The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1913)

THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. 7 Ysaye, the greatest violinist of this or any other age, has just made his first records. An announcement significant to Columbia dealers. Columbia Phonograph Co., Gen'l Tribune Building, New York SUGGESTS RECORDS OF PIPE ORGAN MUSIC. An Interesting Letter Which May Appeal to Laboratory Heads Regarding Neglected Records of Special Music for Important Events. A number of valuable suggestions are made in the letter printed below, in which the writer points out the need for more instrumental records which might be used at funeral services either in churches or in the homes, particularly in the smaller cities, where good music is the exception and not the rule. As far as organ records are concerned it has been difficult hitherto to secure first-class reproductions of pipe organ music, but this, however, is now being obviated, and the time is coming when organ records will form as great a feature of the catalogs of our manufacturers as the piano now does. Until such time as the laboratories are equipped with pipe organs an excellent substitute may be had in the Mason & Hamlin Liszt pedal organ, which, by reason of its construction, simulates the pipe organ tone most effectively. The talking machine is now entering so many fields of artistic usefulness both in the home and in the concert hall that a new future has been unveiled, and a new appreciation evidenced, that A NEW PICTURE OF SOUSA. Great Bandmaster Snapped While Listening to Records of His Band During Stay in Springfield, Ohio — Well Pleased with Them. A particularly interesting picture of John Philip Sousa, the famous bandmaster, was snapped recently in the store of H. H. McFarland, a Victor dealer in Springfield, O. Upon the appearance of Sousa and his band in newspaper reporters and photographers at the proper moment. Mr. Sousa was photographed while listening to one of the selections by his own l and. Mr. Sousa apparently appreciated the advertising value of the incident to the Victor dealer and aided in every way possible to make it a success. GOES HUNTING DE LUXE. Sousa Listening to His Own Music on the Victor that city some time ago Mr. McFarland arranged a special window display of Sousa records, which attracted much attention. One of his employes met Mr. Sousa at the hotel and requested that he drop into the store for purposes of inspection. Good press agent work resulted in the presence of A Victrola talking machine put in a rather unusual two weeks in the north woods of Michigan last month. When C. A. Grinnell and A. A. Grinnell, of Grinnell Bros., Detroit, Mich, went to the Upper Peninsula on their annual deer-slayi n g expedition, they stopped at one of the Grinnell branch stores and corraled the aforesaid Victrola and took it to the hunting lodge, together with a cargo of the most modern and modish records. There were seven hunters in the G ri n n e 1 1 party, but the usual dull routine of evening camp life did not bore them. They did not have to invent hunting yarns in an attempt to entertain each other or to listen to the same. The Victrola made the evenings as entertaining as a Broadway playhouse. There was a greater variety and no dull spots. The best place to buy is where you are sure of prompt and careful attention. tells of the firm place which this instrument has won in the affections of those who at one time apparently underestimated its value and its importance. The letter referred to is as follows, and we commend it to the attention of the manufacturers of records : To the Editor of The Talking Machine World: Apropos the interesting item in your current issue touching the Victrola music at the funeral service of a prominent citizen of Zanesville, O., November 29, permit me to say I was present on that occasion and found it the most impressive and appropriate music, both in selection and rendition, I had ever heard at a funeral; and that was the common verdict of all who heard it. The only wonder is that such music has not already come into general use, as it surely must in the near future. For the records afford or can furnish vocal selections by the best of choirs, quartets and soloists and instrumental records by the best of bands and orchestras — resources to be had, except by this means, only in the largest cities, and there only at considerable expense and inconvenience. There is now no lack of hymns and other vocal records suitable to such occasions. But desirable and needful additions might well be made to the instrumental records. At present (I am writing of disc records) there are but two funeral marches recorded in this country — Chopin's Marche Funebre and Handel's Dead March in Saul, the latter but a recent record. The Victor and the Columbia have band records of each, but one of the records of the Dead March is unsatisfactory, being a ten-inch, and hence too brief and played altogether too fast to be appropriately solemn and impressive. I have band records of three others, but they are foreign — Wagner's from Gotterdammerung (12-inch double face) ; Beethoven's, from the Heroic Symphony, and Guilmant's Marche Funebre. Others by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert, to say nothing of lesser lights, afford a fertile field for selection. Good instrumental records might also be made of familiar hymns commonly sung at funerals. Not the least impressive or appropriate of instrumental music would be good organ records. But, strange to say, no American organ disc records have yet been made — apart from a few accompaniments. That this grand instrument can be successfully recorded is shown by a number of foreign records, including Chopin's Funeral March and the Dead March in Saul. As your columns have shown, this marvelous machine music has already been used with marked interest and appreciation on a number of funeral occasions, and its use is destined steadily to grow until it becomes universal. It is up to the companies to encourage and meet the demand by providing all desirable records in number and variety; and dealers would find it to their interest to keep on hand a supply of such records to meet the wants of those not having machines and records of their own. Victrolist. New York, December 18.