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THE NEW BALDWIN
MASTERPIECE MODELS
INTRODUCED
TO THE TRADE
Something of the Scien-
tific Tonal and Structural
Qualities of the Instruments
S
EVEN years of intensive, scientific tone
study and 168 distinct improvements in
structural features are represented in the
new line of Baldwin "Masterpiece Models"
just announced to the trade and to the public
by the Baldwin Piano Co. Rumors have been
circulating for some time past relative to the
new line, but the extent to which the com-
pany has gone in developing distinctly new-
instruments, and not simply remodeling old
ones, has proven a genuine surprise. The new-
line, in short, represents a definite forward
step in American Pianoforte construction,
principally in substituting scientific precision
for guesswork in securing tonal values.
The first samples of the new Masterpiece
Models are now on display at the Baldwin
THE NEW
BALDWIN
STYLE M
5 FT. 2 IN.
LONG
retail warerooms in various cities and in the
showrooms of Baldwin dealers, and those
who have tested them, particularly compe-
tent musicians, have enthused over their
THE TONE SPECTROGRAPH IN ACTUAL OPERATION
In the photograph
partial component
tone given off by
that
THE
the observer is shown reading on a sensitive meter the intensity of a quality forming
of a piano tone, the other components of the tone having been filtered out.
The
the soundboard is transformed by a calibrated microphone into electrical vibrations
are amplified to show clear readings in the intricate tone spectograph
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
June-July, 1932
qualities. Probably no better endorsement of
the new Baldwin tone could be asked than
is offered by the fact that the noted artists
who use the Baldwin in concert, including
Harold Bauer, Jose Iturbi, Gieseking, etc.,
have received particularly flattering news-
paper notices during the current season
while using the new Baldwin concert grand,
the notices, almost without exception, com-
menting on the quality of the tonal results.
It was in July, 1925, that Lucien Wulsin,
president of the Baldwin company, enlisted
the help of the Department of Physics of the
University of Cincinnati for the purpose of
conducting an exhaustive research in piano
tone, the following letter to Dean Herman
Schneider of the College of Engineering and
Commerce of the university marking the first
step in the move. The letter reads:
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
Department of Physics—Cunningham Hall
July 8, 1925.
My dear Dean Schneider:
Professor Brand and I have conferred with
Mr. Wulsin, in compliance with your request
of July the second.
Mr. Wulsin presents a very clear-cut re-
search problem; that of measuring tone
quality. This amounts to the analysis of a
tone into its component pure tones and de-
termining the frequency and amplitude of
each of these partials.
A sort of analysis has previously been ac-
{Pleasf turn to pay? 14)
II