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AUGUST 9, 1919
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
11
OufTECHNICAL DEPARIMENT
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM BRAID WHITE
thrown into energy as soon as the hammer
struck the string. L T sing the wire of the strings
THE POSSIBILITY OF PRODUCING SUSTAINED TONE
as the armature of the magnet it follows that
It must be evident to every reader of this future development of the piano we must envis- the excitation of any magnet would at once
page who thinks more than casually concerning age the achievement of a tone production capa- bring a corresponding excitation of the string
the construction and design of the piano that ble of being swelled or diminished at will and and a corresponding tone, sustained as long
we are rapidly approaching what may be called equally capable of being sustained as required as the excitation of the magnet should con-
tinue. This instrument was, for some reason,
the dead-wall of development along the pres- without loss of volume.
withdrawn after it had been before the public
ent lines. Jt must be fairly plain to all that
The Work of Predecessors
the possibilities ahead of us in respect of the It will not have escaped the student of the for a year or so.
The Choralcelo, so-called, was perhaps the
further development of tone as produced by the history of the piano that numerous attempts
existing hammer action on the stretched string have been made at one time or another to pro- most ambitious, thoroughly worked-out and suc-
are limited. This does not at all mean to imply duce a sustained tone from the string of the cessful of all attempts to apply electricity to the
that the present tonal achievements of the best piano, whilst retaining at the same time the excitation of tone from piano strings. Its career
pianos cannot be further improved. On the con- underlying features of the normal action and has apparently and unfortunately been brought
trary, it simply means that in respect of the keys. One invention, brought out more than to a close for the time by reason of pecuniary
basis of tone we cannot expect much more from sixty years ago in France, was based on the difficulties. Now this instrument, of course, was
the interaction of hammer and string as at pres- iflea of a rotating wheel for each unison which so much more than a piano that it is a bit doubt-
ent constituted.
could be set into motion by a pedal and caused ful whether we ought ever to consider it as one.
The quality of the tone we produce from the to impinge on the strings when required. This, It had, indeed, the piano action, and its sound
piano can without doubt be improved very con- of course, meant the addition of much mechan- board and strings were the sound board and
siderably, even with the present method of ex- ism. Something like this I can myself well strings of a piano. But its strength lay in the
citation, but the improvement is rather in the remember hearing at the famous old "Egyptian ingenious application of the principle of the ex-
way of co-ordination and correlation, in equal- Hall" in London at least thirty years ago dur- citing electro-magnet to the strings, which was
isation and standardization, than in any pos- ing the Maskelyne-Cook days, when modern so worked out as to permit the building of tone-
sible, or to be expected, change for the better magic and the wonderful conjuring of David colors through the mixing of partial tones drawn
in the basis of the tonal structure. There is a Devant delighted thousands. The piano, I re- out through excitation of special magnets wound
great difference between the two ideas. As I member, was made by Mctzler, of London, and for corresponding frequencies.
The Only Way
have said, there is an immense amount of work to it was fitted an arrangement similar to that
yet to be done in bringing together the various which I have briefly mentioned above. A skil-
Hut, as I have thought over the whole prob-
parts of the scale, in straightening out inequali- ful performer, such as was the gentleman who lem of tone-production with respect to the piano,
ties of tonal quality and in standardizing design presided at this instrument, certainly could I have been more and more impressed with the
and construction with a view to eliminating the draw from his mechanism a remarkable tone. conviction that our task can never be rightly
many makeshifts to which the piano maker is It combined the first sound of the hammer-tone, fulfilled with the aid of extraneous agents like
still bound in the task of producing fine with the peculiar "vibrato" effect produced by the electric current. A sustained tone, if we
• tone. There is, indeed, plenty of such work to the contact of the rotating surface with the are to attain it at all, must be attained by the
do. Rut none of it touches, or even approaches, string. The effect was most interesting and direct agency of the piano's action. Unless and
the great problem of the future. The principles fascinating, but I doubt not needed the acquire- until we can get a control of the string by the
on which the present course of development is ment of a technic on the part of the performer key directly, which shall not confine itself to a
based are capable of little, if any, extension. too formidable by far for most of us.
mere blow, we shall not be able to retain the
They can be broadened in their application, and
A few years ago I remember seeing a patent piano as a piano, and retain it we certainly
they certainly must yet be far more nearly uni- specification showing the invention of a Haytian must, in the interests of musical art.
versally put into practice, but they themselves gentleman, who proposed to attach above each
Steinert
cannot be extended to any wide degree.
hammer of the action another smaller hammer,
Morris Steinert was, I think, on the right
That this is true cannot be well denied, nor can curved to fit over the original member and hav- path when he worked out his Steinertone piano-
the logical conclusion be avoided. If, in fact, ing a retracting spring to pull it back. The ex- forte action, which I was able to describe to
we were compelled for these reasons to give pectation was that when the key was depressed some extent in the series of articles concluded
up the search for new tonal principles, then and the blow given the auxiliary hammer would two weeks ago. He was trying to get a con-
the popularity and even the value of the piano also strike slightly after the first blow and by trol of the hammer which should not so much
would already be doomed and that instrument means of its retracting spring be drawn away resemble a blow, and which should leave the
must, within a measurable time, join its many before it could block the vibration. Thus two finger more effectually in control of the hammer.
ancestors in the depths of the sea of oblivion. or perhaps more exciting blows might be had What he did succeed in attaining was, in ef-
For when once a limit has been reached in the with one key depression. I have not seen the fect, a push rather than a blow, with less de-
extension of a principle (not in its application invention applied.
pendence on the momentum of the hammer
as it stands) a limit has" likewise been reached
Electricity
and with the finger in control till just before
in the usefulness to mankind of the instrument
Those who remember the historical events the actual contact. He succeeded in creating a
or machine which exemplifies and embodies that of our trade will not forget the invention which mechanism which allowed the performer to ob-
principle.
was for a time exploited by a New York manu- tain, after the necessary finger technic was ac-
Fortunately, however, we are not compelled facturer of an attachment to the ordinary piano quired, an extremely rapid series of repeated
to assume that the piano is inevitably doomed. action in the shape of an electrical-exciting blows of extremely low intensity; that is, with
For we have reason, I think, in believing that mechanism for each unison. In this case the the hammer working through a very small arc of
acoustic and mechanical research must in due mechanism consisted of a small electro magnet motion. Here he opened up a new field for
course, if it be steadily pursued, reveal to us "tuned," or rather wound, to the vibration fre-
{Continued on page 12)
new possibilities in the production of tone from quency of each unison, and adapted to be
a stretched string. Such research must, we be-
lieve, finally open up an altogether new type 1 U IN LJ IV O
Here are
The Pioneer School
oi tonal achievement which shall place the piano
with 800 Successful
at once above the organ in respect of sustained
Graduates in the Field
sound and on a level with the violin and its
family in respect of dynamic response to the Special attention given to the needs of the tuner and the dealer
Address, Box 414
OTTO TREFZ
fingers of the player.
VALPARAISO,
IND.
2110 liilrmouiit Avenue
Philadelphia Pa.
In a word, if we are to look forward to the
BASS STRINGS
FAUST SCHOOL OF TUNING
The TUNER'S FRIEND
Player-Piano, Pipe and Reed Organ Toning and Re-
pairing, alto Regulating, Voicing, Varnishing and Polishing
This formerly was the tuning department of the New
England Conservatory of Music, and Oliver C. Faust was
head of the department for 20 years previous to its dis-
continuance.
Courses in mathematical piano scale construction and
drafting of same have been added.
Pupils have daily practise in Chickering & Sons' factory.
Year Book sent free upon request.
27-29 GAINSBOROUGH ST.. BOSTON. MASS.
Old style bridle strap
Braunsdorf's Other Specialties
New style all leather bridle strap
BRAUNSDORF'S ALL LEATHER
BRIDLE
STRAPS
Labor Siring; Mouse Proof; Guaranteed all one length
Send for Samples.
Price* on Request
Felts atid Cloths in any Quantifies
W. BRAUNSDORF,
Paper. Felt and Cloth Punch-
ings, Fibre Washers and Bridges
for
Pianos, Organ* and
Player Actions
Office and Factory:
430 East 53rd Street, New York