Selected Content from the September 1925 Edition of The Etude

How Music is Saving Thousands From Permanent Mental Breakdown - Willem Van De Wall

Music often produces instant improvements in behavior. On one of my regular visits to the Woman’s Work House, on Blackwell’s Island, the jail for New York City, I happened to come in just after a serious outbreak among the hardened type of women prisoners incarcerated there. I was advised for safety’s sake not to go near them. The bitter fate of the guards who had tried to reduce the wrath of these furious ladies caused this warning. Eager to give music the acid test, I regarded this as an opportunity and faced the group. Read More





Frank La Forge - How to Play an Artistic Accompaniment

THE art of accompanying is one of the most difficult to master. The old idea that anyone who was a somewhat indifferent soloist might eke out a livelihood at accompanying has long since been abandoned in higher musical circles. The accompanist must be a master musician with quick wit, splendid judgment, extensive experience and a really very great digital technic. More than this he must have a chameleonlike mind to fit his mood instantly to that of others who employ his services. Read More




Editorial Notes

Honorary Distinctions There is a misty legend, undoubtedly apocryphal, but none the less pointed, that a famous master (was it Handel or Haydn?) went to a great English University (was it Cambridge or Oxford?) and there, after having received a… Read More




The World of Music

A New Piano Pedal, enabling the performer to hold, swell or diminish tones after the key has been struck, has been invented by John Hayes Hammond, Jr. It has had a successful private trial in Symphony Hall, of Boston. … “The Australian Musical News,” a most interesting and enterprising journal, now in its fourteenth volume, visited our office this month. Welcome! It is good to know that musical achievements are so vigorous in quarters so distant that the news we receive is scant. Read More




The Organist Goes Visiting

Sooner or later every organist is called upon to play an instrument with which he is not familiar. Even if he does not desire to do substitute work, the weddings of his friends make this call upon him, to say nothing of the audition that precedes the obtaining of a new position. Read More




The Organ in Oratorio

The matter of playing oratorio work on the organ, especially the better known parts of Handel’s “Messiah,” usually performed at the Easter and Christmas seasons, is an occasion on which one may hear some very fine organ playing, or the reverse. The differences between a first-class orchestral accompaniment and what is frequently heard on the organ as a substitute, is too evident to any critical listener to need further comment, other than to offer some suggestions which may prove helpful. Read More




Special Notices and Announcements

FOR SALE—130 Standard anthems octavo, about 28 copies each, excellent condition, less than half price. E. D. Keck, 21 Rich Ave., Mt. Vernon, N. Y.   ORGAN FOR SALE—Second-hand 2 manual Hook and Hastings 16 speaking stops—price reasonable. Apply Gilmore… Read More