Music and Radio: Record Reason Ahead in Music and Entertainment

IN many ways the winter months just ahead promise to set new records in musical entertainment, private as well as public.

Greater numbers than ever before will participate in the study of music and of musical instruments. But greater still will be the increase in the multitude of appreciative listeners to the best in music as produced by others.

In connection with the latter, the radio as well as the phonograph and other reproducing instruments, will play a larger part than ever before.

There can be no question as to the service the phonograph has rendered in the past in behalf of fine music, nor of the still greater service it is rendering to-day with greatly improved tonal qualities, delighting even the most critical.

Even more pronounced has been the rapid improvement both in the broadcasting and in the reception of worth while music by radio. The first modest programs have given way to more and more elaborate ones, enlisting the finest musical talent, and delivered by powerful transmission right to the door-step of the listener-in.

This is one of the reasons why, in this nation of music-lovers, radio receivers have already been installed in more than six million homes with other millions earnestly considering purchase in the near future.

Not only have broadcasting programs and methods been greatly improved, but receiving equipment as well—improvement in tonal qualities, in ease of operation, in reliability, in attractiveness of design and appearance.

No longer is the radio an unsightly junk pile with batteries and parts exposed, but a piece of modern living-room furniture. Encasements are provided that are noteworthy specimens of the cabinet-maker’s art, and that leave nothing further to be desired in the way of attractive appearance.

Receiving sets that are operated direct from the electric-light socket are making rapid progress and gaining more and more in favor. Battery-operated sets, however, still produce excellent results and continue to share in the general demand.

Improvements and refinements, having reached their present advanced stage, there is no longer the tendency to expect revolutionary changes in the models available, and the general public is being guided accordingly.

If the radio did no more than merely help to carry fine music into the home it would still be rendering a service of great value. For the musical taste of radio listeners today is very much higher than is commonly supposed. According to the results of a recent and widely circulated questionnaire among radio listeners, out of a total of nearly 80,000 votes for fifty composers Beethoven received the most votes, Schubert ranked second, and Victor Herbert third. The next in order were Richard Wagner, Felix Mendelssohn, Fritz Kreisler, Franz Liszt and Charles Gounod. Johann Strauss, the Vienna waltz-master, ranked fifteenth. Equally significant was the vote on favorite musical compositions and the fact, too, that for every one who voted for jazz there were more than four who voted against.

It is not surprising therefore to be assured that the music to be broadcast this season from the leading stations will fully meet the increasing demand throughout America for the very best that music has to offer.