The talking machine world (July-Dec 1927)

^^"TfeTAlKIN^HACHIN POSSIBILITIES [Editor's Note — This is the seventy-first of a series of articles by William Braid White devoted to the various interesting opportunities which prevail in the domain of education for the retailer of talking machines. The subject is one of great interest and we commend these articles to the consideration of all who are devoting attention to the featuring and developing of the musical possibilities of the talking machine.] Remarkable Recordings ■ Within the last few days I have had the very great pleasure of listening— critically — to some electrically recorded music so beautifully rendered as to make me wonder how much farther along the roa.d to absolute perfection we need to look before counting ourselves to have arrived. Electrical recording has decidedly become so remarkable, if not almost incredible, an achievement already that it is hard to understand how any one among the phonograph merchants can resist the infection of an irresistible selling enthusiasm, carrying sales and prosperity with it in ever-increasing volume. "Fin de SLecle" Two symphonies are included in the music to which I refer, one of them being the Pathetique of Tschaikowski and one the "New World" of Dvorak. Now the Tschaikowski symphony is one of those things which within a few years of its first hearing is definitely and permanently "dated." Of all the music written or conceived during the last few years of the nineteenth century none approaches this, in my opinion, for its wholly faithful rendering of that pessimistic, faintly rebellious, world-weary mood which so deeply touched the intellectual conscience of that day, and which showed itself otherwise in the art of Aubrey Beardsley, the "decadent" literature of the Y.ellow Book, the early plays of Shaw, the novels of Hardy and the pictures of Whistler. The New Experience Yet it must be confessed that the new electrical recording of this symphony, brought out within the last month or so by the Victor Talking Machine Co., came as something not far from a revelation. Perhaps it was that, after the old style recordings, the new one struck home unexpectedly deep, by reason of its power, its fidelity to the original, and the opportunity one had of studying, now for the first time both leisurely and satisfactorily, the internal structure of the work and the masterly skill of the man who put it together. And if one who has heard every great orchestra in the country play it during twenty-five years, under the baton of almost every famous conductor who has appeared in the United States during that time, can now find himself at this late day thrilled by a phonographic reproduc tion, then plainly there must be. something very big in it after all. And from the commercial standpoint it is only necessary to say that the great uninstructed public, that great mass of music lovers who freely admit that they "know nothing about music" and who often indeed are silly enough to think that thereby they are disqualified from enjoying the great works of musical expression, has always been in love with Tschaikowski's Pathetique Symphony, from the day of its first performance. Whether the mystery of its composer's sudden death within a couple of weeks of the first performance in 1893 has had anything to do with the universal interest on the part of the general public may be hard to say, but the fact' remains. And let me say to merchants that anyone who cannot sell these records had better go into some other line of business. Iowa-Bohemia Dvorak's New World Symphony is known to millions through the haunting beauty of its second movement, the celebrated "Largo," and among the hundreds of thousands who go each year to the forty or more symphony orchestra seasons steadily running throughout the country the whole work has an appeal which compels conductors, sometimes perhaps against their will, to bring it back season after season. As everyone knows, Dvorak wrote it, in this country, at a little Bohemian settlement in Iowa, where he stayed during a Summer vacation after a strenuous season as head of the National Conservatory of New York, to which he had been called from Prague by the ambitious and energetic Mrs. Thurber. Dvorak wrote it to give expression to his appreciation of the negro melodies which a talented American negro musician had interpreted to him. This was in 1891. He was wrong in supposing that an American national music would have to come from negro sources, and his symphony, for all its plantation-melody themes, is just as much Bohemia, Prague a,nd Antonin Dvorak as any other of his works. So, too, are his so-called "American" string quartets. Nevertheless, he gave us in the "New World" lovely music and a wonderfully peppy piece of symphonic skill. No wonder it is liked by the American people, for it has force, punch, driving power galore, and withal is always clear as crystal, perfectly intelligible and extremely easy to follow. In the Victor electric recordings I heard the other day the symphony comes back with all the authority, the power and the fidelity of a true orchestral performance. It has been beautifully done and I earnestly beg every seller of Victor records to get it, listen to it and let his intelligent customers know what a treat he has for them. It would be nothing short of an outrage to allow the great house which produces work of this caliber to find itself compelled to admit that the merchants will not support even the most ambitious and carefully planned attempt to enlist the support of the thousands of music lovers who are just waiting for food of this kind. Work of the N. G. S. And before leaving this subject I should like to tell my readers something about some work of a less spectacular but equally artistic kind being done by that remarkable British group, the National Gramophonic Society. This organization of music lovers, banded together to record and produce for distribution, among themselves and to others who think with them on the matters, music which otherwise would not be obtainable in record form, has been putting through a program of achievements which can only be called extraordinary. It has recently published the clarinet quintet of Mozart, the other clarinet quintet by Brahms, the horn trio of Brahms, Dvorak's quintet for piano and strings and Arnold Bax's quintet for oboe and strings, to name just a few exploits. It has been my joy to share in these outgivings for the last two years and I can only say that I wish to heaven the phonograph merchants would show the manufacturers enough encouragement to bring about the American production of some of these wonderful things. Not that we could much improve on the N. G. S. productions from the musical standpoint, but think what it would mean from the merchandising point of view. Day-Fan Electric Co. Secures an RCA License A license agreement has been entered into between the Day-Fan Electric Co., Dayton, O., manufacturers of Day-Fan radio, and the Radio Corp. of America, whereby the former is licensed to manufacture under the patents owned or controlled by the Radio Corp. and associated companies. R. Kanarek Passed Away Rudolph Kanarek, formerly well known in Eastern talking machine circles, founder of the Independent German-American Talking Machine Co., later known as the Independent Talkina; Machine Co., died last month. Values for the Phonograph Buyer AMPLIPHONIC New Type Phonographs Remarkable for tone and volume Up to the Minute Equipment Cast Iron Horn Heineman 77 Motor Automatic Stop Ultra Reproducers Write jor Our Complete Catalogue CHARMAPHONE CO. Pulaski Manufacturing Since 1914 New York 52