Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
10
THE
COINOLAS
Supremacy thru their
Performance
Tiny Coinola
Durability that has
defied the years
Reproduco Player Organ
Known Values
Proven Satisfaction
Your territory may be open
Manufactured by
The Operators Piano Co.
715 N. Kedzie Ave.
Chicago
Illinois
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
SEPTEMBER 20,
1924
The Reproducing Piano as an Aid to
the Teacher of and Pupil in Dancing
Well-known Dancing Teacher Strongly Endorses the Welte-Mignon (Licensee) Reproducing
Piano for Use in Studio—DeLuxe Brings Out Rolls Edited by Pavlowa for This Work
' I A HE remarkable fidelity with which the
Welte-Mignon (Licensee) reproducing ac-
tion records the playing of master pianists is
well known to nearly every one to-day with
even a remote understanding of music. The
number of pianos equipped with this action that
have gone into homes is legion.
Recently, however, the growth in the use
by professional dancers of Welte-Mignon
(Licensee) reproducing pianos has been so
rapid as to mark a new phase in their utility.
Dancers of fame, and many others of lesser
note, are using them on the stage, while danc-
ing teachers are finding them exceptionally val-
uable and convenient in the studio.
Last season at the Apollo Theatre in Chicago
when the Adolph Bolm Ballet gave a recital,
M. Bolm himself danced the "Revolutionary"
etude, Op. 10, No. 12, by Chopin, as played by
the Baldwin Welte-Mignon (Licensee). On the
same occasion Anna Ludmila, prima ballerina
of his company, also danced to the same instru-
ment Liszt's "Licbestraum." Adolph Bolm was
formerly of the Imperial Russian Ballet of
I'etrograd, the Diaghilefr Ballet and the Metro-
politan Opera House, New York, and is now
director of the Chicago Civic Opera Ballet. In
speaking of the use of the Baldwin Welte-Mig-
non (Licensee) for dancing he said: "The height
of creative art, to dance to the actual playing
of so many great pianists. For the artist then:
is nothing more finished and exact than this
marvelous instrument."
At the Auditorium in Chicago last April, when
the San Carlo Opera Co. gave a series of
operas, the Baldwin Welte-Mignon (Licensee)
was also used. The Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet
was engaged by Director Fortune Gallo for the
divertissement, and Serge Oukrainsky danced
Grieg's "Algerian Dance" as rendered by this
instrument. A few evenings later, with the
same instrument playing the "French Polka," by
Jesscl, Andreas J'avley danced, assisted by Mile.
Dagmara.
According to a statement recently published
by the Baldwin Co., the Pavley-Oukrainsky
Ballet, which is to appear with the Chicago
Civic Opera this season, is the third great ballet
to select the Baldwin Welte-Mignon (Licensee)
for use in its public recitals.
There are now 103 well-known makes of
pianos equipped with the Welte-Mignon
(Licensee), and many of them are being used
by dancers of note at their public appearances
;md for rehearsals.
The De Luxe Reproducing Roll Corp., which
makes all the records for Welte-Mignon
(Licensee), has been expanding and dividing its
recordings into well-defined groups of musical
composition, classic and popular, including ac-
companiments, and music for ballroom, ballet
and interpretative dancing. Many of the record-
ings of this latter group have been made under
the personal direction of Anna Pavlowa, con-
ceded to be the greatest dancer that ever lived.
It is the authoritative character of these record-
ings that is gaining for the Welte-Mignon
(Licensee) recognition in the dancing profes-
sion throughout the country.
An Interesting Sidelight
A very interesting sidelight on the use of
these instruinents in dance studios is given in
an article that appeared in a recent issue of
The Music News. This paper interviewed Es-
tella Flanders Green, director of the Green
Music and Dancing Studios in Chicago, who
divulged some important facts concerning the
serviceability of the Welte-Mignon (Licensee)
in the dance studio. This is what Mrs. Green
said:
"I was more or less skeptical at first as to
how successfully a reproducing piano could be
used to replace an accompanist in all the details
of a dancing studio. But with the co-operation
of one of the large piano manufacturers our
experiment proved successful far beyond our
expectations. We found that numerous problems
with which we had been confronted disappeared.
A student, after once hearing the roll played,
knew just exactly what to expect each time
thereafter that she went over her dance, as the
reproducing roll was infallible, never varying
its interpretation. With few exceptions, our
pupils were greatly enthused over it, and in a
number of instances made special requests that
they be permitted to dance to the reproducer on
our programs; not because of the novelty of it,
but because a reproducer is not temperamental,
and the dancer on the stage knew that the in-
terpretation, tempo, and every detail of the ac-
companiment to her dance would be exactly the
same as when she learned it in the studio, or
practiced it in her home."
Mrs. Green has compiled a set of dancing
tcchnic rolls for the De Luxe Reproducing Roll
Corp. consisting of seventeen, including over a
hundred excerpts from the classics suitable for
dancing in classrooms and for student practice,
covering bar work, center practice, combina-
tions, adagios, folk dances and Mother Goose
melodies.
Convenience in Repetition
"In teaching a pupil to dance it is frequently
necessary to repeat a short musical phrase ten
or a dozen times," said Mrs. Green. "Very well
—now we will stop the music," she touched a
switch, and the music stopped on the last note
of a phrase. Touching another lever the roll
rewound, and then the switch started the music
again on the same note as before. She repeated
this several times, always starting and stopping
on the desired note. She was asked by the in-
terviewer how she controlled the instrument so
perfectly, and she pointed to markings and nota-
tions on the perforated roll which show where
the dancing phrases correspond to the musical
phrases.
Mrs. Green pointed out a serious problem in
dancing studios which is overcome by the repro-
ducing piano when she said: "I have had many
wonderful accompanists, but they won't stay;
they all give up the work—say the classes arc
too heavy, and constant repetition becomes too
monotonous, and they claim the work is ruin-
ous to their technic."
And speaking of the De Luxe Reproducing
Roll Corp. Mrs. Green had this to say: "The
fact that one of the largest companies in the
country was enthusiastic enough to co-operate
heartily should prove its interest. As a matter
of fact, I have been engaged for the coining
season by several of the large piano houses to
give 'demonstration evenings' for their patrons.
These evenings are to include a combined per-
formance of professional and student dancing,
both solo and ensemble, with a reproducing in-
strument as sole accompanist. Also a dem-
onstration of class work with the tcchnic rolls."
Opera at Story & Clark's
A crowd of nearly a hundred persons gath-
ered in front of the F"ifty-seventh street ware-
rooms of the Story & Clark Piano Co. on
Tuesday afternoon, September 9, to listen to
the first ensemble rehearsal of members of the
English Grand Opera Co. in the recital hall
on the third floor of the piano establishment.
The English Grand Opera Co., which has lately
endorsed the Story & Clark grand piano for all
of its purposes, will continue to rehearse in the
warerooms during the coming opera season.
This will naturally prove a source of interest
and attraction to visitors,