Presto
Issue: 1920 1787 - Page 27
PRESTO
October 23, 1920.
27
REALiSMUTtSONG CENSOR
VISIBLE RESULTS
An Attempt to Separate the Wheat from the
Chaff in the Harvest Fields of Music
During the Past Unproductive Years.
By T. ROGERS LYONS.
Science tells us that once in every seven years
the human body is entirely remade. During that
time there is a complete change.
In seven years there have been almost as many
changes in the sheet music business as science says
there are in the human animal. There has been
only one thing that has not changed, and that is
"popular music." It's just as inane, unfit, useless,
demoralizing, unmusical, unharmonious and gener-
ally contemptible as it ever was.
The most noticeable change is that the sheets are
about one-half the original size—mostly abbreviated
to two sheets—and the price has doubled—or more
Some Dear Departed.
As one casts his eye over Hit Alley he looks in
vain for the erstwhile "million-copy-hit producers"
of seven years ago. Stern, Harris, W. B. & S., and
possibly one or two others, have lasted the seven
years as publishing concerns. Many hundreds have
come up and gone down in that time. Possibly in
all these seven years all of the hit-pubs have put
forth 500,000 "hits," but not one single copy of the
mass, or mess, has outlasted its own promotion cam-
paign. During all this time rag-time has been de-
based into jazz and in turn has been murdered, and
no one has yet concocted any lower order of melodic
atrocity. So jazz continues to die its lingering and
unnatural death while it flaunts its syncopated, un-
measured cavortive and contorted agonies from the
burlesque and vaudeville stage.
During all that time there has been the greatest
patriotic display of a century. There was a world's
war, and while pulpit, press and public united in
lifting up the morale, and the moral tone of the
world at large, and of the U. S. A. in particular, the
motley melodists of Hit Alley alone insulted the flag
and the manhood of this country and the woman-
hood of the U. S. A. with its attempts to make
money out of harrowing conditions. And out of
the whole great opportunity they did not create one
great song. Not one thing of pop-appeal did they
produce that will live for time to come to stir the
hearts and minds of future generations.
One Redeeming Note.
Just one offering is whistled and sung today, just
one of the mass is with us yet. The musical ap-
peal of "Till We Meet Again" is, perhaps, a tempo-
rary exception to what has been said. But where,
oh, where are the "Marseillaise," "The Star-Spangled
Banner," the martial, soul-stirring, nation-wide son;?
of either encouragement or triumph? Some Hit Al-
leyite will answer, "Jonnie's In Town," "Goodbye
Alexander" in the same tone of voice in which Wolff
Gilbert wrote to the National Anthem Association
of New York, in 1912: "I consider 'Waiting for the
Robert E. Lee' the national anthem of the South.' "
If in later years some statistician wishes to work
out a puzzle, it might be interesting to have him
figure out just what has become of all the issues of
pop-pub-presses that have been spread around the
country—the billions upon billions of copies oi}
wasted paper that are here today, then gone forever;
that have been used and misused since Harris wrote
"After the Ball." Well, after that bawl was over
some one else opined that he could do it worse, and
it has been proceeding, in a rag-jazz progression,
ever f eince. And where has this senseless rage
brought any one? What sheet of music, so-called,
has lived? What sentiment has been expressed that
has lived to benefit anyone, except to add to our
already overburdened dictionary of slang?
What good has all this effort, and expenditure of
money accomplished? As an economic proposition,
has it not been one of the greatest failures of the
world, financially, lyrically and musical 1 y?
Seven Years' Effect on Pianos.
History repeats., so does the present writer. In the
very first utterance, made seven years ago, that found
favor in the eye of the editor of this trade journal,
the following paragraph appeared:
"Why should this continual flow of debased music
and senseless wording interest the piano man? Be-
cause it is just the thing that is making piano-play-
ing unpopular. People are not going to sit in rap-
tures while Susie drums out 'Everybody's Doing It'
and the rest of that class of repertoire. Therefore,
the piano manufacturer and the piano dealer are, or
should be, interested in providing worth-while music
for musical instruments."
Music teachers should see that the product is such
as will inspire the student to better accomplishment.
It would take an auditor of rare skill to compute the
amount of damage that trashy stuff has done the
piano industry. That music itself has not become a
byword and a hissing is, perhaps, largely due to the
player and phonograph, where the public can get the
classics and the old masters and -those few things of
today that are good for their entertainment and edu-
cation. Every piano man knows that every owner
of either of the record-playing instruments has a
large collection of the good as well as the flow of
popular stuff.
The Sum Total.
And the real result of the last seven years in
music publishing seems to be that the present music
lover has been given the mechanical means of cling-
ing to that which is good in spite of the modern flow
of slush and stuff. And it is a matter of congratula-
tion that we have held on to even that when we are
tempted to adopt the more modern standard which,
perhaps, can not ever be any worse than it has been
in the last seven years. And it is getting no better
fast.
DEALERS ARE WARNED.
Since the Music Publishers' Protective Association,
with offices in the Columbia Theater Building, New
York, issued its warning a few weeks ago, a good
deal of information about the practices of the music
thieves and receivers of stolen music has been re-
ceived. Sheet music dealers were told in the original
warning sent abroad, to make sure of the source of
the sheet music offered at suspiciously low prices be-
fore closing transactions. The sum of $1,000 was of-
fered for information and evidence leading to the ar-
rest and conviction of persons or firms guilty of
knowingly receiving, buying or selling stolen or
counterfeited music of any member of the associa-
tion.
COMPOSER OPENS SHOP.
The Song and Gift Shoppe, Rochester, N. Y., was
opened last week under the management of Lew
Berk, a former Rochester man, who was engaged in
song writing and publishing before .the war.
The Sheet Music Dealer, Watchful of the Reputation
of His House, Does Effective Work.
"After all the sheet music dealer is the best cor-
rective of any unusual flow of so-called popular
songs of a suggestive or plainly salacious nature.
They always have had an unofficial censorship over
the distribution of the questionable songs," said a
Chicago dealer this week.
"It is true that in the past the smut song has been
regularly produced by music publishers with a mis-
taken estimate of the tastes of the public. The best
protectors of the public morals and the public taste
have been the keen and watchful buyers for the retail
counters. In the big and little towns here and there
the sheet music dealers have been closer to the public
than the wise guys of Hit Alley.
"It makes no difference what the dealer's motives
were or are. His disinclination to handle the ques-
tionable songs may be attributed to a fine feeling or
to mere jealous regard for the reputation of his
house. Whether it proceeded or still proceeds from
high-mindedness or pure selfishness, the effects were
and are beneficial. It is a fact that the smut song
has decreased in the volume of its production not
because of the growth of virtue in the sheet music
publishers but because the old reliable sheet music
retailers frowned at it."
AUSTRALIAN DEALERS.
In a trade directory of South Australia recently
issued by the Department of Commerce, the follow-
ing are listed as sheet music dealers in Adelaide:
Allans, Ltd., Gertie Campbell, Cawthornc & Co.,
Cole's Book Arcade, E. T. Collins, James Marshall
& Co.. Ltd.; S. Marshall & Sons, Charles Moore &
Co.; Rigby, Ltd.; William Saunders and Woodman's
Music Store.
JENNY LIND'S BROTHER.
Little of the glory of his famous sister has come
to the life of Claes Gustave Wilhelm Lind, superin-
tendent of an apartment house at 302 East Fourth
street, New York. He says he never saw his famous
sister, who left home before he was born. He was
29 years younger than the great soprano, and was
born in 1849, the year of her first great success.
A McKINLEY WINNER.
"Do You?" the fox trot novelty ballad of the Mc-
Kinley Music Co., Chicago and New York, is a num-
ber that made a sensational start and keeps up a
sales pace that is amazing to even the veterans of
sales departments.
If you are not handling the
McKINLEY EDITION OF
10c MUSIC
Comprising Standard,
Classic and Teaching Music
you are losing an opportunity to make money
Dealers Realize
A National Song Hit
That finds its way into the Hearts of the
People is
„„—-=^—
"AMERICA! FIRST and fORMR"
"Our Greatest Song of Praise"
Song Leaders and Supervisors of Music Laud
Its Power to Strengthen Americanism.
It is full of pep. 18 cents. Order Now.
Corinthian Music Co.
Had ley, Illinois
Copies may be secured thro' Lyon & Healy, Chicago, and
Plaza Music Co., New York.
ATTENTION MUSICIANS!
Send for a copy of "Dixie Life Rag." Full of pep.
You'll like it. Price one dime.
FRANK E. BROWN
Dept. F.
37 Burton Street, WALTON, NEW YORK
150% PROFIT
On Sales of McKinley Music
It is the most popular library of 10c music
on the market. Selections contained in this
Edition are used by the most prominent
teachers in the country — Students, Accom-
plished Musicians, and the Music Loving
Public in general.
It is conveniently handled; arranged in
compact form, and is labor saving in serving
the customers.
The dealer is supplied with catalogs bear-
ing the business imprint which serves to
bring more customers to the store than any
other advertising medium that could be em-
ployed.
WRITE US FOR SAMPLES AND PAR.
TICULARS TODAY
Our Jobbing Department is the largest and
most complete in the country. We can sup-
ply you with every want in the sheet music
line. We fill all orders the day they are
received.
McKinley Music Company
The Largest Sheet Music Housm
in the World
CHICAGO
1501-13 E. 55th St.
NEW YORK
145 W. 45th St.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
October 23, 1920.
27
REALiSMUTtSONG CENSOR
VISIBLE RESULTS
An Attempt to Separate the Wheat from the
Chaff in the Harvest Fields of Music
During the Past Unproductive Years.
By T. ROGERS LYONS.
Science tells us that once in every seven years
the human body is entirely remade. During that
time there is a complete change.
In seven years there have been almost as many
changes in the sheet music business as science says
there are in the human animal. There has been
only one thing that has not changed, and that is
"popular music." It's just as inane, unfit, useless,
demoralizing, unmusical, unharmonious and gener-
ally contemptible as it ever was.
The most noticeable change is that the sheets are
about one-half the original size—mostly abbreviated
to two sheets—and the price has doubled—or more
Some Dear Departed.
As one casts his eye over Hit Alley he looks in
vain for the erstwhile "million-copy-hit producers"
of seven years ago. Stern, Harris, W. B. & S., and
possibly one or two others, have lasted the seven
years as publishing concerns. Many hundreds have
come up and gone down in that time. Possibly in
all these seven years all of the hit-pubs have put
forth 500,000 "hits," but not one single copy of the
mass, or mess, has outlasted its own promotion cam-
paign. During all this time rag-time has been de-
based into jazz and in turn has been murdered, and
no one has yet concocted any lower order of melodic
atrocity. So jazz continues to die its lingering and
unnatural death while it flaunts its syncopated, un-
measured cavortive and contorted agonies from the
burlesque and vaudeville stage.
During all that time there has been the greatest
patriotic display of a century. There was a world's
war, and while pulpit, press and public united in
lifting up the morale, and the moral tone of the
world at large, and of the U. S. A. in particular, the
motley melodists of Hit Alley alone insulted the flag
and the manhood of this country and the woman-
hood of the U. S. A. with its attempts to make
money out of harrowing conditions. And out of
the whole great opportunity they did not create one
great song. Not one thing of pop-appeal did they
produce that will live for time to come to stir the
hearts and minds of future generations.
One Redeeming Note.
Just one offering is whistled and sung today, just
one of the mass is with us yet. The musical ap-
peal of "Till We Meet Again" is, perhaps, a tempo-
rary exception to what has been said. But where,
oh, where are the "Marseillaise," "The Star-Spangled
Banner," the martial, soul-stirring, nation-wide son;?
of either encouragement or triumph? Some Hit Al-
leyite will answer, "Jonnie's In Town," "Goodbye
Alexander" in the same tone of voice in which Wolff
Gilbert wrote to the National Anthem Association
of New York, in 1912: "I consider 'Waiting for the
Robert E. Lee' the national anthem of the South.' "
If in later years some statistician wishes to work
out a puzzle, it might be interesting to have him
figure out just what has become of all the issues of
pop-pub-presses that have been spread around the
country—the billions upon billions of copies oi}
wasted paper that are here today, then gone forever;
that have been used and misused since Harris wrote
"After the Ball." Well, after that bawl was over
some one else opined that he could do it worse, and
it has been proceeding, in a rag-jazz progression,
ever f eince. And where has this senseless rage
brought any one? What sheet of music, so-called,
has lived? What sentiment has been expressed that
has lived to benefit anyone, except to add to our
already overburdened dictionary of slang?
What good has all this effort, and expenditure of
money accomplished? As an economic proposition,
has it not been one of the greatest failures of the
world, financially, lyrically and musical 1 y?
Seven Years' Effect on Pianos.
History repeats., so does the present writer. In the
very first utterance, made seven years ago, that found
favor in the eye of the editor of this trade journal,
the following paragraph appeared:
"Why should this continual flow of debased music
and senseless wording interest the piano man? Be-
cause it is just the thing that is making piano-play-
ing unpopular. People are not going to sit in rap-
tures while Susie drums out 'Everybody's Doing It'
and the rest of that class of repertoire. Therefore,
the piano manufacturer and the piano dealer are, or
should be, interested in providing worth-while music
for musical instruments."
Music teachers should see that the product is such
as will inspire the student to better accomplishment.
It would take an auditor of rare skill to compute the
amount of damage that trashy stuff has done the
piano industry. That music itself has not become a
byword and a hissing is, perhaps, largely due to the
player and phonograph, where the public can get the
classics and the old masters and -those few things of
today that are good for their entertainment and edu-
cation. Every piano man knows that every owner
of either of the record-playing instruments has a
large collection of the good as well as the flow of
popular stuff.
The Sum Total.
And the real result of the last seven years in
music publishing seems to be that the present music
lover has been given the mechanical means of cling-
ing to that which is good in spite of the modern flow
of slush and stuff. And it is a matter of congratula-
tion that we have held on to even that when we are
tempted to adopt the more modern standard which,
perhaps, can not ever be any worse than it has been
in the last seven years. And it is getting no better
fast.
DEALERS ARE WARNED.
Since the Music Publishers' Protective Association,
with offices in the Columbia Theater Building, New
York, issued its warning a few weeks ago, a good
deal of information about the practices of the music
thieves and receivers of stolen music has been re-
ceived. Sheet music dealers were told in the original
warning sent abroad, to make sure of the source of
the sheet music offered at suspiciously low prices be-
fore closing transactions. The sum of $1,000 was of-
fered for information and evidence leading to the ar-
rest and conviction of persons or firms guilty of
knowingly receiving, buying or selling stolen or
counterfeited music of any member of the associa-
tion.
COMPOSER OPENS SHOP.
The Song and Gift Shoppe, Rochester, N. Y., was
opened last week under the management of Lew
Berk, a former Rochester man, who was engaged in
song writing and publishing before .the war.
The Sheet Music Dealer, Watchful of the Reputation
of His House, Does Effective Work.
"After all the sheet music dealer is the best cor-
rective of any unusual flow of so-called popular
songs of a suggestive or plainly salacious nature.
They always have had an unofficial censorship over
the distribution of the questionable songs," said a
Chicago dealer this week.
"It is true that in the past the smut song has been
regularly produced by music publishers with a mis-
taken estimate of the tastes of the public. The best
protectors of the public morals and the public taste
have been the keen and watchful buyers for the retail
counters. In the big and little towns here and there
the sheet music dealers have been closer to the public
than the wise guys of Hit Alley.
"It makes no difference what the dealer's motives
were or are. His disinclination to handle the ques-
tionable songs may be attributed to a fine feeling or
to mere jealous regard for the reputation of his
house. Whether it proceeded or still proceeds from
high-mindedness or pure selfishness, the effects were
and are beneficial. It is a fact that the smut song
has decreased in the volume of its production not
because of the growth of virtue in the sheet music
publishers but because the old reliable sheet music
retailers frowned at it."
AUSTRALIAN DEALERS.
In a trade directory of South Australia recently
issued by the Department of Commerce, the follow-
ing are listed as sheet music dealers in Adelaide:
Allans, Ltd., Gertie Campbell, Cawthornc & Co.,
Cole's Book Arcade, E. T. Collins, James Marshall
& Co.. Ltd.; S. Marshall & Sons, Charles Moore &
Co.; Rigby, Ltd.; William Saunders and Woodman's
Music Store.
JENNY LIND'S BROTHER.
Little of the glory of his famous sister has come
to the life of Claes Gustave Wilhelm Lind, superin-
tendent of an apartment house at 302 East Fourth
street, New York. He says he never saw his famous
sister, who left home before he was born. He was
29 years younger than the great soprano, and was
born in 1849, the year of her first great success.
A McKINLEY WINNER.
"Do You?" the fox trot novelty ballad of the Mc-
Kinley Music Co., Chicago and New York, is a num-
ber that made a sensational start and keeps up a
sales pace that is amazing to even the veterans of
sales departments.
If you are not handling the
McKINLEY EDITION OF
10c MUSIC
Comprising Standard,
Classic and Teaching Music
you are losing an opportunity to make money
Dealers Realize
A National Song Hit
That finds its way into the Hearts of the
People is
„„—-=^—
"AMERICA! FIRST and fORMR"
"Our Greatest Song of Praise"
Song Leaders and Supervisors of Music Laud
Its Power to Strengthen Americanism.
It is full of pep. 18 cents. Order Now.
Corinthian Music Co.
Had ley, Illinois
Copies may be secured thro' Lyon & Healy, Chicago, and
Plaza Music Co., New York.
ATTENTION MUSICIANS!
Send for a copy of "Dixie Life Rag." Full of pep.
You'll like it. Price one dime.
FRANK E. BROWN
Dept. F.
37 Burton Street, WALTON, NEW YORK
150% PROFIT
On Sales of McKinley Music
It is the most popular library of 10c music
on the market. Selections contained in this
Edition are used by the most prominent
teachers in the country — Students, Accom-
plished Musicians, and the Music Loving
Public in general.
It is conveniently handled; arranged in
compact form, and is labor saving in serving
the customers.
The dealer is supplied with catalogs bear-
ing the business imprint which serves to
bring more customers to the store than any
other advertising medium that could be em-
ployed.
WRITE US FOR SAMPLES AND PAR.
TICULARS TODAY
Our Jobbing Department is the largest and
most complete in the country. We can sup-
ply you with every want in the sheet music
line. We fill all orders the day they are
received.
McKinley Music Company
The Largest Sheet Music Housm
in the World
CHICAGO
1501-13 E. 55th St.
NEW YORK
145 W. 45th St.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).