Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-06
OLD INSTRUMENTS
MAY Be VALUABLE
Radio Has Reclaimed Many
Musical Pieces With
Unique Tones.

II Spring mouse ciSaliiiS 'IiAS SV"i
brings to light any odd-looking musical
instruments don't relegate them TO
the ash heap without first taking them
TO the nearest broadcasting studio
and having them tested over the AR
Broadcasting has dragged plenty OF
almost forgotten instruments INTO
prominence, and it has helped to pop
uIarize a host of new ones. And the
process will undoubtedly continue just
as long as musical tools which reg
lister through the miCrophone with
new qualities of tone can be discovered
or created.
The members of the program de
nartments Of the National Broadcast
ing Co. who are responsible for the
hooking of artists who appear over the
air from Stations WEAF and VIZ OF
New York, WRC Of Washington and
xxx of Hastings, Nebr., have be
come immune to outlandish names Tor
musical instruments. No longer can
a performer create stir by declaring
emphatically that ne is past master
of the bathyphon or a wizard with the
cheng.
Instead. they ask him to play it be-
fore a miCrophone in the stuu4o, 81
that they may hear il in loud
speaker and decide whether or not 1t
is suitable for broadcasting. The pro
gram builders have even ceased TO De
amused when the artist produces from
his pocket an instrument bearing a
strange, seven-syllabled name, or
when he states that a truck is outside
bearing an implement whose name
can be recorded in three letters.
Variety of Instruments.
MANY of the weirdly named instru-
rnents are old ones. Others have just
come on the market, but these are
usually adaptations or mechanical va
riations Of ancient musical tools Some
of them have proved unsuited to
broadcasting, but plenty OF them have
made established places for them
selves in the ranks of instruments
well suited to microphone work. At
any rate. the program builders are al
ways open-minded They refuse to
pass Judgment until the mike has had
its say.
Before the advent of broadcasting
few people had heard of the celeste,
although it had always been a part of
every full symphony orchestra. The
instrument consists of q number of
struck with small hammers, descrip-
ton which sounds considerably less
melodiouS than the sweet tones which
the celeste produces in broadcasting.
Today the instrument is being used
by many popular orcheStras in their
concerts over the air.
The Xylophone, the marimba and the
arnbalum, all implements similar in
construction to the celeste, have also
been brought to fame largely by radio.
and the vibraphone, which produces
it's tones from metal tubes rather
than from strings or discs, has been
designed especially for broadcasting
purposes.
Air Changes Music.
Almost anything can be played these
days Witness the sweet, swinging
tones of a saw when struck with
ua.3ded hammer and bent to produce
various notes. The cigar-boX banjo
and the "one-string fiddle" made from
a cigar box and a broomstick, in the
hands of experienced players produce
real music of startlingly different
character when heard over the air.
Other instruments which have
proved excellent broadcasters are
legion. They include the either,
form of Irish harp, once very popular,
but little heard of late until broad
casting came into it's own. The dull
elmer and the harpsichord, forerun-
ners of the modern piano, are making
new musical regulations, thanks to
the microphone. Even the Jews harp
is gathering laurels for itself.
The recent Russian invasion of the
American stage brought with it the
balalaika, a strengthening mandolin
possessing a triangular head. Bala-
laikas arrived in the United States in
all sizes and previous conditions OF
servitude and for while they were
widely heard. Then came slump in
balalaika stock, when the Russian in
fiuence declined. Yet today. because
of the effectiveness of the instrument
over the air, the balalaika is stepping
into a position just below those occu-
pied by the saxophone, the banjo and
the ukulele as a broadcasting nipple
ment.
The present status of the three last
named tools illustrates what radio
can accomplish. All of them regis
ter much more agreeably in a loud
speaker than they do when heard di-
rectly by the ear, and since the growth
of broadcasting the kindness with
which the microphone treats them has
carried the three to a prominence
they could never have attained in the
same period of time through any other
medium.