Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1892 Vol. 16 N. 3

Page 4 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
J\)e " Qrou/n " pianos and Organs.
There came to me, borne on a soft zephyr wing,
The notes of a melody Seraphs might sing.
A moment it lingered, then deftly it stole,
Through the drum of my ear to the depth of my
soul,
And held me enthralled in its strong silken spell,
While around and within me its waves rose and
fell,
Till the tinsel and tumults of earth were forgot,
And I stood, as a captive, fast chained to the
Spot,
And rode—in my spirit— a wide open sea
And laved in the bliss of a great harmony.
How long it enthralled me I cannot avow,
For I hardly am free from the spell of it now.
But I scarce could believe that such seraphic
fires
A player had kindled from sound-board and
wires ;
Yet there sat the player, and there the thing
stood-—
An instrument fashioned from metal and wood—
And I glanced at the name, as the cover went
down,
And read, in gold letters, the single word
" Crown."
I wondered no longer—the name which it bore
Was insignia of rank which it rightfully wore.
THE perfection to which the reed organ can be
brought is exemplified by the Lyon & Healy
Parlor Organ, which is an instrument of great
power and yet wonderful sweetness.
CHICAGO leads the world in the manufacture
of organs. In fact, as many organs are made in
Chicago as in all the rest of the United States
put together.
MASTER CHRISTIAN DIERCKX, the popular
young 'celloist, has just arrived from Antwerp.
The music loving public will be much gratified
to learn of the advent of this promising artist.
He is stopping temporarily at Van Tassel Villa,
Yonkers, but will shortly perform in New York.
GILMORE'S BAND has been boycotted by the
St. George Society, of Hamilton, Ontario, all
on account of McKinley. Yet we venture to
MR. HOUSE, one of the oldest and best organ
builders in New York state, has secured the con- say the patriotic Patrick Sarsfield will play
tract to rebuild St. Mary's organ at St. Mary's "Marching Through Georgia" oftener than
" Dixie, " during this political campaign.—N.
church, Corning, N. Y.
Y. Advertiser.
Miss JENNIE RUNDOUIST, of Jamestown, N.
DURING the progress of a Wagnerian festival
Y., has been engaged by the Dallas, Texas,
in
Vienna the hall was struck by lightning five
musical college, as teacher in vocal music.
times. The damage was slight, which goes to
Miss HALLIE WALKER, of Sandy L,ake, Pa., show that the lightning and dread thunderbolts
has been engaged as a vocal music teacher in a of Jove cannot hope to make much headway
seminary in Topeka, Kansas.
against a Wagnerian festival.
MR. D. E. BURNS, of Pittsfield, Mass., recently
THE employes of Keller Bros. & Blight,
made an offer to Mr. J. C. Springs for the latter's Bridgeport, Conn., held an old-fashioned clam
music store in Siering & Holme's block, in that bake on the 22nd inst , which was a jovial suc-
city, but the offer was refused.
cess.
THERE is some talk of moving the factory of
THE WEAVER ORGAN & PIANO CO., of York,
the Rockford Piano Co. from Rockford, 111., to Pa., recently shipped six of their organs to Der-
Kenosha, Wis.
byshire, England.
THE STANDARD PIANO CO., of Cincinnati, O.,
You ca?i easily spend $3 and not know where it
has been incorporated; capital, $30,000. L,u-
cien Wulsin, Geo. W. Armstrong, Thos. J. Tut- goes. If you send that sum to THE MUSIC
ty, R. U. Jenkinson, Edward P. Urner, are the TRADE RE VIE W you will receive that publi-
MR. HARRY B. TREMAINE, manager of the
cation weekly for a year, and ivill also get a binder
directors.
^Eolian Co., 18 West 23d street, New York, is
in which to preserve your file of the paper.
FRANK POLOMBO has opened a music store in
spending his vacation at Hopkinton N. H., and
Vineland, N. J.
expects to return about Sept. 15.
ANTON DAHL, professor of music, of 144
ROBT. FOREMAN, an employee of the Colby
Piano Co., of Erie, Pa., was badly assaulted re- West 23rd street, New York, has been arrested
cently by some unknown parties while on his on a charge of abandonment preferred against
him by his wife. He was ordered to pay $4 a
way home from business.
week towards her support and, being unable to
AT the celebration of the incorporation of the secure a bondsman, was locked up.
old town of Gloucester, Mass., in 1642, which
MR. LAWRENCE A. SUBER, the inventor of
took place Aug. 25th, a famous Cremona violin,
the
compound music wire, who contemplated
made in 1616 by the Amati brothers, at Cremona,
Italy, and presented to Prof. J. Jay Watson by locating a factory at Worcester, Mass., will lo-
cate elsewhere.
Ole Bull, was on exhibition.
P. PRYIBIL,
555 to 567
West 41st street, New York.
We refer to
all (lie princi-
pal Piano Milk-
ers in >'ew York
and neighbor-
hood.
SAMI,. BOHLER, of Reading, Pa., has shipped
a two manual organ costing $3,500, to Grace
Lutheran Church, Bethlehem, Pa.
the famous English bari-
tone, is threatened with cancer.
CHARLES SANTLEY,
MAUD POWELL, the American violiniste, who
has been making a foreign tour with the Arion
Society, of New York, has won the highest
praise from German critics for her admirable
performances.
MR. HENRY WEGMAN, of Wegnian & Co.,
piano manufacturers, Auburn, N. Y., has been
visiting Newburgh, where he has been negotiat-
ing for the purchase of one of the Whitehill en-
gines for his factory.
MR. F. C. WADSWORTH will exhibit a large
number of pianos and organs at the fair soon to
be held in Carmel, N. Y.
THE OLD STANDARD
AlFFEHIMjjri
Stained Veneers,
No. 211 East 42d Street,
NEW YORK.
Paper Bags
SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR
Piano Manufacturers,
Action Machinery,
String Spinning Machines,
Shafting, Pulleys and Hangers.
FOR
PIANOS, ORGANS, ENTIRELY NEW PROCESS FOR
And Piano Stools,
CLARK MFG. CO.,
88 Mill Street,
-
-
Rochester, N. Y
BORING PIANO PLATES.
Our Machine will bore twice as much as two of the best
men ; a boy runs it and works more uniform.
MARTIN GUITARS
THE ONLY RELIABLE
Manufactured by C. F. Martin & Co.
CONNECTION
WITH ANY OTHER HOUSE OF THE SAME
For the last fifty years the MARTIN GUITARS were and are still the only reliable instruments used by all first-class Professors and Amateurs throughout the
country. They enjoy a world-wide reputation, and testimonials could be added from the best Solo players ever known, such av
Mr. N. J. LEPKOWSKI,
Madame DE GONI,
Mr. II. WORRELL,
Mr. S. DE LA COVA,
Mr. WM. SCHUBERT,
and many others,
Mr. J. P. COUPA,
Mr. CHAS. DE JANON,
Mr. N. W. GOULD,
Mr. FERRARE,
but deem it unnecessary to do so, as the public is well aware of the superior merits of the Martin Guitars. Parties have in vain tried to imitate them, not only here in the
United States, but also in Europe. They stiU stand this day without a rival, notwithstanding all attempts to puff up inferior aud unreliable guitars.
Depot at C. A. ZOKBISCH & SONS, 46 Maiden Lane, IVew York.
Importers of all kinds of MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, STRINGS, etc., etc., etc.

Page 5 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
for two sounding-boards in 1828, and Kirk was
granted one in 1836 for another adaptation of a
similar idea. Walker, Fissiore, Thomas Toud
Jr., Hulskamp and Driggs, all American piano
makers, experimented in the same direction.
Hulskamp originated a " compressed sounding-
board, " taking the violin belly as a model,
while Driggs, the best-known and most recent
of the above group, seems to have set up the
RELATING TO
violin as the gauge of his "improvements"
also. Even the late Frederick Mathushek took
TUNING, REGULATING AND TONING.
out an American and British patent in 1859 for
COPVRIGHT,
a piano which was to contain a sounding-board
EDWARD LYMAN BILL.
designed to make it somewhat similar to the
violin. The most simple proof of the non-
THE SOUNDING-BOARD AND ITS ACOUSTICS.
efficacy of the ideas which all the foregoing
53? HE quality of tone produced by piano strings inventors worked upon, and took pains to
> substance which strikes them, as the writer has is anything in the application of the resonance
explained in the second paper of this series. physics of the violin to the structure of the
The sounding-board, meanwhile, plays an im- piano sounding-board it would have been already
portant part in influencing quality, while it plays developed beyond question. Yet there are prac-
a leading part in the power and energy which an tical and experienced piano-makers experiment-
instrument is capable of manifesting. Thus, if ing with the idea to-day. The principle of an
we were to reduce the vibrating surface of a arched sounding-board is a most fallacious con-
large upright sounding-board one-half—to as- ception of acoustic law in relation to the im-
sume such a condition for the purpose of illus- provement of the piano. In the first place, the
tration—we would materially reduce the dyna- violin belly is arched through necessity largely,
mic and resonant possibilities of the piano. for the flat belly could not bear the immense
Quality would not be so much affected, however, tensile strain imposed upon it. Again, and
by a change in the size of the board, though, of more important still, the violin, though an in-
course, it would be impossible to imagine a strument of the string family, belongs to the
piano without all the familiar principles in their "bowed " species. Discrimination is essential.
Dr. Stone, in a table dealing with all phases of
intactness.
the
subject, puts forth the following classifica-
The sounding-board fulfils the duties of a
tion
of the various methods for producing
resonating or intensifying agency, while it im-
musical
sounds through strings :
parts some of its own physical characteristics to
VIBRATIONS OF STRINGS.
the timbre of the piano ; to repeat an illustration
"1 a. Nature of
of its functions in different words. A simple ex-
] A. Plucking
I
stroke.
1. Transverse
Fvrif^n ^ I B c ' Striking
! b. Place
Excited
|
B
o
w
i
n
emplification of resonance is furnished through 2. Longitudinal b
struck.
with f
y
| I D . Impact
p
Rigidity
an ordinary tuning fork. Put it in vibration and 3. Tensional
J
of air
of string.
while it is held between the fingers the sound is
The harp is an illustration of "plucking,"
inaudible. Rest the heel of the fork on a table
or any other medium, and it is reinforced and the piano of '' striking,'' the violin of ' 'bow-
rendered audible. The intensity and power of ing, '' and the ^Eolian harp of sound produced
the sound produced by the fork is still greater through the '' impact of air.'' While the harp
when it is put in contact with such a superior and piano approximate to a large extent, the
violin stands out distinct from either as a
medium as a sounding-board.
A piano sounding-board is a more perfect in- '' bowed'' instrument of the stringed species. In
tensifying agency than the body of a violin, the piano the strings are principally the sound-
that is as an auxiliary to such a sound-producing producing agencies, while the sounding-board
medium as the fork, notwithstanding a current furnishes resonance. In the violin the bow
belief that the opposite is true. At the same smothers the free vibrations and demands the
time, the violin is the most sensitive organ of sympathy of every fibre in the body of the in-
resonance known in the domain of .stringed in- strument to produce sound. The mere effect of
struments. This led experimental piano manu- percussion could have little or no influence over
facturers to adapt some of its constructive feat- the resources of the violin with its wonderful
ures in the piano from time to time, but an sensitiveness. Its sensitiveness is, meantime,
utter misconception of acoustic law seems to conditioned to the use of the bow. The latter,
have pervaded these attempts. Failure to with its capacity for producing sustained tones,
accomplish an improvement of the sounding- has a penetrating and subtle influence over
board by those means has been the outcome so every fibre in the violin. An artistic performer
far. I have in mind a number of patents and can, by constant playing, improve its tone qual-
experiments brought out in Europe and in this ity to an incalculable extent, so much control
country for sounding-board improvements—so- does he hold over its every fibre through his
called—based upon an appropriation of the bow. The hammer of the piano has no such
Structural features of the violin body. Wheat- power, however. It takes a wild flight of ar-
stone, the celebrated scientist, and the inventor peggios, augmented by a licentious use of the
of the English concertina, attempted to "aug- loud pedal to bring forth a demonstration of
ment the tone of the pianoforte " by an eccentric what the piano sounding-board is really capable
sounding-board after the plan referred to. He as a medium of resonance. Now, there is some-
failed to accomplish anything, however, with all thing in the theory underlying the experiments
his knowledge of acoustics, for he labored under referred to. The violin body is admitted by the
a misconception regarding the relation of the writer to be a wonderfully sensitive agency, but
violin body to the piano sounding-board. Erard its constructive features would retard rather
the second and the inventive Pape of Paris, both than augment tone-production in the piano.
—singular as it may appear—labored under a The free vibrations of a few piano strings would
similar delusion, for they made various attempts be totally unable to penetrate and call forth the
to make pianos with sounding-boards construct- possibilities of a double sounding-board or any
ed on the plan of the violin. Gunther and other form approaching the violin. As re-
Wheatley Kirk, of London, also experimented marked, it takes considerable dynamic impulse
in this direction. The former took out a patent to call forth to any extent the latent powers of
SCIENTIFICJECHNICAL flND PRACTICfiL
1/NSTRUeTIONS
73
the sounding-board as it is, and it is in its most
effective form in the piano. Meanwhile, though
it is capable of considerable improvement—ad-
mittedly—time and experience will prove that a
flat, extensive surface of board, made of fine
well seasoned spruce is the best medium for
tone-production in the piano. When some in-
ventor steps in and applies the violin bow-prin-
ciple to the piano—to suppose what appears to
be improbable—there may be something in the
sounding-board idea to which so many clever in-
ventors devoted valuable time, enthusiasm, and
money.
Having remarked the power which the me-
chanical pianos of the street variety have for
penetrating and calling forth the resources of
the sounding-board surface, which they contain
within their comparatively small case limits, it
seems to the writer that a double sounding-
board would prove very effective in these, that
is to say, it would yield considerable more tone.
This may render them a greater nuisance than
they are at present, however. Yet my remark
is a purely theoretic one. The cylinder in these
instruments and its capacity for producing tones
of a sustained character, and its facilities for
mechanically commanding a greater range of
tones at once, enable it to evoke the latent
sympathy of the sounding-board to an extent
impossible to any ordinary performer on a key-
board instrument. Were it possible to produce
sustained effects on the ordinary piano, mean-
while, through some mechanical agency such as
a revolving cylinder, a double sounding-board
would prove capable of yielding fine effects, but
under existing conditions, a good, liberal ex-
panse of sviperficial vibratory surface, that de-
mands little penetration to throw it into sympa-
pathy with the strings, is the best for the piano
makers' art.
Aside from the experiments adverted to, the
improvement of the sounding-board in its ac-
cepted aspects has always been a subject of deep
interest to piano makers. Recognition of spruce
as the best wood for the purpose, has come out
of experience and experiment. The progressive
and thoughtful piano maker is allowed consid-
erable latitude for the exercise of ingenuity and
originality in adapting the ordinary board to
new scales and improved instruments. As it is,
it is far from being perfectly developed. Its
thickness, ribbing, together with the general
disposition of the bridges, play a part in its
capacity, and while improvements in scaling are
going on, the sounding-board can be adapted to
still higher purposes.
•
DANIEL SPILLANE.
?ERR SIEGFRIED WAGNER, the only son
and heir of the composer, Richard Wagner,
and of Frau Cosima (daughter of the Abbe Liszt),
is making the modern grand tour. Last autumn
he visited England, but letters which have just
arrived state that he is now visiting Japan and
China and will return home to Bayreuth via San
Francisco. In New York the adherents of German
opera propose to organize in his honor an im-
portant fete, in which of course his father's
music will play a prominent part.—London
News.
The members of the music trade throughout the
comitry desire news and information concerning
all matters pertaining to their business. THE
MUSIC TRADE RE VIE IV presents all the
news and all necessary historical, scientific and
critical information in a clearand condensed form.
For $3 you will receive the paper weekly fora year,
and we give you as a premium a binder worth $1.

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