Music Trade Review
Issue: 1926 Vol. 82 N. 15 - Page 11
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
APRIL !(), 1926
Rachmaninoff Pays Tribute to Ampico
in Developing American Musical Culture
Contrasts Lack of Facilities Open to the European Child for Development of Musical Talent
With Those Which the American Child Enjoys—The Re-enacting Instrument's Part
A N unusually interesting interview with
" ^ Sergei Rachmaninoff, the famous pianist,
who makes his home in New York when not
on tour, was published late last week in the
Evening Sun. In the course of the interview
the pianist paid particular tribute to the element
of action in the lives of the average Americans
and what it had accomplished in the matter of
progress. As an example of this characteristic
Mr. Rachmaninoff commented on what had been
done for the cause of music through the de-
velopment of those mediums for reproducing
the interpretations of the great artists for the
benefit of the layman.
"Europe is a country of legend," said Mr.
Rachmaninoff. "But the United States is spir-
itually free and dominates everything by its
reality. The European may or may not be more
musical, for instance, but there are three times
the opportunities for musical expression in this
country, especially among the mass of the peo-
ple. Suppose a little Italian boy or French,
English, Spanish or German boy has an in-
stinct for the piano, but if his parents possess
only common means it is unlikely that he will
get a chance. There are no free music schools
and music settlement houses. His family prob-
ably does not own a piano, neither does his
uncle or his grandfather. He will have the
hunger for expression and it will ripen in him
and enrich his emotions, but it will also germi-
nate fully. Here the practical surroundings for
cultural development are without parallel. The
child is interested and intrigued to artistic ex-
pression on every hand, and all that needs fos-
tering is belief in the beauty to be derived
by the individual from these opportunities.
"I wish to speak of another indebtedness
which the world owes to American ingenuity.
If it were not for the inventive genius that made
possible the Victrola and the Ampico and
kindred re-enacting instruments the art of the
virtuoso musician would continue to be lost.
Up to this age performing artists lived but
in their day. They were only known to those
who heard them personally and after their death
posterity kept alive reputations for a little
while in memory and thereafter fame persisted
only as a legend handed down. Liszt has come
down to us in this way and Paganini and Rub-
instein. We have no concrete evidence of them.
"Yet living art is not satisfied to become
legend. It is a pretty sort of immortality but
drained of life, and art cries out that it wants
to live. But now for the first time in human his-
tory the art of the performing artist will live
on after him in complete evidence and fidelity
to the artist.
"I remember a saying that was made famous
by Rubinstein. He said that he himself was
only a soldier as a pianist, but that Liszt was a
field marshal of the pianoforte. But it is hard
to have absolute credence in the verdicts of
the past without proof. The future, however,
will have our playing for comparison, for in-
spiration and as a landmark for progress in
musical achievement.
"Our present age is stigmatized as a mechan-
ical, commercial age, and temperamentally art-
ists are opposed to it, and yet I doubt if any
other age has done as much for the general
popularity of art. We musicians especially are
for every one. We perform for the asking
through the medium of a few rolls on a re-
enacting instrument. We are bought in the
shops as one buys a book, and the purchaser
uses us at his pleasure. This is revolutionizing
artistic perception. If the family circle hears
music, music every day and has the best musi-
cians for entertainers, it becomes a certainty
that the general knowledge and appreciation will
become markedly superior to what it has ever
been.
"Jazz is a sign of musical vitality of crude
inner yearnings," concluded Mr. Rachmaninoff.
"It is simple to cry down its merits, but on the
other hand it undoubtedly springs out of gen-
uine creative restlessness. If there were no
promptings of national genius jazz would not
have come to life."
Settergren Go. Doubles
Knabe Pianos Installed in
Factory Floor Space
New Baker Hotel, Dallas
Knabe Grand Also Used in Radio Broadcasting
Studio Atop of New Hostelry—Sale of Instru-
ments Made by Sanger Bros.
Bluffton Manufacturer of Grands States In-
creased Demand Has Made Larger Factory
Space a Necessity
The new Baker Hotel, Dallas, Tex., has been
equipped with Knabe pianos by Sanger Bros.,
of that city, the local Knabe representatives.
Included in the instruments sold to the hostelry
The B. K. Settergren Co., manufacturer of
baby grands and Welte-Mignon (Licensee) re-
producing grands, Bluffton, Ind., has sent out
a special announcement to the trade stating that
with the increasing demand for its products the
company has found it necessary to double the
factory floor space.
In increasing the factory space a number of
important changes have been made to provide
for economical production, with the result that
there has been a noticeable decrease in overhead.
Greater facilities for an increased production
schedule are also had.
As evidence of the growing demand for Set-
tergren grands the company says: "During the
last year one prominent Atlantic Coast mer-
chant sold 135 of our grands, another Eastern
dealer sold 165, one in the Middle West dis-
posed of 120, one in the South sold 150, two on
the Pacific Coast handled 160 and 220 respec-
tively, and a number of dealers throughout
the country bought from twenty to sixty."
Baker Hotel Broadcasting Station
is a special grand in a handsome walnut case
which has received high praise from the guests
and the management. A Knabe grand has also
been installed in the broadcasting station at the
Baker Hotel.
11
The Music Trade Review
New Store in Osceola, la.
OSCEOLA, IA., April 5.—Benjamin Fleet, of La-
moni, has leased the Lewis Building on the
North side of the square, where he has opened
an up-to-date music store. Mr. Fleet has in-
stalled a full line of pianos and player-pianos in
addition to small goods and musical accessories.
The quarters have been fitted up in an attractive
manner.
Beito Beseler Opens Store
NACOGDOCHES, TEX., April 3.—Beito Beseler has
opened a new music store on the mezzanine
floor of Kennedy's Drug Store, and will operate
same under the name of Beseler's Music Shop.
Mr. Beseler has recently purchased the Bruns-
wick phonograph and record stock of the Orton
Furniture Store and will handle the Brunswick
agency in his new store. In addition, he has
organized a sheet music department and a musi-
cal merchandise department, featuring Buescher
band instruments.
New Forest Council Members
WASHINGTON, D. C, April 5.—Three new mem-
bers of the Northeastern Forest Reserve Coun-
cil have been appointed by the Secretary of
Agriculture and are as follows: Franklin Moon,
dean of the New York State Forestry School,
Syracuse, N. Y.; E. M. Lewis, of the Massachu-
setts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass., and
George T. Carlisle, of Bangor, Me. The
Northeastern Forest Research Council advises
the Secretary of Agricultture on forestry mat-
ters in New York and New England States, in-
cluding the correlation of forest research in
that region, 'and advice as to projects conducted
by the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station.
A. H. Jenks & Son, Victor dealers of Mt.
Morris, N. Y M have sold their business to J. Lee
Foltz.
Pratt Read
Products
P i a n o Ivory
Piano Keys
Piano Actions
Player Actions
Established in
1806
at Deep River, Conn.
Still There
Standard Service and Highest
Quality
Special Repair Departments
Maintained for Convenience
of Dealers
PRATT, READ & CO.
THE PRATT READ
PLAYER ACTION CO.
Oldest and Best
APRIL !(), 1926
Rachmaninoff Pays Tribute to Ampico
in Developing American Musical Culture
Contrasts Lack of Facilities Open to the European Child for Development of Musical Talent
With Those Which the American Child Enjoys—The Re-enacting Instrument's Part
A N unusually interesting interview with
" ^ Sergei Rachmaninoff, the famous pianist,
who makes his home in New York when not
on tour, was published late last week in the
Evening Sun. In the course of the interview
the pianist paid particular tribute to the element
of action in the lives of the average Americans
and what it had accomplished in the matter of
progress. As an example of this characteristic
Mr. Rachmaninoff commented on what had been
done for the cause of music through the de-
velopment of those mediums for reproducing
the interpretations of the great artists for the
benefit of the layman.
"Europe is a country of legend," said Mr.
Rachmaninoff. "But the United States is spir-
itually free and dominates everything by its
reality. The European may or may not be more
musical, for instance, but there are three times
the opportunities for musical expression in this
country, especially among the mass of the peo-
ple. Suppose a little Italian boy or French,
English, Spanish or German boy has an in-
stinct for the piano, but if his parents possess
only common means it is unlikely that he will
get a chance. There are no free music schools
and music settlement houses. His family prob-
ably does not own a piano, neither does his
uncle or his grandfather. He will have the
hunger for expression and it will ripen in him
and enrich his emotions, but it will also germi-
nate fully. Here the practical surroundings for
cultural development are without parallel. The
child is interested and intrigued to artistic ex-
pression on every hand, and all that needs fos-
tering is belief in the beauty to be derived
by the individual from these opportunities.
"I wish to speak of another indebtedness
which the world owes to American ingenuity.
If it were not for the inventive genius that made
possible the Victrola and the Ampico and
kindred re-enacting instruments the art of the
virtuoso musician would continue to be lost.
Up to this age performing artists lived but
in their day. They were only known to those
who heard them personally and after their death
posterity kept alive reputations for a little
while in memory and thereafter fame persisted
only as a legend handed down. Liszt has come
down to us in this way and Paganini and Rub-
instein. We have no concrete evidence of them.
"Yet living art is not satisfied to become
legend. It is a pretty sort of immortality but
drained of life, and art cries out that it wants
to live. But now for the first time in human his-
tory the art of the performing artist will live
on after him in complete evidence and fidelity
to the artist.
"I remember a saying that was made famous
by Rubinstein. He said that he himself was
only a soldier as a pianist, but that Liszt was a
field marshal of the pianoforte. But it is hard
to have absolute credence in the verdicts of
the past without proof. The future, however,
will have our playing for comparison, for in-
spiration and as a landmark for progress in
musical achievement.
"Our present age is stigmatized as a mechan-
ical, commercial age, and temperamentally art-
ists are opposed to it, and yet I doubt if any
other age has done as much for the general
popularity of art. We musicians especially are
for every one. We perform for the asking
through the medium of a few rolls on a re-
enacting instrument. We are bought in the
shops as one buys a book, and the purchaser
uses us at his pleasure. This is revolutionizing
artistic perception. If the family circle hears
music, music every day and has the best musi-
cians for entertainers, it becomes a certainty
that the general knowledge and appreciation will
become markedly superior to what it has ever
been.
"Jazz is a sign of musical vitality of crude
inner yearnings," concluded Mr. Rachmaninoff.
"It is simple to cry down its merits, but on the
other hand it undoubtedly springs out of gen-
uine creative restlessness. If there were no
promptings of national genius jazz would not
have come to life."
Settergren Go. Doubles
Knabe Pianos Installed in
Factory Floor Space
New Baker Hotel, Dallas
Knabe Grand Also Used in Radio Broadcasting
Studio Atop of New Hostelry—Sale of Instru-
ments Made by Sanger Bros.
Bluffton Manufacturer of Grands States In-
creased Demand Has Made Larger Factory
Space a Necessity
The new Baker Hotel, Dallas, Tex., has been
equipped with Knabe pianos by Sanger Bros.,
of that city, the local Knabe representatives.
Included in the instruments sold to the hostelry
The B. K. Settergren Co., manufacturer of
baby grands and Welte-Mignon (Licensee) re-
producing grands, Bluffton, Ind., has sent out
a special announcement to the trade stating that
with the increasing demand for its products the
company has found it necessary to double the
factory floor space.
In increasing the factory space a number of
important changes have been made to provide
for economical production, with the result that
there has been a noticeable decrease in overhead.
Greater facilities for an increased production
schedule are also had.
As evidence of the growing demand for Set-
tergren grands the company says: "During the
last year one prominent Atlantic Coast mer-
chant sold 135 of our grands, another Eastern
dealer sold 165, one in the Middle West dis-
posed of 120, one in the South sold 150, two on
the Pacific Coast handled 160 and 220 respec-
tively, and a number of dealers throughout
the country bought from twenty to sixty."
Baker Hotel Broadcasting Station
is a special grand in a handsome walnut case
which has received high praise from the guests
and the management. A Knabe grand has also
been installed in the broadcasting station at the
Baker Hotel.
11
The Music Trade Review
New Store in Osceola, la.
OSCEOLA, IA., April 5.—Benjamin Fleet, of La-
moni, has leased the Lewis Building on the
North side of the square, where he has opened
an up-to-date music store. Mr. Fleet has in-
stalled a full line of pianos and player-pianos in
addition to small goods and musical accessories.
The quarters have been fitted up in an attractive
manner.
Beito Beseler Opens Store
NACOGDOCHES, TEX., April 3.—Beito Beseler has
opened a new music store on the mezzanine
floor of Kennedy's Drug Store, and will operate
same under the name of Beseler's Music Shop.
Mr. Beseler has recently purchased the Bruns-
wick phonograph and record stock of the Orton
Furniture Store and will handle the Brunswick
agency in his new store. In addition, he has
organized a sheet music department and a musi-
cal merchandise department, featuring Buescher
band instruments.
New Forest Council Members
WASHINGTON, D. C, April 5.—Three new mem-
bers of the Northeastern Forest Reserve Coun-
cil have been appointed by the Secretary of
Agriculture and are as follows: Franklin Moon,
dean of the New York State Forestry School,
Syracuse, N. Y.; E. M. Lewis, of the Massachu-
setts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass., and
George T. Carlisle, of Bangor, Me. The
Northeastern Forest Research Council advises
the Secretary of Agricultture on forestry mat-
ters in New York and New England States, in-
cluding the correlation of forest research in
that region, 'and advice as to projects conducted
by the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station.
A. H. Jenks & Son, Victor dealers of Mt.
Morris, N. Y M have sold their business to J. Lee
Foltz.
Pratt Read
Products
P i a n o Ivory
Piano Keys
Piano Actions
Player Actions
Established in
1806
at Deep River, Conn.
Still There
Standard Service and Highest
Quality
Special Repair Departments
Maintained for Convenience
of Dealers
PRATT, READ & CO.
THE PRATT READ
PLAYER ACTION CO.
Oldest and Best
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