Music: Bubble Piano

A most, ingenious toy is under process of construction—an instrument to simplify piano-playing for children. The inventor is Ralph Mayhew.

Mr. Mayhew is the ” Bubble Books man.” The Bubble Books, out of which Mayhew has made almost over night a large fortune, have been one of the most extraordinary of recent successes. A few years ago, while connected with the Advertising Department of Harper & Bros, publishers, this ingenious fellow hit upon the idea of combining a printed page with a phonograph record. From this the Bubble Books were evolved. You read aloud to the children a story from one of the volumes. At a certain point the text relates that the baby bear sang a song. There follows on the page a slot containing a phonograph record, which you play on the phonograph, thereby demonstrating what the baby bear sang. A running narrative with musical numbers is thus afforded—a species of small opera that calls for prolonged applause.

Mayhew now has hit upon the ” Bubble Piano.” This is a box with a keyboard which is placed over the piano keyboard.* You press the keys of the box, one after another, and the instrument strikes the proper keys on the piano, plays a melody. You press the first key of the attachment and it strikes a D, say, on the piano. You press the second key, and it strikes say an F sharp on the piano. The third key may strike B, the fourth a G sharp. By striking the keys on the attachment one after another, as on the piano keyboard you would strike C, D, E, F, etc., you get a melody that may skip around anywhere on the piano keyboard.

The Bubble Piano will play any melody. The tune can be changed by rearranging a set of pegs. The child can take a set of notes written out and match the successive notes with notes marked on pegs. These pegs he places one after another in a slot in the box. The instrument then plays the melody. The child has only to concern himself with the time, the length of the notes. From the manipulation of this toy a considerable part of the rudiments of music can be learned.

In Manhattan

Gatti-Casazza, manager of the Metropolitan Opera Company, gave new scenery to the old favorite, Aïda, considered by many to be Verdi’s best opera.

Aïda, the story of love in a tomb in ancient Egypt, is famous for its triumphal march. “Toot-toot-toot”, go the horns, and everyone is thrilled. Hitherto this procession has passed under one arch; in Gatti’s new scenery the procession has four arches, each of dazzling splendor.

The first popular priced Saturday night opera was Rigoletto (also Verdi). The box office line was the longest in history. It reachedentirely around the opera house.

Miguel Fleta, of Spanish and South American fame, was the important addition to the list of singers. As Cavaradossi in Tosca, he was received with an applause which Caruso might have envied. To Mme. Jeritza’s hat and fine feathers he was a courteous if not impassioned lover.

For Antonio Scotti this is the 25th season. He is probably the most faultless performer on the operatic stage. His impersonation of Scarpia, killed by Tosca’s dagger, is one of the peaks of the history of Opera. Today the voice of Scotti is not what it was ten years ago. But the art of Scotti is greater.

Of outstanding importance was the revival of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, probably the most tuneful of all the works of Richard Wagner.

Die Meistersinger is Wagner’s ” human ” opera. In The Ring he is accused of megalomania; in Tristan of hysteric; in Parsifal of religiosity. But in Die Meistersinger his only fault is length. And that perhaps is the fault of a restless and rapid age rather than of the master.

*Headers of the cheaper fiction magazines are aware that there has been in the market for some time a system of learning piano-playing by placing over the keys a paper diagram marked with the names of the keys. ” Learn to play the piano in a week! Be popular and surprise your friends ! ” In this way, though, the player has to skip from one interval to another as on the keyboard itself, while with the Bubble Piano he strikes one key after another in regular succession.