The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-02
0RGAN.MADE MUSICAL FAME,
NAN BEHIND THE GRINDERS m.
PLIES TO MR. DiNROS(U.
Mr. Moiinari Explains the PopuiarIt, Of
NascaEni and 81 RaEtIme-Pow cr
Of the street Organ en- lhurche,
iielped-German Bands Not In H.

Walter Damrosch testified the other
day at the Herbert trial that hand organs
and street pianos are not the test of popu-
larity Of music. If any one Of four or five
hand organ makers in this town had been
called in rebuttal he would have sworn
that the fate Of almost every new piec,
of music il determined by the man who
turns the crank and grinds out music by
the yard on the streets,
Moinari for instance, who was born in
the business and has followed his father
and grandfather in making organs for
the last three generations Of the Pied.
montese and Neapolitans Of Mulberry
street, would have told the Judge and urv
that most people pay money 10 hear a
piece of music IN a hall or theatre because
they have become familiar with II by hear.
ing II on the street
The music publishers know that" 10
said, leaving his work on "A new cylinder
into which he Vas sticking the little steel
spurs that will eventually produce a new
spasm IN ragtime.
Then he poked under his bench and pulled
out stack Of sheet music two feet high.
That : all new music, he said, but IL
isn't popular yet Sending il here is one
Of the tricks of the trade to make it so. We
get bushels of that uff every month.
Most of the publishers send every new piece
10 the organ makers III hopes that " ell put
II on the cylinders.
Mos, Of it is no good About per cent.
OF 1t gets into the organs and street pianos.
We try il at first on the piano, select what's
good. make cylinders 10 play it, and tise
the rest TO kindle fires with.
MY wife starts the fire In the cook stove
every morning with waltz or a page or
two Of rag time.
The men in the street those who buv
the organs and grind out the mu-c.t AXE
what we give EN- mostly without making
any requests for special tunes In the
average street organ the cylinder will
carry seven tunes. Two Of the seven
will ALWAYS be "weeps"
That's what they call them something
solemn and classical like Miserere' Then
there's always two waltzcs. What tbs
other three are depends on what happens
TO be in rage in any particular season.
It's rag time Of course Just now
Take that 'Rusticana,' for instance, to
show what street playing can do 10 make
a piece Of music popular. Two or three
weeks ago they said Mascagni was coming.
Well. that didn't make any great stir
Who's Mascagni?
Why, he's the man who wrote -Caval-
leria Rusticana.
Now that second announcement did
make stir. Thousands wanted to hear
Nascagni. Why? Because they had heard
the hand organs play 'Rusticana so much
that they had learned the tune by heart
and could whistle it. That was an extreme
case, perhaps.
Il shouldn't wonder if some people go
to church on account of hand organs. A
lot of the street players carry The Palms
or The Holy City as one of their two weeps
Everybody likes them and there's no
telling how manv folks heard them for tho
first time standing on the curb listening to
the man at the crank.
There's another reason for thinking
that hand organs make tune 60. It's
Joke, but it's true, too, that new tune
doesn't make hit or become popular in
the country towns till a season or two after
it's had the run in New York. Well. the
country hand organs are just about so
far behind those in the city.
Some of the grinders like 10 play In the
country and some like the city. but Null
berry and Elizabeth streets are their head
go on their travels The city PLAYER will
use his cylinder for wear. Then IT'S
time for him to get something new.
He sells the old cylinder for half price
To his friend from the country. The coun-
try grinder goes away with old city tunes
that are new to the country and folks In the
villages begin to ask what this or That
new tune is and they learn II and II gets
popular In the hackwoods and the piano
and fiddle orchestras take II up to play
when the one-night stand show comes
along 10 pav in the town hall.
Hand organs made Comrades popular
and Two Little Girls in Blue and all ths
rest of them.
It's true that a tune may he heard first
in theatre or hall, Perhaps thousand
people hear it and like it, But hand
organ maker will be one of the thousand.
and inside Of a week he'll have that tune
punched on hundreds of cylinders, and
millions will hear it,
"Now when it comes right down to making
thing popular. what wins first place! The
orchestra that gives il to a handful OF peops
in hall or the grinders that give IT to the
whole town.
There's thousands of people who like
music who will throw pennies TO an organ
grinder. but cant afford to spend money
for regular concerts or shows
THE German street bands don't count,
because those Dutchmen get together and
blow out Just what they all happen 10 know.
That's generally 'Wacht am Rhein' and
funeral march. They never learn anything
else
They don't have to. because they play
mostly in HobokCn, and when they amt
playing 'Wacht am Rhein' in front Of beer
saloon they're he aiding some Hoboken man
funeral. Thew have more funeral parades in
uniform in Hohoken than in any other town
in the country