Music Trade Review

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THE
REVIEW
VOL. LXXXI. No. 6 Published Every Satirday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. Angast 8, 1925
Bln|
g. ( £"ft > ; £° ea ° ent8
The Architect and the Requirements
of the Home for the Piano
The Vital Necessity of Educating the Men Who Design the Homes of the Country's People to Providing a
Proper Environment for Placing the Piano—Greater Co-operation Should Exist With That
Profession—An Address Before the Tuners' Convention by T. M. Wise, of Detroit
UCH has been said and written on the
subject of educating the owner as to
the nature and care of the piano. Lit-
tle attention, however, has ever been given
toward educating the one who designs its en-
vironment.
We do not mean to cast any reflection upon
the profession of architecture as being deficient
in any of the modern-day achievements, for, in-
deed, its members are a superior class of men,
always ready and willing to investigate and try
out any scientific idea suggested.
They are daily discovering and incorporating
new ideas in the building of homes and public
buildings which add to the comfort and wel-
fare of the people. However, it must be re-
membered that the buildings they design must
not only be conductive to the health and com-
fort of the folks who live in them, but must
also be designed to provide as favorable a
housing for the thousand and one household
necessities and equipments found in the modern
home.
Many of these equipments are in themselves
the result of a life work and it is impossible
for the architect to know much about their
delicate construction, unless informed by those
who have made them a study and a profession,
just as the architect has in the designing of
buildings.
Since the piano happens to be the one article
in the equipment of the home in which we,
as a body of professional tuners and techni-
cians, are most interested we propose to make
available some of the knowledge we have ac-
quired by practical experience, and to show
how the environment of the piano is related
to its proper care and maintenance.
We shall claim and defend the right to be
the one body of men best qualified to offer
suggestions, having been schooled by practical
experience under all conditions of environment.
Not even the piano makers themselves have the
opportunity to see the real test in the life of
the piano as the tuners see and know it. It
would be well if they could. Perhaps then
the piano would be fortified and made immune
from many of the ills to which it is subject.
We covet the day when full co-operation shall
exist among the manufacturer, the tuner and
the architect. How can we educate the piano
owner on the proper care of his piano when
conditions are such that no amount of care
M
will make it satisfactory? Surely, there is a
limit to educating the piano owner; and we
must turn our attention also to the source of
a great deal of our trouble—the location and
P
REVAILING
design in modern homes
increasingly fails to provide a proper
space for the piano therein. The tendency
towards compactness in space both in the
individual home and in the modern apart-
ment leaves much to be desired in this direc-
tion. It would be well if the piano industry
as a whole would develop a campaign of
education in this direction so that this might
be overcome.
Largely an oversight, it is
exercising a direct influence on sales, and
at the same time, subjecting the instrument
to unfavorable
conditions.—EDITOR.
environment of the piano itself and the archi-
tect who designed its environment.
There are many things in the music room
for the architect to consider and incorporate
in his plans. Briefly, they may be classed un-
der four heads, namely, temperature, humidity,
ventilation and acoustics. Each of these bears
a very important part in the service a piano
is expected to give, regardless of the best care
and attention by competent service men. These
four vital features of the music room, so im-
portant to the welfare of the piano, have here-
tofore been left to the fancy of the architect,
who knows very little of the delicate nature
of the piano. He gives more thought to the
breakfast room, the built-in ironing board and
bed, and to a convenient place for the refrig-
erator and the stove than he does to a suitable
place for the piano. Very often the piano can-
not be passed through the small vestibule or
up the stairway but must be hoisted and taken
up on the outside and passed through a win-
dow, all because the architect did not consider
the piano in his plans.
We are pleased to note that the land devel-
opment companies are getting wise to these
conditions. The following article appeared in-
one of our daily papers recently:
"Such architectural plans of new houses to be
erected in Morgan Park, a suburb of Duluth,
Minn., as do not provide or make specific pro-
vision for the proper placing of a piano are
instantly rejected by John Davidson, general
manager of the Morgan Park Co., under whose
supervision the suburb is being developed. As
a result of this firm's position on Mr. David-
son's part, every home in Morgan Park either is
already equipped with a piano or soon will be."
We wish the article had gone farther and
told us what the "specific provisions" are, and
what they consider "the proper placing of the
piano" to be. It means more than just a
"place" for the piano to occupy, when we con-
sider temperature, humidity, ventilation and
acoustics. If these four qualifications happen
to be favorable, all well and good. More often
they are unfavorable, and the piano placed in
such environment constantly requires the at-
tention of the tuner and technician. Yet it
remains unsatisfactory and out of order and
the poor tuner is the goat.
Why should the tuner be blamed and have to
suffer because the architect failed to consider
the importance of incorporating favorable con-
ditions in the plans? It is not our purpose to
criticize or censure the architect, but to bring
about co-operation in the promotion of better
homes by offering our knowledge gained by
practical experience, and thereby help to create
the ideal environment for the piano.
The inquiring mind asks, What are the quali-
fications of an ideal environment to insure cor-
rect performance and longevity of service of
the piano with minimum expense? To answer
this without naming some of the wrong and
unfavorable conditions and the evil effect pro-
duced thereby on pianos would be of little
benefit to the architect in helping him to cor-
rect his plans.
First, the piano must be well located, not
too close to outside doors and windows, nor
where it will be subjected to direct draft or
currents of untempered atmosphere, especially
in low altitudes near rivers, lakes or where the
atmosphere is saturated with moisture. In high
altitudes, where the atmosphere is dry, the in-
jurious effect is not so great.
Exposure to dampness causes the highly sea-
soned wood used in the construction of pianos
to swell, which forces the bridges upward, in-
(Continued on page 7)