The Music Field

Advancement of Music and of Radio Broadcasting

AMERICA loves good music and plenty of it. There can be no doubt about that. And never were there such opportunities as today for its enjoyment within the home as well as in public. There is, too, greater interest than ever before being shown in the study and mastery of musical instruments of all kinds from the tuneful little harmonica to the majestic pipe organ.

New forces are at work to stimulate increased interest in music, both vocal and instrumental. In connection with the latter, much has already been written about the nation-wide interest that is being aroused in piano music and piano playing and the ways in which this is being accomplished. And considerably more will doubtless be heard of this as the months go by, for perhaps nothing could be more deeply significant of real progress in our musical development.

We have also seen in the past year such wonderful improvement in the phonograph and in the methods of recording phonograph music that it stands today on a far higher plane and in greater demand than ever before. The general public has been quick to respond and the improved phonograph music of today is finding new admirers by the thousands in every part of the country.

RADIO’S CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC

Music has contributed greatly toward the popularity of the radio. In turn the radio can do much to reveal on a broad scale the wealth of fine music inherited from the past as well as the works of the best artists and composers of the present day. This co-operation is becoming more and more valuable to our musical progress through improvements in broadcasting methods and receiving equipment, insuring more perfect reception to listeners.

The radio is also doing much to help discover and encourage new talent among singers and musicians. Perhaps the most significant movement in this direction is the far-reaching plan recently announced for the Atwater Kent National Radio Audition, sponsored by the Atwater Kent Foundation.

While all the details cannot be presented here, the plan provides a means of discovering, encouraging and developing unknown American singers of exceptional talent and letting the world hear them by radio.

By this plan America’s great, but as yet undiscovered young voices are to be found, wherever they are, brought out into the open and rewarded with money, musical tuition and fame. Many great singers have been discovered by accident. Voices of wonderful promise are often lost to the public through failure to find them and through inexpert training or lack of any training.

Every community in the United States will have an opportunity, first, to select by popular vote its best young singers, and then to enter them in state, sectional and national auditions to be broadcast by radio. The various winners of the National Audition will receive rich prizes in cash and instruction by the leading vocal teachers. Millions will enjoy the auditions as this unique contest proceeds and follow the careers made possible by popular acclaim and by the vote of musical experts.

This is but one of the various ways in which radio is lending itself to the advancement of music as well as to its popular enjoyment.