The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-08-22

Saltair. There are bands everywhere
good, bad and Indifferent"
And as to the music?" I suggested
THE public wants the best. In ar
ranging a band program today we in
clude few numbers of the so-called
] popular music. The people have been
sUrfeited with ragtime and cheap tunes,
and they demand classical compost
tons"
Don't you believe" I asked, that
| the public amusement parks, which
have increased so greatly in number
during the past ten years, have had
much to do with educating the public
to a taste for the better music?'
Better Glass of Music.
Mr.. lines hesitated.
Now we are getting into deep wa
! ter" he objected, as though loath to
discuss this subject Then, after a mo-
mems reflection. he continued;
! IF the amusement parks have exert
/ ed any influence whatever on music, it
| has been a detrimental influence. The
/ patrons of the parks seldom go for the
| band concerts. There is too much noise,
/ too much excitement going on about
them. Just about the time the band
! reaches the finest strains of a classical
| selection all the spielers begin a stimuli
taneOus shouting, a scenic railway car
| shoots overhead with a roar of grinding
wheels and a shrek of excited passen-
gers and a dozen other noises break
| loose. No one hears the music, and the
efforts of the band are wasted. There
is no incentive for the musicians TO
strive to do their best.
in yOW opinion, then" I asked,
what is the explanation of the i'm
provement in the public taste?"
There are many reasons. Chiefly,
however, 1 attribute it to the mechan-
zeal musical instruments. 1 know
many persons will disagree with me,
but believe the mechanical piano play
ers, and even the monographs, have
taught the people to appreciate real mu-
sic. A man fits up his house and per-
haps to ornament his parlOr puts in a
piano, which nobody in the house plays.
After looking at the piano for a few
years and wondering why he ever
bought it. he hears of an electric piano,
and he buys one. Then he gets perhaps
half a dozen rolls of music, five ragtime
selections and one classical selection
Right there is where his musical educa-
ton and that of his family begins. All
of those selections will be played again
and again. And so in time he finds five
Of them have been repeated and repeat
ed until he is sick of them, while he
doesn't seem TO be able TO hear the
sixth often enough. He does not know
the reason for this, and yet the reason
is simply that the one selection is mu-
sic and the others are not.
Getting Into Deep Water.
when he goes to buy another half
dozen selections he puts the ragtime to
one side and gets only the better class
Of music, As a consequence he even
tually learns the masterpieces He
whistles them, even huns them. When
he hears a band concert it is the high
class music with which he is familiar
thar appeals to him. He does not have
to know anything of music itself to ap-
pTeciate the difference between thC
compositions of the masters and the
compositions of the tunemakers who
grind out their stuff by the yard.
Il don't mean to say that the bands
haven't done a great deal toward i'm
proving the public ear. I do not want
to appear egOtistical, but I believe that
1 myself with my band have been an
important factor in the musical educa-
ton of the nation. For many years
there were but three big bands in the
tOuliliS -NFllilblt y IutDQoie AuOHldS
and my own. Thomas seldom went
into the smaller communities. Gilmore
and I toured the country, playing any
where. We took our bands into cities
where big concerts had been unknown, |
and We gave the best music we could
play.
Another thing-I have made a spe-
cialty of music festivals, producing them
all over the country. At these festivals
I have invariably had children Choir
uses. You viii remember that in 1908, !
during the National Education Associa- |
ton convention in San Francisco, I had
a chorus in Mechanics pavilion Of 1900
children. Every child participating in
one of these choruses remembers the
event forever and knows that the music /
is not of the popular variety. Isn't |
it natural to suppose that the child's |