The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1906)

THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. 47 TALKING MACHINE AS A TEACHER. Has Won an Important Place in the Musical World, According to N. J. Corey — Writes Most Illuminating Article for "The Etude." Inventive ingenuity has accomplislied so much during the past century, and the human mind has tecome so accustomed to a succession of marvels, that it now hardly talves notice when £1 new one is presented. Formerly people could scarcely believe when the various remarkable discoveries and inventions were successively announced, but now incredulity is fast becoming obsolete. Since the successful application of wireloss telegraphy we are prepared to believe almost anything, even in the construction of a practicable airship, thus far the most unconquerable of problems. Who would have believed, a quarter of a century ago, that ultimately the sound of Adelina Patti's voice could be heard in every house in the land? Phonographic instruments were not unknown then, but only snarling travesties of the human voice were heard issuing from them, nothing that could for a moment attract the attention of a serious lover of good singing. Now the possibilities of the reproduction of sound have been so enormously perfected that even an expert connoisseur listening from an adjoining room to the voice of Caruso issuing from the horn of a talking machine, could be with difficulty persuaded that the great singer himself was not there. Mechanical playing instruments have been in vogue for years, the music box having been a common means of amusement with our well-todo grandparents, but it is only very recently that such instruments have begun to be taken seriously by professional musicians. Mechanical players for the piano and organ have become very popular. The best results are produced with the organ, its sustained and somewhat impassive tones lending themselves more readily to satisfactory effects. To people who cannot play, yet are fond of music, a self-player attached to their pianos affords a great deal of pleasure. More than this, teachers of the history of music in many of the largest universities and conservatories are making use of self-playing instruments in order to make their students familiar with the standard orchestral works. Teachers, by making their classes familiar with these great works, prepare their minds to listen to them intelligently when interpreted by the great orchestras. Thus the self-playing instruments become a sort of preparatory school in musical listening. Unfortunately they have no individuality of interpretation, and thus far have been able to assume only a makeshift function, something to be made u-se of for the lack of a better; a valuable function, nevertheless, in a scheme for a musical education, for a teacher who is not a good piano player and sight reader. The Victor talking machine, on the other hand, is no makeshift. The actual interpretation of the great singer or player is recorded and reproduced exactly as first made. It occupies a similar position in the realm of auditory that WE SOLICIT YOUR PATRONAGE the photographic camera does in visual phenomena. It is not correct to call it a mechanical instrument, for the sound produced is not mechanical. It is more properly an instrument for preserving sound. Personally, I never took very kindly to any of the self-playing instruments, not even for the orchestral movements. Originally I felt similarly toward the phonographic instruments. The harsh, stridulous tones that I had heard issuing from them impressed me as inexpressibly disagreeable, so much so that when certain enthusiasts urged me to go in and hear the Caruso records, I declined, harboring at the same, time a feeling of compassion for those who could enjoy such disagreeable imitations of singing. It was a year before I allowed myself to be persuaded to hear the records. It turned out to be nothing more than a repetition of the old story of the man who went to scoff. My astonishment vas so great that I could hardly believe the evidence of my senses. But I was forced to confess that here was the first automatic reproducing device that I had ever heard that produced a thoroughly artistic result in the highest sense of the word. It could not be otherwise, for there were the voices of Sembrich, Eames, Plancon, Campanari and others, just as I heard them repeatedly; tonal quality and interpretation reproduced exactly. Almost my first thought was: What a splendid opportunity for illustrative examples in teaching of musical history, an opportunity that had never before existed, even in the largest centers! I refer particularly to the history of the opera. Even in New York the number of operas that may be heard ' in "a. Single season is comparatively limited, froni' a historical standpoint, and not every student can afford to attend all that may be given. But with the talking machine examples may be given from opera composers of all styles and periods. Most conservatories have a course of study in the history of music, which may be copiously illustrated with instrumental selections, but very sparingly from the operatic repertoire. There may be good singers among the members of the conservatory faculty, but even with the four voices represented, soprano, alto, tenor and bass, comparatively few illustrations could be used, for each singer usually has but a few arias from the operas in his or her repertoire. From the long list of arias from the operas of Gluck, Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Meyerbeer, Weber, Wagner, Bizet, Gounod, Thomas, Saint-Saens, Massenet, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Giordano, Puccini, etc., not enough could be given to make a comparative study possible. But in the course of study I have arranged for the Michigan Conservatory of Music, I make use of more than a hundred arias in illustration, as well as a few instrumental records. A comprehensive musical education demands that the student not only learn about music, but that he hear the music itself, and as much of it and as often as possible. Opportunity for listening is the one great lack in the education of most students. The enterprise of the Victor Talking Machine Co. in making a specialty of tnese arias from the grand operas of all schools and periods and sung by the greatest singers, makes it possible for schools and private studios, even in the most remote corners of the land, to install a course that will be invaluable to students. Singing teachers can now give demonstrations of the interpretations and vocal art of Patti, Sembrich, Plancon, Caruso, etc., in places where these artists can never be heard in person. In a course of lectures which I gave during the past summer at Chautauqua, New York, the talking machine was used in some of them, and audiences of from one to four thousand people heard with absorbed attention the records of tlie great singers. People from all parts of the country, who had never expected to have an opportunity to listen to so many great artists, heard Patti, Melba, Sembrich, Gadski, Eames, SchumannIleink, Caruso, Plancon, Campanari, Scotti, etc. They heard ten arias sung by Tamagno, the greatest tenor of the past quarter century. Two periods in musical history have heretofore been sealed books to music students, that' of the Gregorian Chant and that of Palestrina. It is impossible to give any idea of the Gregorian music by means of an instrument, it is so inherently peculiar. But since the publication of a complete series of Gregorian records, made under the most authoritative auspices, the Sistine Chapel (the Pope's choir), the Augusts nian Fathers and the Benedictines of St. Anselmo, pupils may now be made thoroughly familiar with what the music of this important period of musical history was. The same may be said of Palestrina. Great as is his music, enormous as was his influence upon musical composition, his music is practically obsolete, so far as opportunities for hearing it under ordinary circumstances are concerned. To play his music upon the organ even, gives but an extremely inadequate idea of it. Such involved a capella part writing needs the individual character of the various voices themselves to give its true effect. The records of this music, published by the Victor Co., were made by the Pope's choir, which lends additional interest to them. As time goes on, and musical educators become more familiar with these fine records, I believe they will become eventually indispensable to the work of every conservatory course of instruction, for it is coming more and more to be recognized that hearing great music is more useful in developing a musical appreciation than hearing about it just as, in the study of English literature, students are now expected to read selections from the great writers, whereas formerly they only read their like and a criticism of their more important works. The Hawthorne & Sheble Manufacturing Co., of Philadelphia, report having booked so many orders on their new line of "artistic flower horns"' that their three factories will be taxed to their utmost capacity in order to turn them out. Evidently the dealers and jobbers generally are biecoming alive to the fact that properly made horns of attractive design will bring their price. 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