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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
452
SOME INTERESTING FACTS.
THE PIANO IN ART.
f T ^ H E knowledge, industry and common sense of
I
mankind exerted in the field of art have been
-*• able to mould the materials of nature into solu-
tions of the most intricate moral and social problems.
They are slowly bringing the whole human race irito
one family, which shall not only be well housed, well
clad and well fed, but inspired with more refined tastes
and desires for luxuries and conveniences which it is the
aim of art to gratify. Our education comprises a con-
tinuous series of object lessons, commencing with the
rattle and ending with the fine arts. The artisan first
creates for us objects of use, and, as our demands in-
crease, the artist comes and adds pleasure to utility, by
beauty, grace, harmony, ideality, melody, order and
fitness. The cultivated senses become more and more
fastidious and exacting. The eye familiar with Powers
or Meissonnier is not pleased with inferior art, the ear
educated to opera finds no pleasure in the bag-pipes,
and the music of Handel and Bach are far better inter-
preted by a modern grand piano than by the harpsichord
for which they wrote.
But the march of progress is a slow one, it is a long
way from the wood type to the power press, from the
spinet to the piano. Music is an effusive art, whose
gradual evolution is best illustrated by the piano. It is
but a few centuries since the music now so well expressed
by the modern pianoforte was elicited from a wooden
box over which metallic and catgut strings were stretched
and struck with quills—the spinet, dulcimer and citole.
About 1500 A. D. some ambitious musician added a con-
trivance by which the strings were struck by means of
keys, and the instrument was called a clavitherium; and
still later another genius added a damper to suppress
the sounds, and called it a claverichord. The virginal
used in the time of Queen Elizabeth was a box on legs,
and was played by means of keys; so also the harpsi-
chord, which was played with keys armed with quills in-
stead of hammers. In 1555 this primitive instrument,
which was the prophecy of the coming piano, had ac-
quired two rows of keys and a damper pedal, and was
regarded of sufficient importance to induce such musical
artists as Handel and Bach to write music for it
in the 17th century. It was not until 1714 that the
credit of inventing the crude idea of the present piano
was claimed simultaneously by Cristofalli, of Padua,
Marius, an Italian, and Shroeder, an organist of Dresden.
History gives priority of invention to Cristofalli, al-
though Shroeder, who presented his model to the court
of Saxony in 1717, was the first to secure their manufac-
ture by G. Silberman, an instrument maker, in 1722.
Frederica, of Saxony, made a square piano in 1756.
M. Zumpe also made one in England in 1766, but the
first piano seen in England was made in Rome by the
Rev. Father Wood in 1760. The first upright piano
was made in London, by Thos. Hawkins in 1800, follow-
ed by Thos. Loud in 1802; in 1807 Wm. Southwell patent-
ed what he called a "cabinet piano," and in 1840 came the
"cottage" piano or piccolo. By this time funny little
tinkling square and upright pianos rivalled the famed
leaves of Vallambrosa for numbers, the style, finish and
tone of which may be realized by any one who has seen
the Washington piano among the relics at Newburgh,
which was doubtless the finest of its time. No city of
the civilized world was without its manufactory, and but
few modern residences of any pretension that did not
possess a piano of some kind. Meantime the tireless
spirit of art was busy throughout the world improving
little by little upon the crude models of Cristofalli,
Zumpe and Frederica. Collard & Broadwood, of Lon-
don, and Pleyel of Paris, enlarged and improved the little
tinkling square piano, and Stein, of Augsburg, Germany
made the first attempt at a grand, and its movement
being an advance upon the old methods, gave impetus to
what was known as the Vienna School—lasting from
Mozart to Henry Hertz—nearly half a century. Ger-
man makers exercised the greatest ingenuity in devising
fancy stops and odd additions as triangles, cymbals,
bells, tambourines and drums. In 1777 Stodart pat-
ented an alternate piano and harpsichord, but the mod-
ern overstrung instruments with the present pedal and
damper attachments were not attained until the middle
of this century ; and the old system of straight strings
in one plane, with iron plates bolted together, is still ad-
hered to by Broadwood, of London, and Girard, of Paris,
A little over thirty years ago no upright, and but
few grand pianos were made in this country. The
square pianos not being able to stand the moist climate
of the south, the uprights of Pleyel & Hertz were used
there, and singers coming to this country from abroad
were in the habit of bringing their grands with them.
The first improvement in American pianos jdates about
1825, with the Babcock patent for the cast iron hitch pin
plate, and the wrest plank support in one piece.
In 1833 Conrad Mayer made a six octave square,
with full iron frame as now used.
In 1840 Jonas Chickering patented a cast iron frame
wrest plank bridge and projective for damper on one
piece, and he and Buttikoffer, of New York, were the
first to make grand pianos.
Wrenn & Clark, of New York, made overstrung
square pianos in 1850, which were not a success, and
the uprights of Pepe, of Paris, and grands of Lillienthal,
of St. Petersburgh, were equally deficient in evenness of
tone from faulty construction. But up to this dale the
finest instruments were imported.
In 1850, the Steinways, who had been engaged in
piano making in a small village in the Hartz mountain
district of Germany, came to New York, and in 1855
exhibited an overstrung square at the fair of the Ameri-
can Institute in the Crystal Palace, with a full iron frame
covering the wrest plank, the bridge being of wood ;
the brace connecting the hitch pin and wrest plank
parts of the frame being elevated above the strings. In
1859 came their patent for grands, for all of which they
received first prizes, and the era of American piano
manufacture commenced. The extraordinary energy
and skill of the Steinways gave a boom to the business,
and inspired such active emulation among manufacturers
to excel, that importation of foreign pianos soon ceased
altogether, and what came to be regarded as the Ameri-
can system of piano was adopted by the musical world,
and to-day there is scarcely a noble, wealthy or royal
house in Europe unadorned by an American piano.
Sohmer, George Steck, Decker Brothers, Chickering and
innumerable others, emulated the Steinways in patented
improvements and in elegant styles and costly finished
instruments, and the amount of capital and skilled labor
employed in this single industry equals any other. In
fact, as singular as it may appear, the domestic and for-
eign demand for American pianos has increased to such
an extent, that notwithstanding the enormous facilities
of our leading manufacturers, they are unable to enlarge
them from actual la"ck of skilled artisans to do the work
required.
KIND WORDS.
DENVER, COL., July 10, 1889.
Messrs. BILL & BILL,
Editors THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
GENTLEMEN: Enclosed please find $3 for one year's
subscription to your paper.
Yours very truly
WENDELL, SEAHOLM & BROWNING.
BROOKLYN, July 23, 1889.
Messrs. BILL & BILL:
GENTLEMEN: Please send us a copy of your paper,
Music TRADE REVIEW, and oblige,
Yours respectfully,
LIEBMANN BROS. & OWINGS.
GUELPH, CANADA, July 20, 1889.
Editors THE MUSIC. TRADF. REVIEW,
3 East 14th street, New York.
DEAR SIRS: Enclosed please find P. O. order for $3.00
to cover amount of our account which we trust you will
find correct.
Yours truly,
W. BELL & Co.
BURLINGTON, VT., July 2, 1889.
Messrs. BILL & BILL,
3 East 14th street, N. Y. City.
GENTLEMKN: Will you kindly place me on your sub-
scription list for the ensuing year. Send me bill and I
will send you check.
I think that Bro. Brooks, of the Sterling Organ and
Piano Co., in writing up his Vermont trip in a letter
(which you published in the Centennial number), of the
225 pounds that he mentioned, the hot weather has a
tendency to make one wish he might leave off the two
hundred and call it twenty-five.
Very truly yours,
H. W. HALL.
SAN FRANCISCO, May 16, 1889.
MSKSRS. BILL & BILL:
GENTLEMEN: I congratulate you on your splendid
Centennial number. To us who are " far from the
maddening crowd " it is a great treat. Enterprise like
this is sure to bring its own reward.
Very truly yours,
It is not a little curious in this connection to note
that the latest contribution to musical art is an invention
by Dietz, of Brussels, which he calls the " Clavi Harp."
BYRON MAUZY.
It is intended to preserve the clear, fine, sonorous tone
of the harp by means of keys played like the piano,
ALTOONA, PA., May 20, 1889.
whereby picking or plucking of the strings is substituted
Messrs. BILL & BILL,
for the hammers of the piano. The strings are metal,
No. 3 East 14th Street,
covered with silk, and the whole instrument is handsome
New York City.
and portable. An exhibition of it in London made
GKNTS: Yours of 20th inst. containing bill for one
quite a sensation in musical society—so we go in circles year's subscription to Music TRADE REVIEW. I here-
—from and back to the harpsichord.—N. ?. Connoisseur, with enclose $3.00 for same. With thanks for your
esteemed paper, I remain,
Yours truly,
J. S. WICKS.
TIPTOE
HOLYOKE, MASS., May 20, 1889.
LEBANON, PA., July 18, 1889.
Messrs. BILL & BILL:
GKNTS: We enclose check, which please credit and
acknowledge.. We have not much news to give you.
We have four new and very pretty styles about ready
that will " take." Of this we have abundant evidence
by the number of orders we have to ship as soon as
they can be got out. Another item, of not exactly
news but rather wonder and astonishment, is in regard
to the organs that went through the Johnstown floods,
and also those from Williamsport, Lock Haven, &c.
We have placed a Johnstown organ of our make into
our show window in this city. Our people it seems
never tire looking at this organ as crowds stand and
look all day long. It had a hard time of it, evidently,
and the wonder is that any thing is left of it. Others
passed through more easily and can be repaired at a
cost of less than $5. Every organ received so far we
are able to repair and make all right. We have lots of
these to repair.
Yours truly,
MILLER ORGAN CO.
Messrs. BILL & BILL,
N. Y. City.
GENTS: Find enclosed check for $3.00—year's sub-
scription.
Congratulating you on the progress and success of
your paper,
I am, yours truly,
M. P. CONWAY.
SAVANNAH, GA., June 7, 1889.
MESSRS. BILL & BILL,
3 East 14th street, New York.
DEAR SIRS: Enclosed please find postal note for $3.00
in payment of your invoice of May 13th. Kindly ac-
knowledge receipt and oblige,
Yours truly,
DAVIS BROS.
CONCORD, N. H., June 8, 1889.
MESSRS. BILL & BILL:
GENTS: Received THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW with
article, which is indeed well stated and satisfactory.
Yours truly,
PRESCOTT PIANO & ORGAN CO.
MAYOR J. W. SMITH has re-entered the piano and
organ trade, having located himself, under the style
of Smith & Co., in the store of E. A. Benson, Little
Rock, Ark. Mr. Smith was for some time manager of
the Little Rock branch of the Jesse French Piano and
Organ Co.
GREENSBORO, N. C , June 8, 1889.
Proprietors Music TRADE REVIEW:
DEAR SIRS: I enclose postal note for arrears on sub-
scription.
Yours very truly,
THOS. WOODROOFE.