Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1928-10)

24 The Phonograph Monthly Review October, 1928 opera and then objects to paying $1.50 a record for an operatic performance superior to any he is likely to hear in the opera house is neither a good sport nor a good business man. I hope the moral is obvious to everyone. New York City, N. Y. Edward C. Harrolds LECTURE RECORDS Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: I have not yet observed any mention in your pages of what I believe to be the most significant recordings of the present season, the lecture records of the “International Educational Society,” published by the English Columbia Company. Here is an event of world wide interest, of vital educational and historical value. While I have not yet had the pleasure of actually hearing them (my order is probably now on the way from England), the English reviews and the names of the speakers testify incontrovertibly to their merit. To date fifteen lectures have been issued each occupying two double-sided twelve-inch records, with the exception of the first lecture, which occupies only one. The English price is four shillings, sixpnse (roughly $1.08) apiece. The sub- jects are as follows: 1. Specimen Passages from Latin Authors as a Guide to Correct Pronunciation, By Prof. R. S. Con- way (Victoria University, Manchester). 2. An Introduction to Virgil, by Prof. Conway. 3. The New Russia, by the Rt. Hon. H. A. L. Fisher (New College, Oxford). 4. Shake- spearean Recital, by Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson. 5. What is History? by Sir Charles Oman (Oxford). 6. What History Means to Man, by Sir Charles Oman. 7. Man’s Outlook on History, by Sir Charles Oman. 8. Good Speech, by Walter Ripman. 9. Somes Aspects of Eighteenth-Century England, By Prof. George Trevelyan (Cambridge). 10. The Speaking of Verse, by John Drinkwater. 11. Thomas Hardy, by the late Sir Edmund Goose. 12. Latin Pronunciation, by Prof. Conway. 13. The Stars—Spring, by Prof. H. H. Turner (Oxford). 14. The Stars—Summer, by Prof. Turner. 15 Chemical Messages, or the Wireless of the Body, by Prof. J. Barcroft (Cambridge.) The “International Educational Society” was formed for the purpose of “establishing an interchange of lectures and , lectures courses given by scholars of all nations. The' Society is in no sense a commercial undertaking, and any profits made will be devoted to the foundation of scholarships and to the furtherance of education . . . Although primarily intended!I for educational purposes, the records will be available forJ the general public . . . Each lecture, though complete injf itself, will in great majority of cases, form part of a course.”^ The names of the lecturers and their subjects, and the| outline of the aims of the Society will surely give weight to my first statements regarding the significance of these records. Imagine hearing George Trevelyan, John Drinkwater, Ed- mund Gosse, and Forbes-Robertson talk on the subject for which they are world famous. The others scholars are less well-known, but obviously they are thoroughly complete authorities. Are the activities of this Society soon to be extended to America? Let us devoutly hope both that these records will soon be issued here and that others of a similar nature will be made by various American scholars and authorities. The possibilities are limitless, particularly in the field of music, where piano illustrations (as in Dr. Stokowski’s lecture records) could be used. Lectures on instrumentation and orchestration, harmony, counterpoint, ear trainng, musical history and appreciation, etc., could be made uncommonly effective. Such new developments as these lecture records and the “Audio Graphic” rolls for player pianos indicate that the educational significance of sound reproducing instruments has as yet barely begun to be exploited! I trust that the public response will be such as to encourage their rapid growth and elaboration. Washington, D. C. Historian MORE RUSSIAN RECORDINGS Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: The letter on unrecorded Russian music from the Music Lover in distant Shanghai and the suggestions for recordings by Mr. Benedict of New York City were of special interest to me in last month’s Correspondence “Column.” I disagree with the latter, however, in his praise of Ravel’s Rhapsodie Espagnole, a work of extreme thinness and not to be compared with the same composer’s Daphnis et Chloe suites, or even the Tombeau de Couperin, both of which deserve first consideration for recording. To the splendid Russian list I should like to add Moussorg- sky’s Night on Bald Mountain (re-recording), Rachmaninoff’s Island of the Dead, and Rimsky Korsakoff’s Fairy Tale and .possibly his and Scriabin’s Piano Concertos. Liadow’s Dance lof the Amazon has already been recorded (acoustically) by jStokowski (Victor 1112), and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony is liust out by the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra from the I Brunswick Company. When—and if—Serge Koussevitsky begins to record, we j should have a real flood of Russian works in superb per- Jformances! iMelrose, Mass. N. S. N. Dance Music With Character An Interview with Leo Reisman, Exclusive Columbia Artist B OSTON is more than mildly proud of its finest dance orchestra, and when the Colum- bia Company arranged to celebrate Leo Reisman’s return from a triumphant season at the Waldorf-Astoria roof garden, New York, with a special "Leo Reisman Week”, The Phono- graph Monthly Review thought the occasion an appropriate one for publishing a few words on the man who has won international repute for his achievements in elevating jazz into the sphere of unmistakable music . Mr. Reisman is an ex- ample of the sincere artist who tills his own garden and works out his own development—sud- denly to find that the world is coming to him to admire and study his work. He has not made a circuit of the globe to demonstrate his talents, but his fame has traveled for him, and if when distinguished musicians visit Boston they turn their steps first to Symphony Hall, their next object is the Egyptian Room of the Hotel Bruns- wick where Leo Reisman and his orchestra have played with unceasing and increasing success for lo! these many years. Mr. Reisman lacked the time to write a few works of his own on the future of jazz and the de- velopment of an ideal dance music, but at the Hotel Brunswick, in the intervals between his performances, I was able to draw him out on the subject of the ideals which animate his work and which have won for it the fervid acclamation of such musicians of note as Loeffler, Milhaud, Ravel, Dr. Davison of the Harvard Glee Club, and many others. Mr. Reisman talks as he wields the baton— with enthusiasm, insight, and a quiet force that commands attention and thought. In his ideas on music as in his music itself he identifies him- self as an artist of sensibilities, striving toward a definite, idealistic, and yet logical goal.