The talking machine world (Jan-June 1925)

May 15, 1925 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 59 [Editor's Note — This is the fiftieth 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 subjecl 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.] Record's Musical Mission No one who has given any thought to the more recent developments in the field of talking machine recording can fail to see that an entirely new method of merchandising is being opened up and that retail merchants are acquiring new and powerful weapons to aid them in the fight for sales. One of these powerful weapons is to be found in the new records of complete musical works which are being published, and in the opportunities thus afforded to do demonstrating upon a scale of merit and musical value such as hitherto has been quite out of the reach of the talking machine trade. I suppose that nothing can be more surprising to the casual observer from the outside than the vast distance which apparently separates the talking machine from that large and steadily growing public which supports music and which of course includes within its ranks the members of the American musical profession. Music teachers are said to be generally most conservative, not to say stodgy, in their attitude towards novelties of any kind, and musicians of all kinds seem to come within the same range of complaint. Nothing is more astonishing than the blank ignorance which characterizes so many members of the musical profession in their attitude towards the talking machine. Not one in ten seems yet to have sensed what has been accomplished in the way of both recording and reproduction during the past ten years; and it is only just to say that rnusic-lovers, amateurs of music, as distinguished from professional musicians, are almost as badly in need of a new view' and a new understanding. An Unimpressionable Element Retail merchants have never been able to make much impression upon these classes of the community. Partly this has been because of the very personal attitude towards art taken by most musicians and of the resulting snobbishness which is almost inevitably a part of that attitude. Musicians are not interested in new things because their art is very personal, is very largely, and often wholly, an exhibition of painfully acquired technical dexterity. Wrapped up in the long continued and painful studies which the desire for musical proficiency makes necessary, musicians have acquired an unreasoning prejudice against whatever can be called "mechanical" in musical reproduction. Compelled though they always are, when brought straight up against the marvels of reproduction, to admit that the talking machine disc is not a maker of "mechanical" music, even in the sense in which that adjective may be applied to the reproducing piano, they have nevertheless never quite believed in its artistic status, and have always been inclined to look askance at the claims made for it. How often does one see a fine talking machine and an adequate collection of records in the home of a professional musician ? The Amateurs, Too Now this is also true, though not to quite the same extent, of the general body of musiclovers, of those thousands and tens of thousands who throughout the land support music, who form the membership of the women's music clubs, who make it possible for musical artists to traverse the country on nation-wide lours at a profit, and who cultivate music in their homes to a greater or a lesser extent. These women — for they are predominantly women — commonly neither understand nor appreciate the possibilities of the talking machine. Their failure so to do lies very largely at the door of the trade itselt, which in the past has not provided them with rounded-out and satisfactory catalogs of music and. moreover, has not made any systematic attempt, through steady salesmanship applied in each community, to attract and capture their interest. Now a new age is upon us and, asi we look round us for new fields in which to operate, we find that we have been provided with new weapons wherewith to capture these interests. The new records are wonderful. Complete orchestral works, complete string quartets, complete piano and violin concertos, complete operas even are available already, and more are being added every day to the lists. The record makers are committed fully to giving the world all of the finest music for the talking machine. Now it is up to the retail merchant to take advantage of these facts. He can now go to the musicians and the music-lovers, with arguments which they cannot overlook. He can show them serious contributions to their musical culture, and especially in the smaller communities he can demonstrate to them that they cannot become connoisseurs save at the cost of having a talking machine and a stock of the latest in fine records. If this statement last made sounds a bit far-fetched, let the sneercr just stop to think for a moment. For already there exists a library of records which covers a wealth of music of the highest types, played by the finest artists, recorded with marvelous fidelity, not one-half of which the average music teacher or music lover living in a small American community is likely to be able to hear otherwise, save at the cost of leaving home for at least one whole musical season to be spent in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago or one of the other few great American cities which have a strongly developed musical life. Backing Up Our Claims But to make statements of that sort really effective the merchant must be able to back them up with demonstration. Now it happens that I personally prefer not to tell men to do things merely because these things seem to my thought to be good, unless I can have some direct knowledge that they are both good and practicable. Demonstration of records on a large scale, public demonstration in fact, has always been a hobby with me, and I have made many experiments in it, experiments which have proved to me, beyond any doubt in my own mind, that there is a public for fine records, a public hardly as yet considered by the generality of merchants, a public which is ripe and ready for fine records, which only has to be told about them and whose prejudices may be broken down by the simple expedient of bringing the actual recorded music to reproduction before their ears. How To Do It But to break down prejudice is not so easy. It is not enough simply to announce that one has this or that music on sale. In cases like these one must work more subtly. Imagine a merchant hiring a local musician to take charge of a phonographic performance of a symphony program, at the store, admission by invitation only, and the persons invited being the members of, say, the local music club of women! Think what could be done! A whole program consisting of a complete symphony, a complete piano or violin concerto, a group of songs with orchestra and a big concert selection from, for instance, "Rheingold" could be included, making up a whole concert, and a genuine concert, such as one could only parallel in a great city. Or again, it might be a complete opera, or an historical concert devoted to ancient or classic or modern music. The possibilities are endless. The sales possibilities arc equally endless. To hear such records is for those who love such music to want those records. Nothing is more completely certain than that! Of course, work of that sort must be done well, if at all. Some one must explain, give the cues, as it were, tell what is going on. Work of this sort does sell fine records, and no other work is equally effective. to the New England Trade Inc. 210 Lincoln Street