Service Project – Indexing Etude Magazine – Pam Dennis, ILS 503-70 (April 17, 2002)
Introduction
The Theodore Presser Publishing Company of Philadelphia published the first issue of “The Etude” in October 1883. Its purpose was as follows:
We are thoroughly convinced that Piano Technic is not receiving the attention it should by the average teacher and student of the piano. The regular journals of music only speak of it in a general way, and refer to it only incidentally (Rivers, 59).
Mr. Presser wanted the magazine to serve as “an instructor or textbook” rather than it being a coffee table ornament. The international magazine included articles, music (first as exercises, but soon as full works by teachers and major composers), and advertisements by instrument and music dealers and by schools of music. There were question and answer columns, book reviews, and classified advertisements for open music positions.
While “The Etude” began as a resource for piano teachers and students, by 1889, it included vocal works. The music portion of a typical issue included one to two piano solos from German classics, solo piano works of salon style by German composers or American imitators, a few “instruction” pieces for beginning students, a piano duet of moderate difficulty, and at least one song with piano accompaniment. Under editor Winton J. Baltzell (1897-1907), departments were added for women in music, organists, and violinists. James Francis Cooke (editor, 1907-1949) added information on public school music and a War Music Department as well as “The Junior Etude” and jazz and other black musics in the 1920s. He increased the size of the monthly issues to almost 75 pages. More instrumental columns were added, and composer biographies became popular.
The magazine lost its popularity after World War II with the increase in modern technology and the loss of the genteel values of the nineteenth century. There was more of an emphasis on the professional elite, and the salon music that dominated many of the issues was looked down upon by classical musicians. The magazine went out of print in 1957. Today’s collectors value the old magazines more for the colorful covers of composers than for the content, and one finds coverless issues lying in bins in antique malls all over the country.
There have been several recent queries to the Music Library Association listserv concerning topics that might be in the Etude magazine. I, myself, was looking for articles and music by Frank L. Eyer, a leading music teacher of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who taught one year in Jackson, Tennessee, where I live. When I asked the members of the association where I might find an index of the magazine, I was told that none existed. I was able to locate one dissertation (“The Etude Magazine: A Mirror of the Genteel Tradition in American Music,” by Travis Suttle Rivers, University of Iowa, 1974), and one article (“Singing as a Therapeutic Agent in the Etude, 1891-1949,” by Bryan C. Hunter, The Journal of Music Therapy, v. 36, Summer 1999, pp. 125-1943) about the publication. As I searched each issue painstakingly for information, finding dozens of articles and music by Mr. Eyer, I realized how many doctoral students and professors of music could utilize these old articles on technique, music history, and events of the day.
Methodology
“The Etude”was published from October 1883 until June 1957. Issues from 1945 to 1957 are housed in bound form at Lambuth University. Bound issues from 1932 to 1957 are housed at Union University, also in Jackson, as well as a few miscellaneous issues from the 1920s. The other issues were ordered on microfilm from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee, one reel at a time.
After working through several years of the magazine, I discovered that Tables of Contents were included in issues from 1902 forward. Also, there was a condensed index in the 1930s and 1940s (titles were abbreviated, and authors’ and composer’s names did not include first names). I copied the tables of contents and indexes from bound volumes and microfilm as it arrived. These copies were separated into folders by decade, and I input the information into an Excel spreadsheet. Including the copying, each year took approximately four hours to transcribe into the spreadsheet. Headings included Title of Article, Writer of Article, Title of Music, Title of Composer, Genre (piano, organ, etc.), Month, Year, and Page. Some issues included prices of individual musical works, Presser catalog numbers, and librettists’ names, but it was determined that those items were not of primary importance. For issues that included an index, the information was typed in, and a follow-up visit will be made to the library to fill in missing information. All issues were entered into separate pages within the spreadsheet for ease in proofing against original copies. The pages will be combined when the project is completed to form one document, with all fields being searchable.
Problems
There were several problems encountered while working on this project. It is very tedious work and will need to be proofed carefully for errors in transcription. Factors had to be taken into consideration for online searchability and for printable copy. It took several hours of inputing to determine the final combination of fields to include because of the changing format of the magazine. Authors’ names had to be inverted for a usable printed version to be alphabetized. Articles (the, a, an) had to be inverted in titles for the same reason. Concise indexes of later issues employed innovative indexing principles, so there may be other indexing considerations that need to be made. Some copies from microfilm were barely readable. Accents had to be typed into a Word document and copied into Excel, because there is no provision for symbols in Excel. Eyestrain was a factor that was improved by purchasing a magnifying lamp to be used for transcription.
Importance of the Project and Future Implications
Anyone interested in American music of the late 19th and early 20th century, vocal and piano technique, biographical information about composers, position openings, and any number of other topics would be interested in this index. There are articles about department store orchestras, the design of a successful music studio, how to play an accordion, recital programs in music schools throughout the country, etc. Without an index to this material, it lies lost to the researcher. It will be of value to doctoral students in writing dissertations, to music history professors in putting musical events into perspective, and to any musician or historian. It will provide the opportunity to perform lost music. In talking with a representative of the Theodore Presser Company, I learned that their archives was recently given to the Library of Congress, but there is a long backlog of files ahead of this one to be cataloged. Even if the individual works still exist, it will be years before they become available to researchers. Music librarians will have easy access to the index in helping patrons with unusual musical questions. It is hoped that the Presser Company, the American Musicological Society, and the Society of American Music will be interested in publishing such a work.
The Index
Please find below a spreadsheet page that includes a sampling from the various years to show interesting articles and music from different eras. Progress of the indexing to date is as follows:
1891 – music only (July-December)
1892-1893 – music only
1894 – music only (January-June)
1899-1900 – music only
1902-1907 – completed
1920-1924 – copied
1932-1938 – completed
1939-1944 – copied
1945 – completed
1946-1957 – copied
I anticipate that it will take approximately six months to input the rest of the data. In the meantime, I will investigate indexing strategies and talk with representatives from possible publishers to determine the best way to present the material. This is a work that is long overdue and much needed.