THE ETUDE APRIL 1920 Page 223 Music for the Man of To-Da y An Interview Secured Especially for THE ETUDE with the well-known Author, Playwright and Musical Lexicographer MAJOR RUPERT HUGHES "IN the building of a new world there is scant room for anything but the most practical, the most neces-sary things. Thus in the making of our cQuntry our forefathers, by sheer force of circumstances, were compelled to give the most of their attention to those things which pioneers regard as essentials. With an Indian, tomahawk in hand, sneaking around one door of a cabin, and hunger sneaking around the other, there was naturally little time for the tenant, with his wife and half a dozen children clinging to his knees, to meditate uver tne beauties of Herrick or Purcell. "Stern necessity moulded' our forefathers, put iron into their blood, and gave us the heritage of which we, as Americans, are so justly proud. But this very neces-sity seemed to lead many of them into the mistaken thought that music was, first of all, not in any way a necessity, and not being a necessity, it was therefore a feminine calling—something to while away the time of girls and women, whose men folks could afford to let them escape the slavery of the kitchen, to say nothing of the field and the barn. Music became one of the chief studies of the young ladies' seminary—not music as we know it now, but music apparently made as a kind of background for crinolines and long curls. Nothing of this is left, and the Maiden s Prayer, of-fered daily upon countless old-fashioned square pianos, is silenced, save when grandmother goes into the par-lor and works her rheumatic fingers over the keys—every blunder reminiscent of a golden past. A Notable Change "Just what has brought about the not-able change in American life? What has introduced music, not as a pastime, but as a daily need to thousands and thousands of American men who only yesterday might have looked upon Apollo, Orpheus, Amphion and Arion as prototypes of the effeminate in man? Knowing the Ameri-can man as we all know him, let us admit that it was possibly the great success of the many musicians in the material side of musical work which led many so-called 'Captains of Industry' to realize that 'per-haps there is something in music after all.' "With musicians making fortunes of amazing size; with building after building going up in all parts of the country in honor of music; with the musical indus-tries producing a revenue that still makes some of us gasp, it was not surprising that the gentleman, who had been brought up to think that the one righteous and noble thing in human life was business, should suddenly realize that after all art, when it is art which the human appetite requires, is a wonderfully lucrative thing, even though it is not hitched up to a typewriter and an adding machine. Whetted with just enough curiosity, Mr. Business-man gradually found himself taking more and more interest in music, until one day he made the discovery that he was actually reading articles upon music in the daily papers, learning the names of singers, and perhaps wondering what their 'batting averages' were. "Then came the piano-player and the phonograph. Here he at least could go through part of the process of making music. It was not always to be locked up in the fingers of his wife or his daughter. Once tasting the joys of music-making, even in this artificial fashion, he found a new interest in life, a new and unexplored field for mental recuperation, a field which Biographical Note [Tn a nation famed for producing men of exceptional versatility, from Benjamin Franklin down to the present time, few have succeeded so well in so many callings as Major Rupert Hughes. He was horn in Lancaster, Mo., in 1372, and was educated at Western Reserve University and at Yale. His training in music iras received under Wilson O. Smith in Cleveland, Edgar Stillman Kelley in New York and Dr. Charles Austin Pearce in London. In addition to . writing "American Composers," "The Music Lover's Ency-clopedia" and other valuable hooks upon music, Major Hughes has done much significant work in musical composition. In recent years he has achieved distinct fame as one of the most popular writers of fiction, one of the most successful of American playwrights, one of the most sought-after writers upon general subjects of interest to the public, and as an authority upon certain phases of military activity. After service in the National Guard of New York State for twenty years, he joined the expedition to the Mexican border. Upon the outbreak of the recent war he entered the United States Army and was raised to the rank of major. With all his manifold interests and activities, Major Hughes has retained his love for musical work and he possesses a; large collection of works upon Musical Theory. In composition he is a modernist in the broader sense of the term, employing harmonic treatment conforming to his own judgment and taste, even when it batters down the sacred traditions of the conservative theorists.] grew more and more lovely with every step. Mr. Business-man became a music 'fan,' as his friends said. He bought books on music, bought tickets for con-certs, operas and recitals which he had formerly secretly pitied his wife for attending. Much to his surprise, he found that this interest in music, like golf and the 'car,' took his mind from other things, made MR. HUGHE S I N HI S NE W YOR K HOM E Over the Piano is an Oil Portrait of Mrs. Hughes by James Montgomery Flagg. " I enclose a picture, taken at the piano at your request. Over the piano is a por-trait of my wifef as painted by James Montgomery Flagg. I have a fear that the position of my hands in the photograph will outrage some of the piano teachers, but I do not pose as an executant, but rather as an executioner of music. "RUPER T HUGHES. " his intellect rest, banished business for the nonce, benefited him, exhilarated him, made him a better man for the workaday world. "This is simply the history of thousands and thou-sands of men. Once I was dining with the well-known theatrical manager, Daniel Frohman. He said to me: 'What is that tune that opens the third movement of the Sixth Symphony of Beethoven?' "I had to confess that, despite my musical education, I did not remember it. (How many of the readers of TH E ETUD E could write it down now?) In a few min-utes the tune did come to Mr. Frohman, and he whistled it to me. Then he said: " 'Mr. Hughes, what is meant by a triad ?' "This is indicative of the kind of musical interest which great numbers of American business men are now taking in music. Mr. Frohman knew his melody from the Sixth Symphony, but did not know the most elementary things about chords. Fortunes in Music "The fortunes now being made in music by a great many men have gained respect for the musician among those of our 'practical business men' who have the ma-terialistic streak of our pioneer ancestors strongly fixed in them. Far be it from me to sneer at the business man who looked down upon music because every second mu-sician seemed to be able to do very little more than scrape out of his art a bare existence. Of course, there are thousands of poor musicians and always will be, but in every occupation there are thousands of poorly paid workers in comparison with the rich men at the top. No state of so-ciety, since the beginning of time, has ex-actly escaped that except in the books of Utopian dreamers. Where there is one George F. Boldt in the hotel business there are thousands of bell-boys and porters; where there is one Carnegie in the steel business there are thousands of operatives; where there is one John G. Johnson in law there are thousands of poor lawyers—and so on. Paderewski, Caruso, McCormack, Heifetz and numberless other artists the world over are earning a fortune every year. There are now teachers who are earning from thirty to fifty thousand dol-lars a year. Is not that a yearly fortune? "Possibly one of the reasons why music has earned the reputation for being a poorly paid profession is that, for the most part, the thousands of teachers of music scattered all over the country who do not receive nearly so much for their services as they should, are people of education and entitled to social standing and recognition in their communities. If they did not have this social standing by common consent, and only a few heads of the profession stood out in the limelight before the public, the great fortunes earned by men in the profession and in the industry of music would be more conspicuous. The poorly paid worker in industry accepts a kind of lower social status, but the poor but cul-tured musician, because of his education, naturally demands social recognition of the first order, regardless of a lean pocketbook. Should My Son Take Up Music? "In some days gone by, the average father would far rather have had his son become a harness manufacturer or a shoe dealer than become a musician. Now he knows that if the son works as hard in music as he might in business, and if he
< Page 7 | Page 9 >