A WONDERFUL INSTRUMENT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14013, 18 September 1909, Page 3

A WONDERFUL INSTRUMENT.

MELBA AND CARUSO IN NEW PLYMOUTH. For many years peoplo with pretensions to culture have had an ahnobt unconquerable prejudice to gramaphone*—"talking machine*" they weresomewhat contemptuously called. It must be admitted that this prejudice had much good reason behind it. Thn gramophone of yesterday was indeed only a machine, metallic to a degree that constituted it a real instrument ot torture to many people. Then, too, the usual thing that assailed ones ears when in the vicinity of such a machine was a music hall alleged "comic" soiifi or a cheaply sentimental string oi verses. To-day the gramophone is a genuine musical instrumont, a songbird in wood and metal that pours forth in faithful reproduction the voice ot such great songsters as Patti, Melba, Tetrairaam, and Caruso. No longer is it a mere mechanical purveyor of muwc hall ditties. It is a wonderful machine through which artists on the very pinnacle of musical fame are- glad, i>«y proud, to send their voices into the homes of countless thousands. It hah been brought to such a state of perfection ti£t rteowh* of jpreat anw" and musieian>are now being, prepared to bo stored for posterity in famous national treasure house s such a* th«British Museum and the N»t'""«' Mv " aeums in Paris, Berlin ami Milan, as S writer has well «id,.it is tho actual art, the genius, the bruin soul of the greatest masters, crystallised in ata disc, but ready for aU timo to wake into melody at a touch.. As one listens t» a modern gramophone he seems to le m the very presence of the songster. One of theso fine instruments, a Monarch gramophone of the latest sty c, was imported a very few days auo by Messrs H. Collier and Co., of Devon Street, who have the sole agency for them. During the past few evening and occasionally in the day-lime passers by hare been regaled with records ot the great singors of the day. Anothi-t rwitil will be gireti this evening at 7.81) o'clock, when records o\ M<-n>a. Caruso and Tefcrazjsini will |>c renio duend. It ii) indeed a mubical treat to listen to these records. Mrv>r». Collier and Co. have in stock a \ery lorpe and well assorted number ol tinbeat records of the day.