The Washington herald., 1913-01-03
BY FRANCES sHAFFER.


Not SO long ago lot Of new music"
was announced, and among others Just as
bad, possibly worse, these were some of
tho titles of songs confidently presented
please Don't Take Ny Lovin' Man
Away
Believe Me, Kidr'
when Get You Alone Tonight
kiss Your Honey Bunch Good Night.
And that was just beginning.
Maybe there is not SO much In name
as II seems. but as these titles sank
away down to the depths of a tired mind
1t really seemed that they must be as
horrid as they sounded and that they
must leave their imprint somewhere and
somehow.
Certain 1t is that one cannot possibly
think of the type of young woman She
likes to call ideal turning to any OF these
songs for her own entertainment or the
pleasure of friends. They may be good.
but their names condemn them.
"Canned Music"
And then there came to mind a re-
cent bit OF ridicule of what has been
called canned music" Some one had
grown rather weary of listening TO the
tireless piano player and the ubiquitous
talking machine and rashly wished that
sight and hearing.
He said that the piano player in the
hands of one who neither loved nor I'M
derstood music was maddening. nothing
more. that il was just a wild riot OF noise,
guaranteed, in time, to weaken the stout
est nerves, and that the talking machine,
in the same Indifferent hands was some
times a shade better, often shade worse.
The fact is. the piano player is pretty
bad when the ruling ambitions are for
speed, clatter and bang; and the talking
machine can be made to sing some de-
plorable songs and reproduce some SAD
''rag-time" failures.
But they have a better side, and there
they stand proudly upholding their grow
ing reputation as an educational force,
surely leading the unframed masses to
an appreciation of the really beautiful
in music.
Unconscious Education.
There are a great many young men
and women who have really good voices
and whose fingers fairly yearn to in
terpret some of the beautiful music that
the master minds have left for the pleas
ure of the world But they do not
know how the songs should be sung and
do not dream how the compositions
should be played.
They have not the manifold advantages
OF a musical atmosphere and they
stumble along in a blind sort of way. But
let a talking machine enter their homes,
singing over and over again some OF the
glorious melodies that the whole music
world loves. and they begin to guess
what the music means. And when they
try Il themselves they at least have a
star ahead TO beckon them on, for they
know how the songs ought to run, what
TO avoid, and what to try to initiate.
And so with the mechanical players
that go in ordinary homes, where there
are unframed fingers that long to play.
but do not know enough about music
to get down to the heart OF a compo-
sition that is full of wonderful melody
II only they knew how to bring it out.
1t is the very next thing TO personal
training or to the unconscious education
that is almost bound to be absorbed If
one lives in a musical atmosphere and
has a bit OF music in her heart or head.
Taste Quickly Acquired.
They talk about the cheap places OF
amusement where the rankest of rag
| time" flourishes and the coarsest of songs
are sung. but If it were possible to have