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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 19, 1936)
Choice of Music Reveals Your Character to Western Expert THE HUSBAND DREAMING 3Y YOUR JDE WHILE THE MUSIC Xk J0 77 7?L ZWW T MARRY 1 ' ' ' j x WW -IT WAS WHAT THE BOYS FAIII m 'n x,0 nAZn S T I (Tv I WW "jA ) WERE SINGING WHEN THE- 1 , ! SAUL ?LAYD TOR DAVID, Ap -U , MlKf 4K AMERICAN BOYS WENT L "S ' SML HAM ONCE W W) ' I UVl Y ' OVER TO PRANCE W X OTTEN AND DAVID THREW A f 1 I H i I xotoh j , f JAVELIN ATHIM -y- 'II" irri'T I I 1 A J - I f I II fl I h i mail i J JBwriWt?iiMiiiwitiiMiitim The tramp on the road and the millionaire are alike In one respect they'll pay for music that will unlock memory. 80 says Arthur 8. Garbett, musical expert, now living In the West. Garbett's theories of why we like certain music give him an Insight Into the character of people that has proved Invaluable In arranging broadcast programs and In stimulating record sales. The sketches surrounding the photo of Garbett Illustrate some of his discoveries In the field of psychology as applied to muslo lovers. s y it far Helen Stewart By Helen Stewart "TELL me the kind of music you like and I'll tell I you something about yourself!" So says Ar thur S. Garbett, musical genius of the West. Com ing from a man whose knowledge of why human beings buy the music they do was worth thou sands of dollars to the Victor Talking Machine Company 20 years ago, this makes us sit up and take notice. Right now in America there are thousands of people, particu larly those who grew up in the Middle West, who owe their early knowledge of opera to the phono graph and the Victor Books of Opera. Garbett wrote these. Today Garbett stands preemi nent In the field of radio. He has been director of education for the Western division of NBC for the past ten years, but his uncanny ability to under stand the inner workings of the mind goes back to the days when he worked with and knew inti mately Caruso, Homer, Tetrazzini, Geraldine Far rar, Schumann-Heink, Alma Cluck, Kreisier, El man, Galli-Curci and other stars. It was his job then to know what would pull a dollar out of a man's pocket for a piece of music, and he didn't learn the answer from reading books. He threw away outworn traditions and went about it his own way, visiting shops and watching people buy records. He listened to their conversations, questioned them, and what he learned helped make a fortune for the Victor company. "It was then," he says, "I learned that music is not as some highbrows would have us believe, a pure 'aesthetic' a thing of pure beauty. Music is at best of the earth it is earthy! We care only for the music that in some way relates to our life experiences and awakens our memories of the past, or our hopes for the future." HE LEARNED that if you are a woman 35 years old, respectably domesticated, with three chil dren, you will buy music that reminds you of the moonlight and roses period of your life. You want music that makes you remember the sweetheart who breathed this tune to you 20 years ago although you may not have seen him since. "Each of us is a bundle of emotions," Garbett relates, "and there is no greater mistake than to think all of our emotions are worthy ones. This applies to women as well as to men. We are all driven by urges of which we cannot speak and to which we cannot give outlet and still live in a civi lized world. Music acts as a s:foly valve for these emotions and helps us rise to great heights of self-sacrifice. "Getting down to specific cases of how a choice may act as an index to character I know that If you like the music of Beethoven, and you don't just pretend to, you are what I call a 'balanced type.' Your choice indicates to me a pretty high typo of general Intelligence. Beethoven runs the gamut of human emotions in music as Shakes peare does in literature. On the other hand, if you tell me you love 'My Old Kentucky Home,' that doesn't mean anything except that you are sure to be a native American. Americana idealize the Idea of home more than Europeans. When this music of Stephen Foster's is played, every American is conjuring up his own picture of what 'home' means to him. That memory usu.illy takes on a very rosy glamour. Music has the power to make us idealize our memories. "During the World War," Garbett continues, "we learned that people were reminded of the Spanish-American War and consequently there was a revival of old tunes. A man was rcmindc-l of the romance he experienced at that time. An other peculiar thing is that a successful song need have no intrinsic merit, but must have the power to remind us in some way of our own lives. Take PAOE two b 4 Marches, Waltzes, Symphonies or Jazz Every Type of Music Tags Its Listeners and Here's a Man Who Reads the Tags for instance, 'Where Do We Go From Here?' It had no merit either as a poem or as a melody, but it was what the boys were singing. Suppose one of those boys who went down on a transport ship had been singing that song cheerfully as he left his home and that was his mother's last recollec tion of him. It is beyond the power of computation the association there would be for her in that song." DO YOU happen to be one of those people in whom music arouses violent and sudden emo tion? Then look out. That means there is some deep emotion you have been forced to conceal and music touches the hidden spring. Remember King David. Saul played for David, but Saul played once too often and David threw a javelin at him. "It is really all very simple," explains Garbett. "You see you draw a circle and let that represent the Life of Man. Divide it into the periods thus: from the cradle to adolescence; from adolescence to maturity, and from maturity to the grave. Now a child in his day-dreaming thinks of how grand it is going "to be when he is grown up. When we reach adolescence we feel we have all power and the world is our oyster. But at maturity life nar rows. The dreams we had we know now will never come true. So we make up for the loss with music. We look backward, spending money for tunes that give to us again the dreams we dreamed. As we listen, we can see again the wealth we will never earn; the power we will never wield. In short, we transcend the shackles of life. The tramp on the road and the millionaire are alike willing to pay money for music that unlocks memory!" "I like gypsy music with castanets, and I also like Chopin's waltzes. I adore the 'Sextet from Lucia' what does that mean about me?" I asked. "There is a purely physical reason why some people choose the music they do," he answered. "You may be answering the call of a physical structure of the inner ear, as well as an emotional need. People Who prefer marches, or gypsy music with a heavy time-beat, have a highly developed 'motor response.' The little organism in the inner ear which controls balance is dictating the musi cal choice. You may have a primitive strain and you should be a good dancer. On Ihc other hand, if you hear a dreamy, sensuous waltz, and you are not moved to sway with the rhythm, that means either that your motor-response is not sensitive, or that you are just plain sophisticated. Primitive people give vent to this urge to sway. "A taste for the delicacy of a Chopin waltz points to a rather well-developed musical sense as to rhythm. The 'Sextet from Lucia' and the over ture from 'Tannhauser' appeal to people who get their musical enjoyment in a purely sensory way. These people will often be actually annoyed by march music. "People who buy music because it pleases their ears, regardless of emotional response, will argue among themselves as to violin solos. No two people hear exactly alike, musically speaking, and if a man does not hear overtones, he won't care for violin solos. It used to be fun to watch people choosing between a Kreisier and an Elman rendi tion of Dvorak's 'Humoresque.' People with a And the Camera Caught Itl One of a Series of the World's Most Unusual News Photosraphs P irr ViK r 1) - r J? T. kw f it r Mt-i . , 1 111 1 r lilttTil 1 11-. fit 1,1 tu mm -fr highly developed rhythmic sense bought the Kreis ier record without knowing why. Customers who bought the Elman record proved to me their ears demanded an 'earful of sound.' The purity and richness of Elman's tone was always the selling point. A customer that I could induce to tap out lightly with a pencil the time-beat of a record of Galli-Curci's, never failed to buy. Her delicate sense of rhythm and her poised control of rhythm was unearthly." Arthur S. Garbett is a big man physically, men tally and spiritually. Born ,an Englishman in Shakespeare's own neighborhood, he came to America when he was 18; was assistant editor of the Etude Magazine for nine years. Reading thou sands of letters and manuscripts from the musi cally starved population of the Middle West con vinced him something should be done to even up the cultural opportunities of the city and country people. He joined the Victor Talking Machine Com pany and the result was the spreading of musical culture to the isolated districts of America by use of the phonograph. THEN tragedy struck. At first he blamed the mu I sicians for the woolly sound of the violins in the records he was testing. Then the sounds be came flute-like, then harsh, then strident. It was not the musicians' fault he was losing his hear ing. He went to California to regain his health, and later conceived the idea of putting a course in music appreciation in the schools by means of radio. The Standard Oil Company of California took the idea, and the Standard school broadcast has been on the air eight years. The third big idea of his lifetime is about to materialize that of installing courses in creative music in the schools. IW by BUD LANDIS As a wild moo battered down the door of the San Jos. California, Jail, Intsnt on hanging John M. Holmes and Tiiomjs H. Thurmond, confessed killers of Brook Hart, who was kidnaped and his body found some three weeks later floating In (an Franc I so Say. A rr photograph this, shot Jvt safer tft lynching took place. BUD: All right, young man, just face the micro phone and step lively, you're a little late. The early bird gets the worm. AMATEUR: Yeah, but I ain't got no place to keep it. BUD: Oh-oh! You're pretty smart. .uA;: rAlw a couple of th'ngs if I could only think of them. ' BUD: Are you a local boy? , A.: Oh no, I live right here. BUD: Um-humm. Let's see what your appli cation says ... So you're from Providence, are you ? A.: No, I'm from Providence, R. I. TyD;AWn0WIisten' don,t Pu" the ones, ethics? Professionals -where's your A.: The finance company took it back. I V.e al-WT liked tnat one- B"t what are you going to sing? A.: The wrist watch song: "Time On My Hands." BUD: Yes, yes But first let me ask-what is that going on right under your very nose' A.: Why, I'm a Latin ... yoSps?0' n0I Sa' What is that uiverinS on A.: I told you, I'm a latin my mustach g.-w JTion mc! IncMont'"." what - r A.: I haven't nny. BUD: Come now, you must have been born some place. A.: Sure, on a ship at sea. BUD: Then you take your mother s nationality time." travelinS mv aunt at the Sound: Bong!
