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OCTOBER 29, 1927
The Music Trade Review
35
The Technical and Supply Department — (Continued from page 33)
and it is one you did not mention, lies in its
being truly chromatic. No one key is more
difficult to play on than another. It is just as con-
venient to pass the thumb under on a black key
immediately after a white key has been played
by another finger as to do the opposite. As the
C major scale is played, so all other major
scales are played, the fingers being in exactly
the same relative position. The same is true
of figures of notes or of any progressions of
chords. Consequently it is true of an entire
piece. To transpose a piece into any other key
all that is required is to start the fingers in the
new key and let them move exactly as before.
"The practice required for technical efficiency
is vastly reduced. Any technical difficulty mas-
tered in one key is automatically mastered in all
keys. Similar intervals are exactly the same
key distance apart. The ordinary keyboard is
very complex in this respect. Take, for in-
stance, the major third D-F sharp and the
similar major third B~D sharp. The keyspace
for the latter is about one-quarter inch greater
than that of the former. And these differences
together with others account for the immense
amount of practice required for proficiency on
the usual keyboard. Another point of advantage
is that there is plenty of room for stout fingers
on the Janko keyboard. No squeezing fingers
into the narrow space between the black keys
as on the usual one.
"In spite of all of these and other advantages
the innovation went to sleep after a life of
about twenty years. Besides the reasons given
by you in your article its apparent complexity
(apparent, not real) deterred many from at-
tempting to learn it."
Comment
Mr. Schmitt talks a lot of good sense, and his
letter has given me much satisfaction. Some
explicatory comment and a little criticism will,
however, be useful, if only to throw in relief
the points he makes.
In the first place I would not say that the
piano is to-day completely satisfactory, either
as to touch or as to tone. The best makers
themselves do not feel, in fact, at all satisfied
with their achievements, a fact to which I can
testify with authority, for I am in pretty close
contact with this aspect of the piano indus-
try, and spend a good deal of time in investi-
gatory work on improvements.
In point of fact, in my opinion, the power of
the treble strings to vibrate over a period of
time longer than was once possible, is some-
thing to be cultivated. The advantages resulting
need never interfere with the occasions when
glittering staccato tone is required. What we
do want, as I see it, is the ability to do more
with the damper and the sostenuto pedals. The
effect of a longer-lasting vibratory power on
classical music would simply be to cause the
pianist to modify his style of touch and his gen-
eral treatment so as to meet the new condi-
tions.
I do, however, quite agree with Mr. Schmitt
that the piano is primarily a home instrument
and that its tone cannot properly be made to
fill a vast auditorium. Nor, as he says, ought
we to worry about this at all. The piano is a
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chamber instrument and ought to be designed
always with chamber requirements in mind.
Within this region there are, however, vast
possibilities of tonal and tactual improvement.
"I agree that a hammer-lift action on the
grand, if it be designed to take care of lost
motion, might well be utilized for manual play-
ing, but I should prefer it to be a movement
additional to and not combined with, the key-
board shift. A pedal to operate both together,
or alternatively either one at a time, could
easily be designed. I, too, should very much
like to restore the una corda, or shift to one
string, on the grand piano. This, I think, would
be even better and would do a great deal to
eliminate the objection made to a more power-
ful and sustained vibration.
A Good Servant
The Equal Temperament is a good servant,
and although its supersession by some sort of
approach to Just Intonation would bring many
delightful sound combinations into hearing by
eliminating the grinding of tempered thirds and
bixths, the whole of music would have to be
pretty nearly rewritten, if only because of the
enharmonic features of which Mr. Schmitt justly
speaks.
I agree that quarter-tone and third-tone scales
are being demanded mostly by musicians eager
to ride on the crest of any wave of novelty, and
themselves quite incapable of inventing worth-
while melodies or harmonies within the present-
day scale. Moreover, Mr. Schmitt speaks justly
of the modernist musician who talks about quar-
ter-tones without realizing when his own piano
has run down to a point of out-of-tuneness
where its errors equal or exceed these small
theoretically possible members of a new scale.
There is an awful .lot of nonsense talked about
these things by musicians, because musicians
allow their emotions and not their reason or
learning to guide them. Sometimes this is be-
cause their reason is dormant and their learn-
ing non-existent.
Of course, it is quite true that the Just In-
tonation would call for many more than twelve
separate sounds to the octave. The subject has
been investigated by many authorities, the best
of whom, Ellis, was a man of far greater learn-
ing than the historiographer Riemann. Ellis
was incidentally a believer in Just Intonation.
His "Harmonical" or just-tuned organ realized
the requirements very finely. The keyboard, of
course, was somewhat complicated. In his ap-
pendices to Helmholtz Ellis has described sev-
eral others, invented by Bosanquet, Perronet
Thompson, J. Paul White, etc. The Hagaman
invention, which I mentioned, provides, how-
ever, a way of obtaining substantially Just In-
tonation without altering the standard keyboard.
All He Says It Is
The Janko keyboard is certainly all that Mr.
Schmitt says it is. No clavier ever invented
approaches it for power-bestowing qualities. It
makes the pianist's ten fingers into the equiva-
lent of twenty using the ordinary keyboard.
Probably it was as easy to learn as the ordi-
nary clavier, but it looked hard; and as I said,
the piano teachers and music publishers were
against it. Eheu!
Mr. Schmitt deserves and has our thanks. An-
other communication dealing with a recent dis-
cussion of tempered and just intervals, coming
from Carl Klock, of Hagerstown, is acknowl-
edged; but must be deferred till next week.
Please!
Incidentally, will gentlemen who correspond,
do me the very great favor of typing their let-
ters or having them typed, and will they also
please have them double-spaced when they are
typed? To do that is to make the printer's and
the editor's task vastly easier.
Paul Bilhuber Addresses
Western Piano Technicians
date the taxes were originally paid, superseded
the interest provisions of the 1921 law.
The decision of the Court of Claims in the
case before the Supreme Court carried with it
an award of something over $365,000 in addi-
tional interest to the claimant, who had been
granted approximately one-tenth of that sum
by the Bureau of Internal Revnue.
The Government's appeal to the Supreme
Court is based on the contention that the Court
of Claims was in error in holding that the
1924 revenue act was applicable to the calcula-
tion of the interest payable on refund claims
settled prior to its enactment. A strong fight
will be made for reversal of the decision, since,
if upheld, it would affect thousands of other
cases settled in a similar way by the Bureau
of Internal Revenue, and would cost the Gov-
ernment millions of dollars in additional interest
payments.
Tells of the Many Improvements Made in the
Equipment of Steinway & Sons' Factories
During the Past Few Years
CHICAGO, III., October 24.—Paul H. Bilhuber,
assistant manager of the factories of Steinway
& Sons, New York, was the principal speaker
at a meeting of the Western Division of the Na-
tional Piano Technicians' Association, held here
last week. Mr. Bilhuber told how the Stein-
way factories had been reorganized, and mod-
ern mechanical methods of production installed
therein. He declared that over 200 changes had
been made during the past few years to con-
serve space and increase efficiency, and stated
that at present the Steinway factories are prob-
ably the best equipped in the industry from a
mechanical standpoint. Other speakers at the
meeting were William Braid White, and Thure
Johansen, of the Cable Company.
New Decision Provides for
Increased Tax Refunds
U. S. Court of Claims Holds That 1924 Revenue
Act Superseded 1921 Law in Providing for
Interest Payments on Refunds
WASHINGTON, D. C, October 24.—Members of
the music industry who have received refunds
of taxes from the Government on which in-
terest was paid, under the 1921 revenue act,
from the date upon which the claim for refund
was allowed, may have additional interest due
ihem if the United States Supreme Court af-
firms the decision of the United States Court
of Claims holding that the 1924 revenue act,
providing for the payment of interest from the
Correspondence
is solicited. It should be addressed to William
Braid White, 5149 Agatite avenue, Chicago, for
immediate attention.
Piano Patents
Keyboard Indicating Device and Method of
Registering Performance. John Strass, New
Orleans, La. Patent No. 1,644,960. In com-
bination with the keyboard of a musical instru-
ment, an indicating device comprising a sta-
tionary member and a plurality of shields hav-
ing symbols of a code, a plurality of plungers
having means for moving the shields in front of
the stationary member whereby to either ob-
scure or reveal one or more of the symbols
thereon, and means operated by the keys when
in action to reciprocate the plungers and cause
said movement of the shields resulting in a final
combination of symbols indicating the correct
execution of a given musical exercise.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.