SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
THE LIBRARY OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELESHow to get the most out of your Victrola
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REG U.S. PAT. OFE
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COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY THE VICTOR TALKING MACHINE COMPANY. CAMDEN. N. J.The Love Duet from Faust
The sheer ecstasy of the passion which may bless or may utterly destroy has never been put into music more clearly than it is in this exquisite duet in “Faust,” and the Victrola enables you to hear this music sung by two of the great artists of our generation.How to get the most out of your Victrola
Today, when for the first time you have brought a Victrola into your home, we wish it might be possible to show you how much this, the most versatile and so the most satisfying musical instrument in all the world, can be made to entertain, to console and to inspire.
To say that the Victrola offers you, your family and your friends “all the music of all the world” is to dismiss the subject with an entirely inadequate phrase and so this booklet has been prepared to offer certain suggestions for your greater enjoyment of this, your newest, and, we verily j believe, your happiest possession.
Victor records represent a moment of inspired achievement in the life of some great artist. The skill, the art and the “atmosphere” of the Metropolitan Opera House and the concert halls of the world are brought into your home. They are no longer things to be enjoyed only at great intervals on rare occasions—they may become an integral part of your life, to be returned to at a moment’s notice.
Intimately associated as we are with the development ! of the Victrola, yet we are fully conscious of the wonder of it; and we, no less than our customers, have learned that amid “the daily round of irritating concerns and duties” we have only to turn to the Victrola in order to be once more in love with life and its beautiful, blessed burdens.We believe, utterly, that no matter with what delight you may have anticipated the possession of a Victrola, you will still have fallen far short of completely realizing its possibilities—the extent to which, through the whole scale of human emotions, its music may become woven into the fabric of your spiritual life and your physical well-being.
The keenest of all impressions are those we receive first, and so it is we urge with all earnestness that your first selection of records should contain at least some of the world’s “big” music.
Art is art, no matter what form it may take, and those who are sincere in their musical opinions will no more despise the lighter and more popular music than they will despise good music which is the product of other kinds of feeling and other knowledge. In certain moods and at certain times there is as much “inspiration” to be derived from ragtime as there is from a Beethoven symphony or the thunderous emotions of a great opera. Each produces its effect in its own way, and each supplies a very real human need; but because it is so different in the form of its appeal, it needs to be treated somewhat differently.
The fact of the matter is that popular music is usually built up on one of a few well-recognized formulae. It does what you expect it to do. Not consciously, but by association, we have learned to accept certain “patterns” in music as we have learned to expect certain patterns in clothes. Since there is nothing essentially different in any of them, they are easy to learn and hence easy to grow tired of.
There is, however, a very real pleasure in “picking up a tune.” For a few days we are quite happy in whistling or singing the new song—but once the new popular song is learned—then what? Your own experience will tell you—
and that is why we urge that in your first collection of records you secure a number of the classics or semi-classics with which you are familiar.
Familiar! That is precisely the point. Theodore Thomas once said that “popular music was familiar music," and that is the unassailable truth. A Beethoven symphony may be as popular as “The Rosary" when enough people have become as familiar with it, and yet it may be a classic of the classics.
Parenthetically it might be said at this point that for those who do not sing or play, the Victrola is by far the quickest and simplest medium through which to “pick up" the new music.
To illustrate by a concrete example, "Carolina” or "Cutie” may keep a family full to the brim with bright, pleasant, joyful emotions for quite some little time. It may be days or weeks. It may be even months; but McCormack and Kreisler’s record of the Berceuse from Jocelyn, Elman’s record of the Schubert Ave Maria, or any one of a thousand we might mention, will smooth the wrinkles from your brow; the troubled furrows from your mind, ten years from today as surely as they will smooth them now.
When the music of all the world is at your disposal it is almost impossible to refrain from bathing heart and soul and body in it. But remember that to become saturated with anything is to lose the fine edge of enjoyment! With too frequent use the most valuable remedy may lose its healing virtues. Definite, measurable, physical effects may be produced by music; but the gist of the matter is that one should become familiar enough with music to understand and enjoy it, yet never familiar enough to induce the loss of its effect. Hear it when you need to hear it, and it willcontinue to be a thing of joy, not for days or weeks, but throughout the whole of your life.
Personal taste varies more perhaps in music than in any other art, but in a general way it follows much the same broad channels. In any case the Victor Record Catalogue, since it actually does contain almost all the music of the world by the world's greatest exponents of musical art, is a treasure house of untold satisfaction; it gives the widest possible scope for personal selection.
The Victrola is not one instrument, but all of them. It is a voice, a violin, a trombone or a symphony orchestra, according to your will, and in making a selection of records full advantage should be taken of the most extraordinary privilege this fact conveys.
Making up a Victrola program for the entertainment of friends, calls for just the same variety and emotional balance as the professional musician strives to introduce into his own programs; but in this, you as your own concert manager, enjoy a degree of latitude wholly beyond the reach of any single artist and any manager, for every branch of music, every type of music and every medium of musical expression may be brought into play by the simple expedient of having a sufficiently large and sufficiently varied collection of records.
In giving operatic programs or in playing operatic records for your own private use the Victrola Book of the Opera will be an added source of pleasure and satisfaction, for it affords a clear, concise understanding of all the well-known operas, both as to music, plot and dramatic movement.
Then, too, the pleasure you derive from operatic records may be similarly heightened by listening to the music witha libretto, which gives the foreign words used by the singer and an English translation of them.
Those who are unskilled in languages usually experience some difficulty in pronouncing the names of composers, artists, operas and opera characters, and there is an undeniable satisfaction in being able to pronounce such words correctly. This is really much simpler than it seems; and the list of such names furnished at the back of the Victor Record Catalogue together with the additional pronunciations given in the Victrola Book of the Opera and given also from time to time in the monthly supplements to the Victor Catalogue, will be sufficient for most purposes.
We should like you, our newest customer, to realize that these suggestions we offer for your consideration are not mere hypothetical estimates, but conclusions proven by the sifted experience of years. We present them to you in order that in your home the Victrola shall be all that it may so easily become.QRAND OPERA is beyond doubt the most stupendous experience available to the music-lover, just as it is the ultimate ambition of those upon whom has been bestowed
vocal talent in high degree.
Splendor of music, magnificence of production, are not the only elements which enter into the making of Grand Opera. The glamour of living romance is woven into it as well. Petrograd, Paris, London—scarcely a great love affair nor a great state intrigue, but some of its scenes have been enacted in the corridors of some one of the world’s great Opera Houses. The passion and pain, the character and the treachery of passing generations in many lands form part of the unconscious atmosphere of Grand Opera.
Just as there are some concert pieces with which every concert-goer is assumed to be familiar, so there are certain operas which form a basis for discussion among well-informed music-lovers. These are: Faust, Il Trovatore, Aida, Mme. Butterfly, La Bohême, Lucia, Rigoletto, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, La Tosca, Don Giovanni, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Carmen.
There are many more which constitute part of the regular operatic repertoire, but to hold a well-established viewpoint for these is to be capable of passing judgment on the rest. The Victrola, which permits one to repeat some aria, duo, trio, chorus or whatever it may be, at will, affords an infinitely better opportunity to develop a discriminating taste in such matters than can be had by systematic
a
attendance at Grand Opera performances—which obviously is quite impossible for the majority of music-lovers.
The keenest enjoyment of Grand Opera music, or for that matter, any other kind of music, comes to those who listen to it with some sort of definite conception as to “what it is all about” and the methods employed by the composer and the artists in telling the story.
Grand Opera is drama done in music instead of spoken words. In a novel the author makes his characters do their own talking; he also describes what they do and how they are dressed, but more than that, he devotes pages to telling you what they think. He tells you of the mental struggles that cause them to do or to refrain from doing. It may not be amiss to say that this is substantially what the orchestra does in Grand Opera—and so there is much more to listen to besides the “song” itself.
There are so many different sorts of appeals in operatic music that the following simple classification may possibly help make a satisfactory choice.
Generally speaking, there are four different kinds of operatic arias, duets, trios, quartets, etc. First the pure song melody that appeals to those who like beautiful tunes, such as “Vissi D’arte” from Tosca, the trio from William Tell, for tenor, baritone and bass, and “Qual volutta,” the famous trio from I Lombardi sung by tenor, baritone and soprano. Secondly there is what might be called the “catchy” operatic melody, the sort of thing that makes its full appeal on first hearing because of the simplicity of its melody and the catchy swing of its rhythm. In this class are such arias as the “Habanera” and the Toreador Song from Carmen, "La donna e mobile" from Rigoletto; duets such as "The Brindisi" from Traviata (the only duetrecorded by Alma Gluck and Caruso), “La ci darem la mano” from Don Giovanni, quartets like the Rigoletto Quartet, The Spinning Wheel Quartet from Martha, etc. The third class is the dramatic operatic selection. Of the arias there are such notable examples as the “Vesti la giubba’’ from Pagliacci, “Ritorna vincitor’’ from A’ida; duets such as “Si pel ciel” from Otello (the only Caruso and Ruffo duet in existence), “Mai reggendo” from II Trovatore; trios and quartets like the famous “Alerte” trio from Faust and the quartet from the Masked Ball.
The fourth type of operatic selection is the “Bravura” or coloratura aria, simply a technical vocal display song. There is very little if any “emotion” displayed in such arias, the sole purpose of the composer being to show the brilliance and marvelous flexibility of the coloratura soprano voice. Excellent examples of bravura singing are in “Ombra leg-giera” from Dinorah, “Saper vorreste” from the Masked Ball, Polonaise from Mignon, Bell Song from Lakmé and the “Balatella" from Pagliacci.
Those who are not familiar with operatic music would do well to start with the catchy operatic selections and lead from them by easy stages into the melodious, the bravura and the dramatic selections, occasionally playing a good operatic band record, like the Grand March from Ai'da, the Kermesse Waltz from Faust, or the Coronation March from Le Prophète, just by way of adding the necessary element of contrast and gaining the realization that there is a “thrill” in Grand Opera that anyone can appreciate with little or no previous experience.
The Victor Record Catalogue contains all the more important selections from practically all the operas, and so provides an unfailing fund of entertainment.The Symphony Orchestra
It is only within the last few strenuous years that satisfactory records could be made of an entire symphony orchestra. In fact, the first really satisfactory achievement in this direction was accomplished in the Victor laboratories when the Boston Symphony Orchestra was recorded. Victor Herbert left a declaration, upon hearing these Boston Symphony records for the first time, which sums up in a few words what a vast field of musical satisfaction this achievement revealed for the lover of music as well as for the maker of music. He said, “Wonderful, isn’t it? This newest development in the Victor laboratory means that we shall be able to paint the original masterpieces as the masters conceived them. It will no longer be a case of Corots by Smith and Whistlers by Jones, but the true originals themselves. And then, you know, there were so many things that formerly couldn’t be played at all until we were free to use an entire orchestra as we can now. What sort of a result would you expect to get if you said to a painter, Here is a little blue, a little red and a little green; paint a picture—but don’t use any other colors, for that’s all you get.’”
That is exactly the sort of handicap the conductor of a symphony orchestra was working under when making records. Today, however, we are satisfactorily recording a full symphony ensemble of as many as one hundred men, as compared with the forty or so pieces of a few years ago.Thousands of honest souls despising cant in any form are continually asking, “How am I to listen to music in order to get the utmost out of it?” and since the symphony orchestra is the highest instrumental development of music, and consequently the most complex, it is in listening to the symphony orchestra that this need is most acute.
When all the splendid pageantry of opera is spread before one’s eyes, there are plenty of clues, and the emotional struggles of even fictitious humans can never be entirely beyond our ken. A symphony, however, has no recognizable background of creatures made in our own image and laboring under our own frailties, so necessarily it must be listened to in a more impersonal way.
A symphony has form and design and “color, “just as has a painting. The essential difference between them as works of art is that the picture “stands still” while you look at it, whereas the symphony does not. An even closer simile would be the moving picture, for in that just as in the symphony, you must know and remember what has gone before in order to realize the significance of what comes in the middle or at the end. At the “movies” you are dependent upon your eyes—at the symphony concert you must depend upon your ears.
The form of the symphony has been pretty thoroughly established. It consists of four movements; the first an allegro, or quick and energetic movement, the beginning of a psychological “picture”; the second, an andante, or slow movement which may represent hopes, fears, aspirations; a scherzo, or brisk, exhilarating movement of merriment, madness or strife; and a finale, the tragic or triumphant outcome.
The theme of the entire Beethoven C Minor Symphony consists of three short notes of the same pitch and one longer note a little lower in pitch,
and the “design” of that symphony is the manner in which
Allegro con brio.this same theme is built up and elaborated by repetition in different keys, rhythms and speeds, and also in the manner in which it is contrasted with other themes.
Few symphonies are as logically constructed as the C Minor of Beethoven, and as a rule new themes are chosen for each movement. Each movement is complete in itself, but sympathetically related to the others. The great thing in listening to a symphony movement is to listen for repetitions of the chief themes or melodies. These themes are often greatly changed in various ways in the course of a movement, as it is part of the composer’s task to get variety of treatment with unity of idea. But he invariably contrives to give due prominence to his chief themes, and half the joy of listening to a symphony lies in recognizing the principal themes as they emerge from the mass of sound, clothed perhaps in new harmonies, or new instrumental effects.
As to "color”—we are told that all the colors we see are mere vibration. We realize easily enough that music is vibration, and it doesn’t require any very great stretch of the imagination to see the difference in (tone) color between the violin and the piccolo.
For the person who has always considered Symphony Orchestra Music too classical we venture to suggest the following Symphony Orchestra selections, which have a decided popular appeal: Prelude to Act I of Carmen, Blue Danube Waltz, Brahms Hungarian Dances, Anitra’s Dance from Peer Gynt, Lohengrin Prelude, and the Espana Rhapsodie.
For those whose taste for symphony music is already cultivated the following recordings will be found particularly interesting and informative: Tschaikowsky Symphony in F Minor, the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven, the Surprise Symphony, the Mozart G Minor Symphony, the Rienzi Overture, Scheherazade, Invitation to the Waltz, Largo from New World Symphony, Haydn’s Military Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony, Tannhäuser Overture.Band
Music
Strange—but in all the varied development of music and musical instruments nothing quite touches our primeval spirit like the beating of the drum. Rhythm—it was the first music and it will be a dominant factor in the last, no matter how we may dress it up or refine it to suit our “civilized” ears.
The small boy, deaf to any other musical appeal, races down the street at the first blare of a band. In some measure we are all children to the last, and so it is that the music of the band sets our hearts and feet to beating out its gallant measures. Moreover such music produces definite measurable effects on the body, and it is well known that men can march further to the music of a band than they can without it.
In composition the band is not far removed from the orchestra, except that woodwind instruments, such as flutes and clarinets, take the place of strings, but the result is that the band in its own field of music more particularly stimulates activities of the body where the symphony orchestra makes a stronger appeal to mental activity.
There are hundreds of records of band music made by the most famous bands in the world, which will be found in the Victor Record Catalogue; but as a working nucleus, the following selection of double-faced records may be welcome to those who are beginning to form a collection: Semper Fidelis, President Harding March, Pomp and Circumstance March, Ai’da Grand March, and Rondo Capriccioso, Vessella’s Band; Lights Out and Washington Post, Victor Military Band; Stars and Stripes Forever and Fairest of the Fair, Sousa’s Band; Tannhäuser March and Chopin’s Funeral March, Pryor’s Band; Marsovia Waltz and Amina, United States Marine Band and Pryor’s Band.Chamber Music
Less understood than any other form of music, merely because it is less frequently heard, is the music of the string quartet. However, there is something about string quartet music that appeals very strongly to the trained musician and the person who has a genuine love for music. This is probably due to the fact that instead of a single air one has to listen to and follow four distinct airs that are marvelously blended together into one full organ-like harmony. With a quartet of musicians like the members of the Flonzaley Quartet, it is almost impossible to tell when one instrument leaves off and another starts, so wonderfully balanced is the playing of these men who have devoted their lives to playing together.
The string quartet is of course the basis of chamber music but there are other effective combinations, such as violin,’cello and piano; flute, violin,'cello and piano, and so on.
Of the standard string quartet selections listed in the Victor Catalogue we especially recommend The Mendelssohn Canzonetta, Tschaikowsky’s "Andante Cantabile," "Drink to me only with thine eyes," the “Nocturne" of Borodin, Smetana’s Quartet in E Minor, the Quartet No. 3 in E Flat Minor of Tschaikowsky, the Minuette of Boccherini, Interludium in Modo Antico of Glazounow, the Beethoven Quartet in C Major, Dittersdorfs Quartet in E Flat and the Quartet in D Major, the Quartet in E Flat and the Quartet in D Minor of Mozart.Piano
Music
The piano is a solo instrument that can provide accompaniment for other instruments as for itself; and it is so exceedingly successful in this respect that it may be regarded as the basis of musical things. To the composer, the chorus master, the vocal teacher, as well as to the pianist, the modern piano is a necessity, because it is the one instrument on which, perhaps, all harmony-parts can be elaborated with ease.
Apart from its use as an accompanying instrument, the piano is one of the most satisfying of solo instruments. It is a complete orchestra in itself. A greater volume of solo music has been composed for the piano alone than for any other instrument. Schumann, Liszt and especially Chopin, for instance, wrote music for the piano which does not sound so well when transferred to some other instrument.
The tones played by the piano are produced by a hammer striking a string. They therefore develop their greatest volume at the moment the strings are struck, and immediately begin to diminish. They can be sustained to some slight extent only—as compared with instruments that are played with a bow.
To thoroughly appreciate piano recordings one must have some understanding of what is meant by “interpretation” as applied to piano music. Certainly the artist cannot alter the tone of the instrument played upon, other than to make it softer in some places than in others. Therefore, his interpretation of a number must depend principally upon his own ability to shade the tone and to vary the tempo in keepingwith the nature of whatever composition he may be playing.
Two well-known pianists, after hearing Rachmaninoff play his famous Prelude in C Sharp Minor, had a heated argument as to just how much he quickened the tempo toward the end. They had each played the composition in public a little differently than the composer played it, and were not quite in agreement with him on detail, but—they played it as nearly as possible like Rachmaninoff’s playing of it after hearing him in concert. For the piano student there is much that can be learned from listening to such artists’ records.
Another mark of the piano virtuoso is his ability to sustain a note by use of the sustaining pedal, after the hand has left the key, without blurring the harmonies. Paderewski gives a wonderful example of sustained “singing” tones in his record of Minuet in G and Olga Samaroff on her record of Liszt's Liebestraum.
For forceful precision of attack and clean-cut technique no better examples can be found than Paderewski’s playing of Hungarian Rhapsodies, Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G Minor and Samaroff’s record of Beethoven’s Turkish March from the Ruins of Athens. Brilliant scale work and other technical difficulties are admirably displayed on such records as Rachmaninoff’s Spinning Song and his Dohnânyi Etude, Cortot’s Waltz Etude, Seguidilla and Tarantelle.
Apart from these technical things, which interest the pianist more particularly, there are several other piano recordings of selections which, for pure melodic beauty, have never been surpassed ; they will furnish infinite enjoyment to the lover of pure melody. Among such compositions to be found in the Victor Catalogue we especially recommend Paderewski’s recordings of Chopin’s Nocturne in F Major, Nos. i and 2, Waltz in C Sharp Minor, Polonaise Militaire, and Etude in G Flat; de Pachmann’s records of Mendelssohn’s Spring Song, Chopin’s Funeral March and Nocturne in G Major, and Cortot’s Berceuse of Chopin.Violin Music
There is one very marked physical difference between the violin group of instruments and all others—with one exception, which is negligible for the moment—and that is that the tone and the pitch are controlled wholly by the player.
In other instruments there are keys, pedals, frets or some other means of assisting the player to maintain the pitch. The violin has a plain fingerboard, strings, a bow and—the fingers of the violinist. What kind of tone will you get out of it? Will your tone be true to the pitch? That depends on you. And because of these things the music of the violin is more intimate, more personal than that of any other instrument.
Another interesting fact concerning the violin is that while almost all other instruments have been improved upon, the violin alone has undergone no change and no improvement since Stradivarius put by his last one.
The Victor Record Catalogue is especially rich in violin selections, and to enjoy such numbers as Dvorak’s Humoresque, Beethoven’s Turkish March, the Ballet Music from Rosamunde, Valse Bluette, etc., does not require a musical education nor repeated hearings.
Then there are beautiful song-like melodies such as Schubert’s Ave Maria, Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words, and On Wings of Song, Raff’s Cavatina, Schumann’s Träumerei, Meditation from Thais, Le Cygne, Souvenir, Koi Nidrei and the Preislied from Die Meistersinger, which have been popular for years and which will continue to be popular as long as mankind loves music.
But merely to listen to such violin selections for the rhythmic appeal and the beauty of their melody alone, isto miss half one’s joy. It is only when a hearer knows that the Turkish March, for instance, is played throughout with double stopping (playing on two strings at once and producing a full double voice or duet harmony) that he can fully appreciate the beauty of Heifetz’s or Elman’s record. To listen, with wonder, for the full ’cello-like G string at the beginning of the Schubert Ave Maria, then contrast its rich, sonorous tone with the throbbing harmonies of the double-stop passages in the second verse, is to find a lasting delight.
One of the most universally popular violin records ever issued by the Victor Company is Kreisler’s Caprice Viennois, and yet if asked why they like it particularly, very few owners of this record would be able to tell you. Nevertheless, we venture a guess that it is the rich double-stopping of Kreisler, added to the appeal of the melody itself that has made this selection dear to so large a number of the American people.
When you are able to tell these things as you listen to a violin record—are able to visualize the artist playing in double stops, pizzicato, in harmonics, spiccato or whatever it may be, you will find yourself greatly enjoying the more technically difficult violin selections that call for adroit fingers and rapid bowing. Such records as Heifetz’s Tarantelle, and his Ronde des Lutins, Elman’s Caprice Basque and such records by Maud Powell as Vieuxtemps’ St. Patrick’s Day, de Beriot’s Concerto in G, Kreisler’s Variations of Tartini, and Zimbalist’s Serenata of d’Ambro-sio’s! To realize that the high flutelike tones on the end of Chaminade’s Serenade Espagnole played by Kreisler are artificial harmonics, and to be able, while listening, to picture the technical difficulty of feathering the string with mathematical exactitude, so as to produce a tone two whole octaves above the fundamental formed by pressing down hard with another finger of the left hand—this is to fully appreciate what it means to be a violin virtuoso.
Sacred Music
Of the sacred selections to be found in the Victor Catalogue under “Sacred Songs,” there are two general types that deserve special mention. First is the simple hymn of prayer, penitence or thanksgiving, represented by such well-known record selections as “Whispering Hope,” “Nearer My God to Thee,” and ”In
the Hour of Trial," sung by various soloists, quartets and choruses, and various Easter and Christmas hymns, such as Gounod’s "Nazareth,” Adam’s “Noël,” “The Holy City,” “Calvary,” and “The Palms."
Then there is the song that builds to an elaborate climax, as, for instance, in Caruso’s marvelous recording of Faure’s “Sancta Maria.” Alda’s singing of Franck’s “Panis Angelicus” is a thing of unsurpassed beauty, also accompanied by the full, deep voiced 'cello. Bizet’s “Agnus Dei,” the “Ave Marias” of Gounod, Kahn, Mascagni and Schubert all are moving examples of inspired religious songs, not to mention the works of more modern composers like “The Lord is My Light,” “The Lost Chord," and “Face to Face."
Nor should one overlook such splendid examples of Hebrew music as Braslau’s record of “Eili, Eili’’ and “Yohr-zeit,” and Gluck and Zimbalist’s "Hatikva.” Many oratorio arias and choruses are also conceptions of rare musical beauty, among which should be mentioned “Open the Gates of the Temple,” “Sound an Alarm,” “Inflammatus," “Cujus Animam,” “Hallelujah Chorus” from Messiah, “The Heavens Are Telling” from "The Creation,” and the choruses and solos from the “Seven Last Words” of Dubois. There is very real inspiration to be found in such music.Concert Songs
There are those who will tell you that the concert song is the highest form of vocal art and in the telling may lead you to feel that such music possibly is too classical to make a wide appeal. That such an assumption would be erroneous is evident when one realizes that for instance, John McCor-
mack, probably the greatest and most popular concert singer of the day, includes on his programs songs and ballads of a semi-popular nature, such songs as “Little Mother of Mine,” “Dear Old Pal," and “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” and wins the hearti-
est applause of the evening by singing them. Are they classical or “high-brow?” Certainly not; but sung by so great an artist they have almost become classics and may have done as much to add cheer and happiness to the thousands who have heard them as all the great symphonies of the world.
But this is only one type of song that will be found on the Concert Program. There is the concert waltz that always brings a quick response from the audience. Untold satisfaction lies in hearing Melba’s famous waltz song, written for her by the great composer of waltz songs, Arditi, toward the close of which there is the most remarkable birdlike trill ever recorded or sung. Under Arditi’s name in the Victor Record Catalogue will be found several other splendid concert waltzes, among which is the “Leggiero Invisibile” by Madame Schumann-Heink, one of the most amazing recordings this famous contralto ever made.
Other interesting examples of concert songs are “The Four Leaf Clover,” sung by Williams, “L'heure Exquise” by Gluck, “Mignonette” by Culp, “Morgen” by Alda, “Swiss Echo Song” by Tetrazzini, “The Brook” by Gluck, “BeauSoir” by De Luca, “Le Cor” by Journet, “The Erlkönig,” and the “Cry of Rachel” by Schumann-Heink, “Le Nil,” by Gluck and Zimbalist, the “Banjo Song” by Mme. Homer and her daughter, and “Ouvre Ton Coeur” by Martinelli.
One thing that should always be borne in mind is the fact that any song suited to the voice of the artist and the general taste of the audience is a good concert song. It eases the way for arias from the operas and oratorios, sacred songs, ballads and different foreign folk-songs. The art of the concert singer, apart from the ability to sing well, lies in the selection of songs for the concert and the proper grouping of these. Never should too many songs of the same general type and appeal come together. There should be the element of contrast necessary in all entertainments, and especially in public entertainments, and this can only be gotten by selecting different kinds of songs and arias and arranging them in the most interesting order on the program. There is a strong tendency for the concert singer today to have an assisting artist on the program, a violinist, flutist, or vocalist whose voice is different from that of the principal artist. The Vic-trola owner has the means at his command to hold a more varied and therefore much more interesting concert in his home than the greatest of all singers could possibly give. By including a band selection between vocal numbers, varying a group of violin selections with a good vocal ensemble like the “Sextette,” and occasionally including a good recitation like Kipling’s “Gunga Din,” the evening’s entertainment will not drag. We are giving some “Home Concert Programs” here which will, we trust, aid you in making up interesting programs from your collection of records and thus serve to increase your pleasure in your Victrola and enable you always to have “something interesting” for the other members of the family, your friends and acquaintances when you may wish to entertain.
In planning such a program there are three importantthings to think of, namely, the beginning, the middle and the end. The selections for these places must be the finest numbers on the program, increasing in appeal from the first number, which must be “big,” to the middle number, which must be bigger than the first, and the last number, the biggest of all on the program. This does not necessarily apply to tonal volume only. Any record selection that appeals to more people in the audience than some other selection is a bigger program number.
	
HOME ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMS	
Program No. I	
Gems from the Mikado—Parts I and II	Victor Light Opera Company
To a Wild Rose	Venetian Trio
Flirtation	McCormack and Kreisler
Last Night	Mme. Homer and Mme. Homer Stires	
Festival at Bagdad (Scheherazade)	Philadelphia Symphony
Oi Luna (Silvery Moon)	De Luca
Serenade—Chantez, riez, dormez (Sing, Smile, Slumber)	Farrar	
Le Père de la Victoire	Journet
Adagietto (L’Arlesienne)	Kreisler and String Quartet
Si vous l’aviez compris	Caruso-Elman
Voce di primavera (Voice of Spring)	Garrison
La Spagnuola (The Spanish Dancer) Sextette from Lucia di Lammermoor	Zanclli
Program No. 11	
Le Secret	Vessella s Band
a. Bonnie Wee Thing	McCormack
b. Lo, Here the Gentle Lark	Galli-Curci
c. John Peel	De Gogorza
d. The Rosary	Schumann-Heink
Gunga Din (Recitation)	Taylor Holmes
a. Salut d’amour (Violin)	Maud Powell
b. Underneath the Stars (Violin)	Fritz Kreisler
c. Turkish March (Violin)	Heifetz	jVirginian Judge	Kelly
I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen	Burr and Peerless Quartet
She's the Lass for Me	Sir Harry Lauder
Program No. 111	
Les Filles de Cadiz	Galli-Curci
The Viking Song	De Gogorza
Erminie—Lullaby	Mabel Garrison
Nocturne	Flonzaley Quartet
Sparks (Piano)	Olga Samaroff
Fantasie Impromptu (Harp)	Salvi
Song of the Shepherd Lehi	Gluck
Hebrew Melody (Violin)	Heifetz
Polichinelle Serenade (Violin)	Kreisler
Caprice Basque (Violin)	Elman
Elégie—Mélodie	Caruso-Elman
Eili Eili	Braslau
Ride of the Valkyries	Philadelphia Symphony
No. IV	
SACRED PROGRAM	
Adeste Fideles	Chimes
Open the Gates of the Temple	Williams
St. Paul—But the Lord is Mindful of his Own	Schumann-Heink	
Largo	Caruso
Ave Maria (Violin)	Heifetz
I Need Thee Every Hour	Gluck-Homer
Brighten the Corner	Rodeheaver
In the Hour of Trial	Gluck-Zimbalist
A Mighty Fortress is our God	Trinity Male Choir
The Lord is My Light	McCormack
Panis Angelicus	Alda
Festival Te Deum	Trinity ChoirPopular Music
Simple, catchy tunes have always caught the public fancy and always will, for the reason that they supply a perfectly natural human need.
That such music should soon lose its charm doesn’t matter much, for the charm is real enough while it lasts. Beauty is only skin deep, so they say; to which one may answer that that is plenty deep enough, and music is only one of beauty’s many forms. When a piece of music has smoothed out a frown or brought a touch of inspiration into grey lives, it has justified its existence, whether it be a popular song or a symphony.
The Broadway hit, the tingling choruses and solos of the latest musical comedy are as accessible to the Victor owner as they are to the residents of a metropolis and— better yet, they may be enjoyed without the fatigues involved in theatre-going.
Another factor of Victor popular music is that you can get 1 ,	the latest song or dance while it is all the
vogue. Each month, each week, each day a vast amount of “popular” music is published which will never become popular, but is thrust willy-nilly on a patient public. Out of this mass the Victor Company selects only the best. The plainsman in Texas therefore can get the music of the moment at the moment just as readily as the office man on Broadway.Dance Music
The impulse to dance is spontaneous. It is a manifes-. tation of the joy o’ life that needs some more vigorous means of expression than is provided by speech. To have to wait two weeks for a formal dancing party is to lose that fine edge of impulse, and that is why the Victrola renders an otherwise unobtainable service to the dancers.
No need to rent a hall, engage an orchestra and send out invitations. You may dance when the inspiration seizes you. You may dance the kind of dances that the mood of the moment may suggest for as long a time or as short a time as you may wish.
And—here as in every other branch of musical art, the Victrola offers you the best.
Beside the dancers themselves, there are two other vital factors to be considered—the music and the floor—and you know that your music is right when it is provided by the Victrola. If you happen to live in a fairly large town it is easy enough, of course, to engage an orchestra (at considerable expense and for stated times) which will furnish entirely satisfactory music; but—the Victrola? It gives you the best dance music by the most accomplished orchestras and bands and, when the music is good enough, people can and will dance on a rubber mat or in a city street. Three or four friends call on a winter evening—nothing simpler than to roll back the
rugs and dance—and certainly nothing more beneficial from the mental or physical viewpoints.
Then, too, you may dance to the music of the same orchestra as you would if you lived in the gayest of metropolitan cities.The Lesser
Instruments
Human nature is a moody thing—breaking out unexpectedly in unexpected ways, and in an evening’s program it is quite likely
that special interest may center on an oboe solo or some other such musical hors d'oeuvre. There are times when one may respond quite vividly to a concertina.
This side of music is also taken care of in the Victor Catalogue. There is, we believe, not one instrument in general use anywhere in the Western world which may not be heard by means of the Victrola, in solos or in small combinations. There are cornet records, trombone, harp, mandolin, guitar, banjo, xylophone, chimes, balalaika, Hawaiian guitars, marimba, zither, cembalom and others, including even the street piano, affording solos in infinite variety and a few such records are highly acceptable additions to any collection.
It is on just such instruments as these that the composer depends for the introducing of special effects. The oboe is curiously suggestive of the East, as castanets are of Spain and the Latin Americas, and when one’s fancy happens to run in that direction such records may easily become sources of untold satisfaction.
All musical composition simmers down to a question of saying the same thing in as many different and interesting ways as possible, and something of this applies to the building up of an evening’s program. A record of Hawaiian guitars included in a program of better music is apt to be quite fascinating and serves to emphasize the tremendous versatility of the Victrola.RRw io qei ike Rest ^Result
s
Just as there are certain best conditions for all instruments and for the voice, so too there are certain best conditions for the Victrola, and the search for those best conditions will be a source of much pleasurable experimentation. The acoustic properties of no two rooms are exactly alike. They depend on the size and shape of the room, the height of the ceilings and the character of the furnishings, but the Victor system of changeable needles and tone modifying doors attain the most satisfactory results in any home.
We would strongly recommend that you try all the varieties of Victrola Tungs-tone Styli and Victor Steel needles with the modifying doors at certain chosen apertures and in the various available rooms until you find the combination giving the most satisfying results.
In this connection it might be well to point out that a full tone Tungs-tone Stylus or Steel needle is particularly suited for a large music-room and that when the Victrola is to be used in a small room or even a room which is comparatively small, the soft tone Tungs-tone Stylus or Steel needle very frequently will give better results. It sometimes happens that a particularly good effect is secured by placing the Victrola in a room adjoining the one in which the listener sits, and using a full tone Tungs-tone Stylus or Steel needle.
When giving a varied program in the home, it is especially convenient to use a full tone Tungs-tone Stylus and vary the volume of the music to suit the taste of the audience, the acoustic properties of the room and the nature of the record played, by changing the aperture of the modifying doors. In this way it will not be necessary to change the stylus during the entertainment. If the room is rather large, the draperies heavy, and the audience is a large one, it will be foundmore satisfactory to use the extra loud Tungs-tone Stylus which will give any record in the Victor Catalogue a carrying volume sufficient even for a large concert hall or theatre.
The operation of a Victrola is exceedingly simple, but the few prescribed rules should be followed literally until they become a fixed habit.
Stand beside the instrument rather than in front of it. Close but do not latch the modifying doors. Place the record on the turntable. Wind the motor slowly and evenly to a good, but not to its fullest tension. Examine the tungs-tone point to make sure it has not been bent through careless handling. Release the brake. Allow the turntable to develop its correct speed. Take the soundbox at its circumference between the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand and lower gently until the reproducing point comes, gently, into contact with the smooth, shiny rim at the outer edge of the record and push, gently, toward the sound wave grooves. Lower the lid of the Victrola. Open the modifying doors at the first notes of the music.
In stopping the record when the automatic stop is not in use, the soundbox should be lifted up and doubled back until it lies on the taper tone arm or other rest provided for it.
SPEED	dealer from whom you purchased your Victrola
will see that it is properly assembled and that the speed of the turntable is set at 78 revolutions per minute.
That is the speed at which all Victor records should be played, and we most strongly advise that the speed regulator be not tampered with under any circumstances, except when it may be necessary to reset the regulator in order that the turntable shall actually turn at 78 revolutions when the soundbox is not in contact with the record.
From time to time it may be necessary to test the speed of the turntable to see that there is no variation from the designated speed of 78 revolutions. This may be doneby putting a record on the turntable and inserting a small piece of paper between the record and the turntable so that a portion of the paper protrudes. The revolutions may then be counted by holding a watch close enough to the turntable so that the eyes may have a simultaneous vision of the paper “marker” and the face of the watch.
CARE OF RECORDS
Be sure you keep your records in the albums provided for them, for dust or dirt should not be permitted to accumulate in the fine spiral groove which contains the sound wave impressions. Records should be dusted off with a brush or soft rag before and after playing. If this is done systematically and the records kept under cover they will need no other attention, even over a period of many years.
VICTOR NEEDLES AND STYLI
Use Victrola Tungs-tone Styli or Victor Steel needles. These products are the result of many years’ experience, thousands of dollars’ worth of experimentation, and are built to conform to the exact requirements of our records, which obviously will be better understood by us than by any one else.
A permanent point can be permanent only because it is too hard to wear—in which case it must inevitably wear the records. The Victor system of changeable needles permits you to replace a worn stylus or change a needle instantly with the result that perfect reproduction can be secured at all times without serious wear on your records. The changeable needle system does more than that, for it enables you to use the same discretion in playing records as the artist who made the record would himself use if he knew in just what kind of room he would be required to play.
RECORD INDEX
Keep your records indexed. It is a very small matter, and once the habit is formed it is easy to find the record you want the moment you want it.Victrola Record Albums consist of record envelopes numbered and bound into book form. Each Album bears a letter of the alphabet. Inside its cover is a printed form to index its contents. Enter here the name of each record and its artists, and the envelope number. You should use, in addition, your Victor Index Book as a “directory” of all your records. If you enter in the Index Book the names of each record and its artists, the letter of the album and the envelope number, it will be an easy matter to turn directly to any record needed.
It will be seen that there are two extensions of the gold circle at the circumference of Victor record labels. On these the album and album envelope should be marked. The return of each record to its proper album and proper envelope is thus assured.
The first essential in the arrangement of any PROGRAMS*3 Pr°gram is—variety. Following a big dramatic number there should be an emotional let down, although obviously it should not be so great as to be incongruous. It is best to go from a violin composition to a song or from a big concerted number like the Sextette from
Lucia to some quieting composition for string quartette.
Another important point is that you have music of all
possible tone colors to choose from. There are solos by voices of all kinds, but there are also solos by violins, ’cellos, trombones, cornets, flutes, saxophones, harps, xylophones, chimes—in fact, as we have said, solos by every known instrument and other numbers by all the known combinations of instruments are available to the Victrola owner.
With the Victor Catalogue to draw on, one might easily give a more or less formal concert program every night for years without exhausting the possibilities and without any sense of sameness, for your Victrola makes available to you practically all the music of all the world.USE TUNGS-TONE NEEDLES TO PROTECT YOUR RECORDS
You can even bend a point on the surface of a valued record without damage to the record
The Tungs-tone Stylus was announced by the Victor Talking Machine Company during the winter of 1916. Up to that time Victor Steel Needles had offered the only suitable and satisfactory means for playing Victor Records.
The new point had all of the advantages of the Victor Steel Needle I with the added advantage that it would play from 100 to 300 records without changing. The need for such a point had been recognized for some ten or fifteen years, and during all of that time the experimental laboratories of the Victor Company had been patiently, laboriously, and scientifically searching for it. The answer to the problem was finally found in Tungsten, the metal which also revolutionized electric lighting.
From the first this new point obviously had advantages of preeminent merit.
Tungsten is dense. While it gradually, almost imperceptibly, wears away with each playing of the record, it always remains in perfect con- i formity with the record groove. It can accordingly be used for a large number of reproductions, thereby affording maximum convenience with the least possible injury to the record and with uniformly excellent musical results.
Tungsten is fibrous—uniformly fibrous and free from foreign particles of every kind. This quality of the metal still further safeguards the record from injury.
Tungsten is ductile. If a Tungs-tone Stylus were carelessly dropped on a record or scraped across its face, the Stylus point would bend but the record would not be injured.
Tungsten is smooth—exceedingly smooth, with a tendency to grow even smoother. Being dense, being fibrous, being ductile, being smooth, the Tungs-tone Stylus affords the highest measure of protection to the record.
From a musical point of view the Tungs-tone Stylus has advantages no less conspicuous. Tungsten, for instance, can readily be provided in a shape which exactly and fully fits the record groove, thus releasing delicate and yet vital tone values which would otherwise be lost.
Then, since the filament of Tungsten is of unvarying diameter it fits the groove as perfectly at the end of each record as it did at the beginning. This insures uniformly excellent musical results throughout the I playing of each record.
A minor, but important consideration in the use of the Tungs-tone Stylus is that of economy. Since each point will play from 100 to 300 records, the economy of the Tungs-tone Stylus as viewed from a ,‘perfect reproduction” standpoint is obvious.	״
There is today just one way to obtain a real Victor reproduction that is to use the Tungs-tone Stylus with a Victor Record on a |! Victrola instrument.
Victor Talking Machine Company, Camden, N. J., U. S. A., Printed May, 1923
Part 6512A-JTXA.