Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-17
MUSIC TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
D. EDEDEDTC LACYTK

phone wire are now being tested in sew
eraI cities and some great developments
in electrical music are promised soon.
One inventor has been at work for
years upon a stringed instrument to be
played by electricity. The result of his
completed efforts is instrument re-
sembling a large violin. which is called
a cOracello. Its wire strings are made
to vibrate by means Of electromagnetic
force. 1t was introduced at a recent mu-
sic teachers convention in Boston and
surprised every one by the wonderful
purity of its tones and their many va
riations. A piano keyboard has recently
been made with keys that slant upward
A number Of distinguished pianists have
indOrsed II after careful tests. 1t has
been claimed for some time that an in
caned keyboard would involve less strain
upon the hands Of the pianist than the
fiat one now in use. A German must
clan has been experimenting for several
years with keys which slant downward,
but musicians who have tested both, pro-
nounce the American invention more
practicable and desirable.
::
Perhaps no more important use of mod
ern invention in musical development
promises so much
Permanent in real value as
Musical Records. s sre uss e' , the
record the human voice. a distinguished
European teacher during the past year
has arranged a course of study in music
from the gTamophone after the same
method which has been found SO success
full in teaching languages. While it will
be some time before this innovation is
likely to become generally known, the
gramophone Is recognized as having i'm
portant educational value in creating rec
ords which can be preserved for future
use. With the voice register of Melba,
Patti or Farrar in actual demonstration
the music student of the future will have
excellent opportunities for comparison.
There is no doubt that in the years to
come the collection of gramophone rec
Ords will be as important to the musical
department OF the university or school as
is the reference library to other depart
mentS.
American musicians. after years Of de-
spondency, are now rejoicing over the fact
that the nation is
Native Musical beginning to recog
n-,x nize that there have
been, and are, mu-
steal geniuses in this country. The re-
cent death of MacDowell is largely
sponsible for this. Like most great
geniuses, Mcdowell labored without re-
ward and died in poverty. 1t was not I'M
til after his death that the Boston Sym
phony Orchestra was willing to play his
compositions. When LAMA" was pro-
duced by them, however. some two years
ago, the musical world went wild over 1t
and national pride was stimulated that 50
great a composition should have been an
American product. Since then Mcdowell
associations have sprung up all over the
country. His music is studied and appre-
ciated. despite the. fact that for twenty
years of his life he realized less than
three hundred dollars for his compost
tions, which now have worldwide recogni-
ton as musical classics. No publisher
was willing to produce "Lamia" unless
Mcdowell himself advanced the first
costs.
During the past year there have been
numberless prizes offered in various parts
OF the country for compositions by Amer
lean authors. Twenty-Five opera manu-
scripts were sent in to the Metropolitan
Opera House Of New York last October