ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $2.00 SEPTEMBER, 1920 Single Copies 25 Cents Music and Language MME . GALLI-CURC I speaks English with amazing fluency and almost without the slightest trace of an accent suggesting her Italian birth. She speaks other languages with equal facil-ity. Paderewski's mastery of languages made him the diplo-matic marvel of the "Peace Table." The editor, in many years of continuous meetings with the foremost musicians of the times, has been observing with great care certain matters per-taining to the psychological aspects of music and language. These have an unquestioned interest for the pianist, the violin-ist, as well as the singer. For the most part many of the celebrated singers met have been inadequate linguists. They seem perfectly capable of sing-ing a role in other tongues yet knowing very little about the inner meaning of the text. We have known numerous instances of American singers who have reproduced in song Italian arias with a surprisingly accurate accent, but who knew hardly one word of what they were singing. On the other hand, the pianists and violinists have for the most part been astonishingly fine linguists. This was noted so many times that the editor remembered the discoveries of Pierre Paul Broca, the renowned French surgeon and anthropologist, who from 1861 to 1865 carried out his famous researches upon the localization of cerebral functions—finding out among other things that there existed a very close connection between those centers of the brain having to do with speech and those centers dealing with the control of the hands. The subject is so vast and so interesting that we dare not go too deep into it here. The rather startling fact that musicians with splendidly trained hands do become fine linguists, while singers without such training are frequently inferior linguists is one of the best arguments for the intellectual value of hand-drill in music. Mme. Galli-Curci is a singer who is a remarkable linguist, but she was for years a concert pianist before she ever dreamed of becoming a vocalist. In fact, it is usually very easy for pianists and violinists to take up new languages. They are most helpful in the every-day work of the performer and teacher, and it seems a great neglect of opportunity to fail to take up a new language now and then. The sound-reproducing machine records used for language teaching have been investigated by the editor and found to be of very great value. ments of all kinds were bought in great quantities; bands started up like mushrooms. Talking machine records were wholly inadequate to supply the demand, and phonographs of certain makes were months behind in deliveries. The cabarets shut and good folks did their dancing at home to their own musical instruments. One of the finest piano manufacturers in the world told your editor last spring that most of his time was spent explaining to disappointed customers why their in-struments could not be delivered for months. Sheet music sales greatly increased and music schools everywhere reported that never had there been such demand for lessons. Of course, high wages played a great part in this. There was a time, for instance, when the term "silk stocking" applied to the landed aristocracy; then "silk stockings" became the insignia of questionable character; now they are the badge of the so-called "laboring classes." However, millions of the high wages would have gone for strong drink if prohibition had not been declared. That much of -this money has gone for music is undoubted. That this will have a beneficial effect upon the future of the country is indisputable. It may be a long way from prohibition to Beethoven (who, by the way, was anything but an abstainer), but the demand for more good music is un-questionably increasing. Fake Music Publishers Again LYO N & HEALY , the well-known music firm of Chicago, is taking an active interest in suppressing the fake publishers. They write us that they have written to these frauds directing them not to send the compositions of their victims to them for sale, as the "stuff" is immediately sent back. Part of the game is to charge the victim for "publication" five or ten times the actual cost of production. The victim is then assured that his "master-work" will be sent around to all the leading dealers for sale. In order to keep within the letter of the law the swindler does send around a few such copies and the composer waits with open hands for the royalties—royalties, alas! which never can come. The music dealers and the music publishers of America can help wonderfully by taking a positive stand against all such fake publishers: First, by advising all people contemplating the publication of any kind of piece of music, to keep strictly away from them unless they want to play the game of the moth and the flame. Second, by refusing absolutely to handle any composition bearing the imprint of the faker. We have received hundreds of such works in our office. For the most part the music is a pathetic parody upon the art. Often the verses have been so absurd that they would bring forth screams of laughter from any educated person. The faker has the conscience of Lucifer. .He will publish anything, no matter how bad, if he can stick the victim enough for it. The best rule is to send your composition around to any of the high-class publishers and thus find out whether it is really worth while. Active publishers are glad to examine new manuscripts, and if the composition has any worth you may be sure that the publishers will be eager to take it. A Remarkable Change MUSICA L instrument manufacturers and dealers report that there was an immense increase in the sale of all kinds of musical instruments when the Eighteenth Amendment exploded on us a little while ago and knocked out one of the most strongly in-trenched industries in America. Many musicians could hardly believe that their favorite beverages were forever gone and some could not see that the terrific cost of drunkenness had made prohibition seem the wisest course to our legislators. Most everybody prophesied an era of gloom and sat back to endure it. The wise ones, however, knew that human nature demands a certain amount of conviviality and many saw that music would be called for as never before. It is said that carloads and carloads of accordeons were shipped out to rural and mining districts—musical instru-
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