Hepplewhite Period Victrolas are now obtainable in twelve of the principal types, namely: Empire, Chippendale, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Jacobean, Gothic, William and Mary, Adam, Sheraton, Chinese Chippendale, Queen Anne, Japanese Lacquer, and the Hepplewhite shown above. There are also two other variations of each type which are available, but in every case Period Victrolas are made to order only....

Today, when for the first time you have brought a Victrola into your home, we wish it were 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 g

Grand Opera is unquestionably 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 corr

If you limited the number of colors that a painter might use on his palette, he might, if he were a great painter, produce masterpieces of art; but give him unlimited scope in the choosing of his pigments and you might reasonably expect the highest possible achievements. The symphony orchestra as it is constituted today is the most ambitious and the most perfect musical “instrument” in the world. It combines all the existing types of instruments and so can readily achieve all the possible variet

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 hea

When you hear a violin solo played with lots of “double stopping” you find that the air develops a new richness of tone color, for the violinist is playing the “air” notes and certain other harmony notes at the same time. This is substantially what happens in the quartettes and trios. One instrument or voice plays or sings the air while the others play or sing harmony parts, and in the smaller groups of instruments, where there are only three or four “parts,” it is easier to follow the work of e

The piano is a solo instrument that provides accompaniment for other instruments and for itself, and it is so exceedingly successful in this respect that it must be regarded as the basis of things musical. 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 all the harmony parts can be elaborated with comparative ease. Apart from its use as an accompanying instrument, the piano is one of the

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 t

In the Dark Ages, when only might was right, it was the church that kept music alive. And today humanity responds more universally, perhaps, to the appeal of “the good old hymns” than to any other one type of music. No one will seriously deny that music is a necessary element in our lives when it can produce in the same listener the highest spiritual exaltation as well as the most frivolous gaiety. The inspiration to strive for an ideal—the will to be better than we really are—these things come

There are those who will tell you that the highest achievement of vocal art is the concert song, and much may be said in justification of such a statement. Certainly, on the concert stage, art is shorn of accessories. There are no borrowed effects and no borrowed interests. The composer, the accompanist and the soloist stand alone at the bar of public opinion and it would seem quite reasonable to suppose that only a consistent excellence on the part of all three would be sufficient to win the wo

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 justif

The impulse to dance is spontaneous. It is a manifestation 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

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 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 afford all the necessary

It has required twenty-five years of constant research, of steady application, of tireless effort, and the expenditure of more than eleven million dollars to place this Victor Record Catalogue in your hands. It contains a special Red Seal Section in which are listed records by the world’s most famous artists. There are brief sketches of the most popular operas and illustrations of scenes from opera. There are also biographies of prominent composers and artists, and within its covers will be foun