Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 10 (1930-07)

336 The Phonograph Monthly Review July, 1930 The Progress of Mechanical Entertainment in Europe By HARRY ALAN POTAMKIN New instruments v Phonography in France y A radiophonic art S ABANEEV, founder of the Russian Institute of Musical Sciences, has,said: “Our age is the triumph of technics. We see their invas- ion of the jinusical art—an art essentially remote from the material plane. As a matter of fact, there is nothing abnormal in this; music has al- ways been developed in very close contrast with technics, and its whole evolution has depended upon material causes. Examples are not far to seek: the expansion of music, its beginning, cor- responds with the invention of the mensural sys- tem, which is a contrivance of a purely technical, and not of a musical or creative, order. Then we see a fresh outburst of creative fertility coinciding with the invention of music-printing,- another technical phenomenon. What would mu- sic have been if the organ and keyed instruments had not been invented? The keyboard in com- bination with the tempered scale alone made Bach possible, and there is nothing ‘creative’ in these. The mighty expansion of pianoforte mu- sic in the nineteenth century is the direct result of the invention of the new type of instrument which supplanted the clavecin. The makers of the violin—the celebrated Stradivarii and Amat- is—originated the violin literature of the ‘hero- ic’ period of fiddle virtuosity. The invention of chromatic trumpets created the orchestration of Berlioz and Wagner, and the whole of the new orchestral technique. All along we see that the technical plane influences the creative, fructify- ing it and providing it with new means of crea- tion.” If mechanized art needed at this late hour historical justification, here it is. But the use of a thing is its justification. How is the mechani- cal art or entertainment being used? I shall speak here of certain evidences of the interest (and interest is eventually progress) in the me- chanical forms that seem worthy. The specialized cinemas of Paris (called “ar- ties” in America) have in recent years instituted mechanical accompaniments to the film. The houses that have done this are three: Studio 28 in Montmarte, Cine-Latin in the Latin Quarter, and Les Agriculteurs in the St. Lazare section. Studio 28 uses two electrically worked gramo- phones in alternation (two machines are used for the same reason that two projectors are em- ployed: to provide uninterrupted succession) and an electric piano for variety. A conductor, M. Fontaine, operates and selects the music. The piano music is provided by the perforated rolls of the Associated Composers, who include the leading modernists. The music issues from re- cesses in the right wall of the auditorium. At Cine-Latin an electro-magnetic Melodium is op- erated behind a folding screen to the left fore- corner of the movie,screen, but the music issues from a loud-speaker placed behind the movie screen. At Les Agriculteurs the music of Odeon records issues from two loud-speakers to either side of the silver-sheet. The reception of this mechanical accompaniment is indicated by the fact that for the several new little cinemas plan- ned such music is included. From the accom- paniment now rendered, one may make these de- ductions : that of the Studio 28 has the virtue of variety, and suggests the possible future me- chanical orchestra, with the addition of other in- struments, like the small unit organ; the accom- paniment at Les Agriculteurs has the virtue of modesty, and all musical accompaniment must serve humbly and not distract from the visual ac- tivity; the accompaniment is often too loud and too intrusive and, as in the case of the sound- film, vocal music is inserted to accompany non- verbal images, an incongruity. (Parenthetically, I say that while this is in the instance of the silent films an incongruity, it contains an idea for the future contrapuntal sonorous film.) If this mechanical accompaniment is able to become more general, despite the growth of ,the sound film, special music may be written fey qualified composers. Maxime Jacob, well-known for his musical partitions to films exhibited at the Vieux Colombier, parent of the “artie,” is interested in the possibility of specially provided gramophonic music. Professor Luigi Russolo of Milan has in- vented the psofarmoni, instruments worked like the piano or organ, with new timbres reproduc- ing natural and mechanical sounds. His rhum- harmonium, one of the psofarmoni, was employed by Russolo at the Studio 28 to accompany a film of machine by Eugene Deslaw, the young Ukran- ian cinematist living in Paris. A very appro- priate composition of machine beats and buzzes it was. The rhumharmonium is connected to any ordinary voltage and manipulated like the organ. This mechanical accompaniment has ancestry. Its ancestry is, in fact, that of the sound film. Sigmund Lubin in very early film days sold phonographs and records to accompany his films. Wurlitzer mechanical band units have been used in American movies, and in the Tenderloin of Phildelphia, the old Forepaugh’s, now a nickelo- deon, employs, or did employ, such a unit. At a meeting of the Paris society, “Friends of the Disc,” machine for making noises was demon- strated ; this was an invention of 1905. As to the orchestral employment of such instruments as