The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-10-16
HOW SONGS ARE MADE.
MANY OWE THEIR SUCCESS To THE
STREET PIANO.
Composer and Organ Grinder in
League-yot Many Street Pianos in
the West--The Remarkable In
stance of "Daisy BelIe."-The Old
Methods.

II estimate that at least half of the
popular songs and instrumental pieces
of the day owe their success to the
street piano." This is the opinion re-
Gently delivered, of song writer
whose music has brought him small
fortune and whose compositions are be-
ing whistled, played and sung all oyer
the country. Inasmuch as the trade of
song writing has become very much ex-
tended of late, and as thousands of
budding musicians and aspiring poets
are anXiously .nquiring how to popular
ize their lyrical efforts, this state Sc
cret of the song writer's craft we'll de-
serves to be exposed. In fact, the mod
us operandi of popularizing song is
not, as we shall see, matter of
chance, but is part of well balanced
and thought out system which may be
practiced by any person possessing the
secret.
The street piano is the natural sue
ceSsor to the old barrel organ and the
little German band. 1t is mechanically
a combination of the music box and the
ordinary piano. 1t owes its legitimate
rise to it's capacity for embellishing the
popular song of the day and then car
rying it within hearing distance of the
homes of ali sorts and conditions of
men, women and children. The plain
tune suits the masses, the embellish-
ment pieces the classes. Unlike the
street organ, its repertoire is always
UP to date. This is another reason for
it's popularity. Filling it's several Of
fees so neatly it could no longer escape
the eye of at least one species of the
great American advertiser and now
- L. III - 10
medium it has become a great moral
force, making fortunes for several
classes of persons besides the man who
operates it.
OLD METHODS.
Before the day of the street piano, 1t
was the practice of many music pub
fishers to pay regular weekly salaries
to variety artists, who, for a consid-
GRAFTON, would hurl bad new music at
their audiences night after.night. These
trials on the dog, as it. were, generally
cost the publisher something like $50
a week Some music publishers do this
yet, but the advent of the street piano
and its extending influence soon con-
WINGED the knowing ones that cheaper
and more effective method of popular
izing songs was to be had for the ask
ing. They begin sending professional
copies of all new music to the piano
manufacturers, who in their turn were
glad enough to obtain free music. The
result was startling and the transient
American national song became a. def
mite article of commerce. All songs
which wouldn't go and had been dead
failures from the start, suddenly be-
came the rage and their composers
waxed fat. The most remarkable in
stance was "DaiSy Belle
The composer of this song had what
he supposed was the extreme good for
tune to lead publisher into contract
to publish 500 copies of it, with a fur
Their clause that it should be tried on
theatre audiences in the usual manner.
Copies were also sent to various %and
masters and teachers of dancing, but a
whole year of systematic advertising
awaited nothing and the composer, de-
pleted in pocketbook and surfeited with
publishers wrath, was compelled to sail
home tc England, where the prospect of
financial success was more encourag-
ing. The publisher, in order to get rid
of the superfiuous hundreds of Daisy
Belles,' began to put a copy of the song
between the leaves of every piece of
music he sold. 1t happened that a copy
OF the song strayed into the workshop
of the street piano manufacturer. For
want Of a better selection it was sent
out on some of the pianos. 1t was
success Immediately and people began
inquiring for the song in every direc-
ton. Then it was resung by the vari-
ETY. artists. 1t became part of the BIZ
cycle craze and the vituperations of
the publisher were changed into bless
ings. The composer was recalled and
of course Immediately wrote another
song on the strength of the first. Three
thousand dollars were eventually di-
vided by the owners of DAISY Belle
before its popularity waned.
The Sidewalks of New York" was
played about the streets of the metrop
oils for two months before it became
popular. The publishers calculated
1t would take that long before it
would ring naturally in the ears of the
public. Then it was put upon the
continuous performance stage, sent to
the concert and dance halls and gradu-
ally scattered broadcast. The process
was successful and a large amount of
money was made from it. 1t required
four months to popularize the Lost
Child" but it eventually made money
for it owner. Marguerite" was sue
cess almost at once, and was retained
in the repertoire for year-a long
period of life for a popular song. 1t
was uIOpptu 1ludlly anu Ieludlutu I'LL
used for several years, but now, appar-
emily, a new desire for it has sprung
up and the piano men are beginning to
re-insert it in their list of available
music 1t. is a paradoxical fact, how
ever, that the Organs on the Street"
written to illustrate this phase of our
urban lie, should be failure, it being
found impossible to make it highly ac-
ceptable to the public, even when de-
livered by way of the very medium it
describes.
COMPOSER AND ORGAN GRINDER
IN LEAGUE.
1t is a fact, somewhat out of joint
with modern business methods, that
the manufacturers of street pianos
have no share in the profits realized
from the songs which they popularize,