it to feel
the temperature rising steadily to the boiling
point. Some of the modern Italian music is
rather of that kind. "Pagliacci" is fairly warm.
And "La Boheme,"even though most of its scenes
are laid in Winter, has its moments of sultri-
ness. As for "Tristan and Isolde," that second
act is enough to send any self-respecting person
to the ice box after ten minutes. And there are
others.
But though we started out to talk about mu-
sic in Summertime we did not start to describe
all the music we could think of which happens
to be peculiarly unsuitable for Summer playing
because of its mercury boosting capacities.
What we really intended to do was to talk about
just the other kind of music, the music which
is characteristically suited to Summer playing
and Summer listening just because it is not hot
at all, but very, very cool.
And there is more sense than poetry in choos'
ing all this to talk about, for those who do
understand a little bit about the action of music
upon the body know quite well that there is
everything in choosing one's musical diet wisely.
There is music which induces thoughts of the
tropics and the Khamsin of the African desert;
nor does it have to be fake Arab music, either.
Again there is music which does actually bring
one to the thought of the cool fjords of Nor-
way, the never quite warm waters of the Baltic
and even of the often ice-blocked White Sea of
northern Russia. Such music is both very in-
teresting and none too well known. It will be
cooling, at least, to talk about some of it for a
few moments.
Incidentally, those of us who have to sell mu-
sic rolls may do worse than acquire a little
knowledge about some aspects of the tone art
which are not usually set forth in text-books.
Sibelius, the Finn
Most northwesterly of the lands once includ-
ed within the Russian Empire, but now an in-
dependent republic, Finland faces the Scandi-
navian peninsula across the Baltic Sea. It is a
wild and wonderful country, where Winters are
long and painful, Summers short and delightful,
where queer superstitions color the life of the
peasants and where hardy, honest toil is the lot
of the whole race. They are workers, the Finns,
and those of us who have met them in the
United States are not unaware of their rugged
virtues. They have not produced many well-
known musicians, yet Helsingfors, their capital,
is a city of musical culture and they number
Alexander Sibelius among their musically fa-
mous names.
Sibelius has written much music which ac-
cords thoroughly with the character of his fel-
low countrymen. It is whimsical because he is
a Finn and the Finns live half their mental life
in the company of the elves, the fairies and
the demons of their superstitions and dreams.
It is mystical, for the Finns live close to their
religious ideas and are deeply reverent and pi-
ous.
It is hardy and rugged, for Finland is a
rugged, rough land, cold and bleak in its outer
aspect. It is cool when it is not cold, for the
Finn lives in a land where love is not the thing
of fury and passion it is on the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea. Withal, it is generous and
warm through all its austerity, for such is the
Finn.
Finlandia
The best-known, and probably the most eas-
ily appreciated of all Sibelius's compositions, is
his symphonic poem "Finlandia." This is an
early piece, written originally for orchestra and
well known both through its arrangement on
music rolls after two and four-hand piano scores
and through its recording on discs for the pho-
nograph. It represents the author's feelings
upon approaching his northern home after some
years spent in study and travel through the con-
tinent of Europe. He imagines himself coming
from Italy and, as he enters the harbor of Hel-
singfors, he hears the voices of his fellow-coun-
trymen singing their native songs. The pil-
grim's heart is touched and he pours out his
thankfulness at being permitted to return home
lo his bleak but well-loved native country.
Finlandia, then, is built on Finnish folk-themes
and is austere, brilliant and extremely character-
istic. The impression of fog, of ice and of sea
spray is never absent for a moment. It is music
which one loves; but not with heat or passion.
Everyone who uses the player-piano should
study the fine Melodee Music Co.'s roll of "Fin-
landia." The Q R S Co. has published four or
five excellent arrangements of Finnish songs
which are most fascinating to the music lover
on the lookout for new sensations.
No one would suspect it to look at the aver-
age American-arrived Finn that his native land
has so fine a tradition of folk music. But it
has; and, besides all that, it has musicians able
to take rank in the first class. Sibelius is, per-
haps, the greatest of these.
Exquisite Fjord-land
Norway is cool, too, but in a different way.
The exquisite blue of the waters of her long
fjords, the clear sky matching the waters in
heavenly azures, the keen-cut, ice-topped hills
coming down to the water to join the ethereal
skies at their summits, with the like-hued ele-
ment at their feet, the sense of heavenly coolness
never degenerating into bleakness or fog-bound
Winter storm, the midnight sun casting its
amazing beams over everything; such is Nor-
way, the land of Edvard Grieg, of austere love-
liness, of all that a Summer-land should be
And the music of her greatest modern musician
is Norwegian music to the last note. It, too, is
cool, exquisitely cool. It, too, sounds of spaces
and heavenly blues, of lapping waters and chaste
mountains, of clear skies and the midnight sun.
It breathes a mountain air and wanders forth
calm and free, resisting passion and shedding
abroad its pale but sufficient fires. Grieg is not
a composer for the passions. His music neither
stirs young blood to heroic foolishness nor
causes old blood those wistful sighs which tell
of past and gone youth with its divine absurdi-
ties. On the contrary, Grieg has been well de-
scribed (was it not by Rubinstein?) as a "painter
of exquisite water-colors." This, indeed, he is
and his music, therefore, is the most perfect
for those days when the physical forces lan-
guish and one wishes neither to think nor to
do, when one desires only to be a thousand
miles north of latitude 41.50. Grieg is the man
for one when those mercury-climbing days are
at hand. Let those who love music, but know
not Grieg, just try and see for themselves.
Peer Gynt
Grieg wrote almost entirely for the piano, of
which he was a master. He composed an opera
and a piano concerto, but his most characteris-
tic work is to be found in his adaptations and
transformations of Norwegian folk music,
dances and traditional airs. His various vol-
umes of short pieces, called generally "lyrics
for the piano," are lovely things. His "Erotik,"
his "Humoresque," his "Cradle Song" and the
lovely coolness of his "Morning" in the Peer
Gynt music, all go to one's heart, cool as they
are. The Peer Gynt music is probably the best
known to the general public and this, too, is
Norwegian to the last note. The "Morning,"
for instance, is supposed to represent the Egyp-
tian desert at the base of the Pyramids, where
stood the statue of Meninon, which at the mo-
ment when the rising sun had fully caught it
in its noose of light, as Omar Fitzgerald has
it, threw forth into the circumambient breeze
its mysterious notes of song. The scene is
Egypt* but the music is Norway.
As for the fascinating Troll Dance in the
same Suite, commonly called "In the Hall of
the Mountain King," Grieg is even more at
home, for the scene is now his own native land
again, whither the rascal Peer Gynt has once
more been driven by the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune. Here, and in the monot-
onously impressive "Death of Ase," Grieg is
quite wonderful.
Is it serious to argue that one should play Si-
belius and Grieg in Summer, Wagner and
Strauss (Tristand and Salome) in Winter? Well,
the reader may judge for himself. Our duty is
done.
3 Great Pianos
With 3 sounding boards
in each (Patented) have the
greatest talking points in
the trade.
Sfcamw ©3.3511941
We fix " o n e p r i c e " —
wholesale and retail.
The Heppe Piano Co.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
JUNE 30,
1923
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
11
Cool Music for Summer's Sultry Days
Some oi the Compositions Recorded ior the Player-Piano Which Fit Remarkably Well When the Tempera-
ture Hovers in the Nineties—Sibelius, the Finn, and His Well-known "Finlandia"—Edvard
Grieg Whose Compositions Fit the Warmest of Summer Days
No one likes to be bored during the hot
weather and most of us would much rather go
fishing than listen to serious discussions on even
the subjects dearest to our normal hearts. For
in Summertime, especially when the temperature
is as it is while these words are being written
(92 degrees and still climbing), it is much pleas-
anter to think of anything in the world except
thought. Well, that being so, suppose we oc-
cupy a few inches of reading matter in talk-
ing about something just sufficiently close to
business to get into the columns of The Re-
view, but not close enough to hurt anyone's
brain if it be boiling too hard in one of these hot
days.
In a word, let us talk about cool music for
hot days. Of course, there is music which one
cannot talk about in a very cool way at all.
Sometimes this is because the music is warm
enough without any conversation; so warm, in-
deed, that one needs but to listen to it to feel
the temperature rising steadily to the boiling
point. Some of the modern Italian music is
rather of that kind. "Pagliacci" is fairly warm.
And "La Boheme,"even though most of its scenes
are laid in Winter, has its moments of sultri-
ness. As for "Tristan and Isolde," that second
act is enough to send any self-respecting person
to the ice box after ten minutes. And there are
others.
But though we started out to talk about mu-
sic in Summertime we did not start to describe
all the music we could think of which happens
to be peculiarly unsuitable for Summer playing
because of its mercury boosting capacities.
What we really intended to do was to talk about
just the other kind of music, the music which
is characteristically suited to Summer playing
and Summer listening just because it is not hot
at all, but very, very cool.
And there is more sense than poetry in choos'
ing all this to talk about, for those who do
understand a little bit about the action of music
upon the body know quite well that there is
everything in choosing one's musical diet wisely.
There is music which induces thoughts of the
tropics and the Khamsin of the African desert;
nor does it have to be fake Arab music, either.
Again there is music which does actually bring
one to the thought of the cool fjords of Nor-
way, the never quite warm waters of the Baltic
and even of the often ice-blocked White Sea of
northern Russia. Such music is both very in-
teresting and none too well known. It will be
cooling, at least, to talk about some of it for a
few moments.
Incidentally, those of us who have to sell mu-
sic rolls may do worse than acquire a little
knowledge about some aspects of the tone art
which are not usually set forth in text-books.
Sibelius, the Finn
Most northwesterly of the lands once includ-
ed within the Russian Empire, but now an in-
dependent republic, Finland faces the Scandi-
navian peninsula across the Baltic Sea. It is a
wild and wonderful country, where Winters are
long and painful, Summers short and delightful,
where queer superstitions color the life of the
peasants and where hardy, honest toil is the lot
of the whole race. They are workers, the Finns,
and those of us who have met them in the
United States are not unaware of their rugged
virtues. They have not produced many well-
known musicians, yet Helsingfors, their capital,
is a city of musical culture and they number
Alexander Sibelius among their musically fa-
mous names.
Sibelius has written much music which ac-
cords thoroughly with the character of his fel-
low countrymen. It is whimsical because he is
a Finn and the Finns live half their mental life
in the company of the elves, the fairies and
the demons of their superstitions and dreams.
It is mystical, for the Finns live close to their
religious ideas and are deeply reverent and pi-
ous.
It is hardy and rugged, for Finland is a
rugged, rough land, cold and bleak in its outer
aspect. It is cool when it is not cold, for the
Finn lives in a land where love is not the thing
of fury and passion it is on the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea. Withal, it is generous and
warm through all its austerity, for such is the
Finn.
Finlandia
The best-known, and probably the most eas-
ily appreciated of all Sibelius's compositions, is
his symphonic poem "Finlandia." This is an
early piece, written originally for orchestra and
well known both through its arrangement on
music rolls after two and four-hand piano scores
and through its recording on discs for the pho-
nograph. It represents the author's feelings
upon approaching his northern home after some
years spent in study and travel through the con-
tinent of Europe. He imagines himself coming
from Italy and, as he enters the harbor of Hel-
singfors, he hears the voices of his fellow-coun-
trymen singing their native songs. The pil-
grim's heart is touched and he pours out his
thankfulness at being permitted to return home
lo his bleak but well-loved native country.
Finlandia, then, is built on Finnish folk-themes
and is austere, brilliant and extremely character-
istic. The impression of fog, of ice and of sea
spray is never absent for a moment. It is music
which one loves; but not with heat or passion.
Everyone who uses the player-piano should
study the fine Melodee Music Co.'s roll of "Fin-
landia." The Q R S Co. has published four or
five excellent arrangements of Finnish songs
which are most fascinating to the music lover
on the lookout for new sensations.
No one would suspect it to look at the aver-
age American-arrived Finn that his native land
has so fine a tradition of folk music. But it
has; and, besides all that, it has musicians able
to take rank in the first class. Sibelius is, per-
haps, the greatest of these.
Exquisite Fjord-land
Norway is cool, too, but in a different way.
The exquisite blue of the waters of her long
fjords, the clear sky matching the waters in
heavenly azures, the keen-cut, ice-topped hills
coming down to the water to join the ethereal
skies at their summits, with the like-hued ele-
ment at their feet, the sense of heavenly coolness
never degenerating into bleakness or fog-bound
Winter storm, the midnight sun casting its
amazing beams over everything; such is Nor-
way, the land of Edvard Grieg, of austere love-
liness, of all that a Summer-land should be
And the music of her greatest modern musician
is Norwegian music to the last note. It, too, is
cool, exquisitely cool. It, too, sounds of spaces
and heavenly blues, of lapping waters and chaste
mountains, of clear skies and the midnight sun.
It breathes a mountain air and wanders forth
calm and free, resisting passion and shedding
abroad its pale but sufficient fires. Grieg is not
a composer for the passions. His music neither
stirs young blood to heroic foolishness nor
causes old blood those wistful sighs which tell
of past and gone youth with its divine absurdi-
ties. On the contrary, Grieg has been well de-
scribed (was it not by Rubinstein?) as a "painter
of exquisite water-colors." This, indeed, he is
and his music, therefore, is the most perfect
for those days when the physical forces lan-
guish and one wishes neither to think nor to
do, when one desires only to be a thousand
miles north of latitude 41.50. Grieg is the man
for one when those mercury-climbing days are
at hand. Let those who love music, but know
not Grieg, just try and see for themselves.
Peer Gynt
Grieg wrote almost entirely for the piano, of
which he was a master. He composed an opera
and a piano concerto, but his most characteris-
tic work is to be found in his adaptations and
transformations of Norwegian folk music,
dances and traditional airs. His various vol-
umes of short pieces, called generally "lyrics
for the piano," are lovely things. His "Erotik,"
his "Humoresque," his "Cradle Song" and the
lovely coolness of his "Morning" in the Peer
Gynt music, all go to one's heart, cool as they
are. The Peer Gynt music is probably the best
known to the general public and this, too, is
Norwegian to the last note. The "Morning,"
for instance, is supposed to represent the Egyp-
tian desert at the base of the Pyramids, where
stood the statue of Meninon, which at the mo-
ment when the rising sun had fully caught it
in its noose of light, as Omar Fitzgerald has
it, threw forth into the circumambient breeze
its mysterious notes of song. The scene is
Egypt* but the music is Norway.
As for the fascinating Troll Dance in the
same Suite, commonly called "In the Hall of
the Mountain King," Grieg is even more at
home, for the scene is now his own native land
again, whither the rascal Peer Gynt has once
more been driven by the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune. Here, and in the monot-
onously impressive "Death of Ase," Grieg is
quite wonderful.
Is it serious to argue that one should play Si-
belius and Grieg in Summer, Wagner and
Strauss (Tristand and Salome) in Winter? Well,
the reader may judge for himself. Our duty is
done.
3 Great Pianos
With 3 sounding boards
in each (Patented) have the
greatest talking points in
the trade.
Sfcamw ©3.3511941
We fix " o n e p r i c e " —
wholesale and retail.
The Heppe Piano Co.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).