Choice of Music Reveals Your Character to Western Expert
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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
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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!