''Metronome'' was a music magazine published from January 1885 to December 1961.
History
Founding (1885)
Bandmaster Arthur Albert Clappé (1850–1920) first published ''The Metronome'' in January 1885 for band leaders.
In 1891, Harry Coleman (1845–1895), a Philadelphia music publisher and publisher of a monthly music magazine ''The Dominant'', invited Clappé to become its editor. He accepted, and
Carl Fischer (1849–1923) took over ''The Metronome'' as publisher until 1914. Violinist Gustav Saenger (1865–1935) succeeded Clappé in 1904 as editor and also continued as editor of the ''Musical Observer'' – also published by Fischer. Saenger continued as ''Metronome's'' editor until 1928.
Shift towards popular music and jazz (1920s)
''Metronome'' began to shift away from classical music in the 1920s, when it featured a "Saxophone Department," an instrument family that, by then, had become a symbol of American popular music. In 1932 – Doron Kemp Antrim (1889–1961), editor from 1928 through 1939 – the magazine's
tagline
In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, so ...
read "For Orchestra, Band, Radio and Motion Picture Theatre Musicians.
Edgar Bitner (''né'' Edgar Franklin Bitner; 1877–1939), who headed
Leo Feist, Inc., after its founder's death, was, according to author Russell Sanjek, a
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...
pioneer, who, with
Julius P. Witmark and
Nathan Burkan Nathan Burkan (November 8, 1879 – June 6, 1936) was a Romanian-born Jewish-American lawyer from New York.
Life
Burkan was born on November 8, 1879 in Iași, Romania, the son of Moritz Burkan and Tillie Armm.
Burkan immigrated to America in 188 ...
(1878–1936) (a founding father of
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
law), was one of
ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...
's honorary pioneer members. As a sideline, after retiring from Feist in 1936, Bitner took over publishing of ''Metronome'' and the ''
Musical Courier
The ''Musical Courier'' was a weekly 19th- and 20th-century American music trade magazine that began publication in 1880.
The publication included editorials, obituaries, announcements, scholarly articles and investigatory writing about musical ...
,'' both of which his son, Edgar, Jr. (1912–1966), took over after his death.
Beginning with the
swing era
The swing era (also frequently referred to as the big band era) was the period (1933–1947) when big band swing music was the most popular music in the United States. Though this was its most popular period, the music had actually been aroun ...
, ''Metronome'' focused primarily on the genre of
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
music appealing to fans. Writers for the magazine were its co-editors,
Leonard Feather
Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.
Biography
Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...
and
Barry Ulanov Baruch "Barry" Ulanov (April 10, 1918 – April 30, 2000) was an American writer, perhaps best known as a jazz critic.
Background
Barry Ulanov was born in Manhattan, New York City. He received early instruction on the violin from his father Nathan ...
;
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
cited them as the only two white music critics in New York to understand
bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...
.
George T. Simon, editor-in-chief from 1939 through 1955, sometimes wrote articles under the pseudonym Jimmy Bracken. He was a drummer. He changed the magazine's focus from articles on instrument-making and publishing to items about recordings and the noted big-band leaders of the day.
Bill Coss (''né'' William Hungerford Coss, Jr.; 1925–1988), editor-in-chief from 1956 through 1960 – had earned a bachelor of science degree from
Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...
in 1951. He was editor-in-chief of ''Jazz Today.''
The demise of ''Metronome'' (1959–1961)
''Metronome'', under financial duress, was set to close after the December 1959 issue, but, in the words of author John Gennari, they "won a reprieve when photography editor
Herb Snitzer
Herb Snitzer (''né'' Herbert D. Snitzer; November 1932 – December 31, 2022) was an American photographer who photographed jazz musicians in the 1950s and 1960s. He lived in St. Petersburg, Florida and opened his own gallery in 2014. His work has ...
prevailed upon his wife's uncle, Robert Asen, buy the defunct publication. Resuming operation under the leadership of Snitzer, editor Dave Solomon, and art director Jerry Smokler
'né'' Herbert Jerold Smokler; born 1935 ''Metronome'' became, briefly, a hip, avant-garde publication that surrounded its jazz coverage with cutting-edge Beat literature, "politically-charged cartoons, and other innovative visual material."
Asen was ''Metronome's'' publisher and Milton Lichtenstein was president of the underlying publishing firm, Metronome Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RMC Associates in New York founded in 1953 by Robert Hyman Asen (1910–1993), Milt Lichtenstein (''né'' Milton Julian Lichtenstein; 1919–2005), and Charlie Sargent (''né'' Charles Edmund Sargeant; 1903–1967). Saving ''Metronome'' was
not RMC's primary mission. The primary mission of RMC's personnel was to serve as manufacturers' representatives and field engineers in (what some referred to as) the most concentrated territory in the world for electronic instrumentation and engineering component markets. RMC's clients included
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
,
Western Electric
The Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company officially founded in 1869. A wholly owned subsidiary of American Telephone & Telegraph for most of its lifespan, it served as the primary equipment ma ...
,
Bell Telephone Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial Research and development, research and scientific developm ...
,
Sperry Gyroscope Sperry may refer to:
Places
In the United States:
*Sperry, Iowa, community in Des Moines County
*Sperry, Missouri
*Sperry, Oklahoma, town in Tulsa County
*Sperry Chalet, historic backcountry chalet, Glacier National Park, Montana
*Sperry Glacier, ...
, and
Grumman Aircraft Engineering
The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 1994 ...
– and also unique clients such as the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
,
Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype ...
, and
Mary Ford
Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers; July 7, 1924 – September 30, 1977) was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hi ...
.
Asen, in December 1960, hired new managing editor David Solomon (1925–2007), who had been an editor at ''
Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'' and ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
'' in the 1950s.
"Trouble came in July 1961 when a cover photograph of a Coney Island female stripper
nd an accompanying article by Snitzer with more provocative photosraised the ire of high school librarians, five or six-hundred of whom cancelled their subscriptions. Solomon was fired,
Dan Morgenstern
Dan Morgenstern (born October 24, 1929) is a jazz writer, editor, archivist, and producer. He is the son of the German-language Jewish author Soma Morgenstern.
Morgenstern was raised in Vienna and Copenhagen and arrived in the United States in ...
took over, and the magazine reverted to straight jazz coverage."
The final issue of ''Metronome'' was printed in December 1961 (Volume 78, No. 12).
Metronome All-Stars Band
''Metronome'' magazine conducted an annual poll during the years 1939-1961 to choose the musicians whom their readers considered as the top jazz instrumentalists, for that year, playing each instrument. Often, the ''Metronome'' organization recorded the all-stars on a regular basis, with recording sessions of the bands chosen in 1939-1942, 1945–1950, 1953, and 1956.
In many cases, the all-stars group recorded two songs, with short solo performances, from nearly all of the participants.
In 1940, ''Metronome'' magazine organized the Metronome All Star Nine, including
Harry James
Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...
,
Jack Teagarden
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (August 20, 1905 – January 15, 1964) was an American jazz trombonist and singer. According to critic Scott Yannow of Allmusic, Teagarden was the preeminent American jazz trombone player before the bebop era of the 19 ...
,
Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...
,
Jess Stacy
Jesse Alexandria Stacy (August 11, 1904 – January 1, 1995) was an American jazz pianist who gained prominence during the swing era. He is perhaps best known for his years with the Benny Goodman band during the late 1930s, particularly his ...
,
Charlie Christian
Charles Henry Christian (July 29, 1916 – March 2, 1942) was an American swing and jazz guitarist.
Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar and a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained nati ...
and
Gene Krupa
Eugene Bertram Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973), known as Gene Krupa, was an American jazz drummer, bandleader and composer who performed with energy and showmanship. His drum solo on Benny Goodman's 1937 recording of "Sing, Sing, S ...
.
The all-stars band had several name variations: Metronome All Star Nine; Metronome All Stars; Metronome All Stars 1956; The Metronome All-Stars; or Metronome Allstars.
''Metronome'' Hall of Fame series
The following artists were inducted into ''Metronome''s Hall of Fame series. According to jazz musician and ''Metronome'' contributor
George T. Simon, the series "was designed to recognize
sidemen A sideman is a musician who performs live with a band of which they are not a permanent member.
Sideman or Sidemen may also refer to:
* Sidemen, Bali, a district in the Karangasem Regency of Bali
* Sideman (bishop), a 10th-century Bishop of Cred ...
, not leaders", but "quite a number of these sidemen eventually wound up as leaders".
Earlier publication by the same name
An earlier publication, ''The Metronome: A Monthly Review of Music'', was published in Boston by White &
Goullaud from April 1871 to May 1874 → Ambrose W. Davenport, Jr. (1838–1906), Editor, assisted by his brother, Warren Davenport (1840–1908). ; .
See also
*
Metronome All-Stars
The Metronome All-Stars were a collection of jazz musicians assembled for studio recordings by ''Metronome Magazine'', based on its readers' polls. The studio sessions were held in the years 1939-42, 1946–53, and 1956, and typically consisted of ...
Bibliography
Annotations
Notes
References
*
*
* .
*
* ; ; .
*
*
*
Frank R. Seltzer was Cornetist with
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dist ...
's bank on its initial tour in 1892, with the
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription ...
for four seasons, and toured with
Conway's band.
* .
*
* , .
*
*
Note: Sanjek was a longtime executive at
BMI and is the father of music educator
David Sanjek
David Sanjek (3 September 1952 – 29 November 2011) was a Professor of Popular Music and Director of the University of Salford Music Research Centre in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. Alongside his father, Russell Sanjek, they produced ...
*
* ; .
*
* ; .
* ; (publication); (article).
* ; ; (reprint by
Greenwood Press
Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gr ...
).
External links
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Metronome Orchestra Monthly
' (1915: Vol. 31, nos. 1–10).
-
Metronome Band Monthly
' (1917: Vol. 33, nos. 1–12).
{{Commons category-inline, Metronome (magazine), ''Metronome'' magazine
Music magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1885
Magazines disestablished in 1961
Defunct magazines published in the United States
1885 establishments in the United States