Music Trade Review

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12
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
OuTTECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
EQUAL TEMPERAMENT AND THE SOUTH.
I am in receipt of the following letter from a
Southern tuner, which I think explains itself. It
does not seem to me that any special comment
is needed on my part, and I shall therefore place
the matter before the reader without additional
introduction:
"Editor Technical Department, Dear Sir: It is
with great interest that I read your articles each
week, and I must add that your department is
worth many times the subscription price of The
Review to us tuners. Your comments are most
instructive; in fact, highly valuable; but, my
friend, how can you be so mild ? Where, oh, where
on earth can you find patience to make a kind or
gentle reply to some of the very unprofessiona'
inquiries which you receive, and especially to such
a one as is displayed in The Review of February 3,
which relates to the use of the equal tempera-
ment in the South.
"You ask for enlightenment from Southern tun-
ers, and I think I can give you just what you
wish. In the first place, the statement of W. T. D.
Green, of Sattimore, N. C, is entirely incorrect.
1 have tuned in twenty-four states from New York
to Colorado and as far south as Texas, as well as
in the territories and Canada, and can honestly say
that I have never been in a region where the cli-
mate is more temperate or better adapted for the
preservation or standing-in-tune of the piano than
is North Carolina. Let me give you an illustra-
tion. On March 6, 1911, I tuned a piano down
from philharmonic to international pitch. The
piano was in one of the theaters, and a cheap make
at that. On the next day, March 7, I retimed the
piano, putting it back to high pitch. The instru-
ment was then shut up during the hottest summer
on record. Last October, by request of the theater
manager, I examined the piano and found it at
the exact pitch at which I had left it, and with the
tuning smooth.
"Now, this same piano has been in use all this
busy theatrical season and in the past two weeks
the orchestra members are still in a satisfactory
condition. And I should like to impress the fact
on Mr. Green's mind that this piano has not had a
tuning-pin disturbed since last March. Moreover,
I can refer to other pianos giving just as good
satisfaction.
"When I see such ignorance displayed by men
who claim the intelligence and the right to invade
our profession, 1 too am 'filled with awe.' And as
you truly say, 'the astonishing possibilities of the
human mind are thus revealed.'
"Again, I should like to ask what school, what
theory, what pitch or temperament can these fel-
lows possibly use, if equal temperament will not
stand. Lord deliver us from these sins and cause
our adversaries straightway to return to some good
school or factory or forever hold their peace.
"As you have often repeated, if tuners will use
precise equal temperament and will go over their
work the second time, yes, three times if necessary,
and will honestly look after the regulating, there
will be less complaint and more satisfaction. I am
Northern born, but the South is my adopted home
and I think that all good tuners of the South should
rise up and rebuke such onslaughts. Oh, for the
day when 'piano doctors' will be obliged to pass
state examining boards the same as doctors of
FAUST SCHOOL OF TUNING
Nuoforte, Player-Piano, Pipe and Reed Organ Toning
The Faust School has recently taken over the Tuning
Department of the New England Conservatory of Music.
The principal, Oliver C. Faust, has been in charge of that
department at the Conservatory for twenty years. The course
ircludes the Tuning, Repairing, Regulating, Voicing, Var-
nishing and Polishing of Pianofortes, Pipe and Reed Organ*
and Player-Pianos.
Pupils have daily practice in Chickering ft Sons'
factory.
Year book sent free upon request.
|7-39 GAINSBOROUGH ST,, BOSTON, MAS$.
medicine must do now. Sincerely yours, E. S. Van
Alstyne, Fayetteville, N. C. Feb. 5, 1912."
THE CHANGING OF TOUCH.
often gets more thanks for a little treatment of
the hammers than for his best and most artistic
efforts in putting a piano into a condition of per-
fect tune.
"Editor Technical Department, The Music Trade
I acknowledge receipt of a letter from W. H.
Review, Dear Sir: I should very much like to Haldeman, of Morrill, Kan,, which shall receive
have you discuss what you consider the best notice in the next issue.
method for lightening the touch on a piano that
has too heavy a touch or action. I have 'some-
Communications for this department should be
times been asked to do this, and must confess that
addressed to the Editor, Technical Department,
I am a little uncertain as to the best method.
The Music Trade Review. William Braid White
"Also I should like to know how you set about
it to stiffen a touch that is too light. This has been
A SELF=POLISHER FOR PIANOS
an uncertain matter to me both in upright and in
grand pianos.
At a Two Cent Per Piano Cost—Something
"While I am writing I want to take up another
About the 83d Experiment of Thad. P. Carr,
matter which I stumble on very frequently. Many
Yellow Springs, Ohio—Named Royal Polish.
people will say that their pianos are tuned too high
and ask to have them lowered, when they really
Would you believe that a man—an experienced
want them voiced more softly.
chemist—took the problem of creating a piano
"I often explain this, but I have talked with
polish that would actually "polish," and after years
several good musicians, orchestra and band lead-
of experimenting finally produced a polish that
ers who say that the piano, or any other instru-
showed the wonderful results of 35 years of polish
ment, always sounds more brilliant when tuned at
making The man who did this is Thad. P. Carr,
concert pitch than when at international pitch. For
of Yellow Springs, O., and the name of the polish
my part I cannot see any difference in the quality
is "Royal" piano polish. It was his eighty-third
of the tone, at least so far as the piano is con-
attempt—eighty-two times he brought his ingre-
cerned, and so have always argued that there is
dients together and failed to accomplish exactly
none. Can you tell me something about this?
what he wanted to secure. The eighty-third time
G. W. B. Kress, 518 Montgomery avenue, Cham-
was successful, and during the past twelve years
bersburg, Pa."
that the Royal polish has been on the market the
A touch which is too stiff may be lightened in
sales have justified the extensive and costly ex-
various ways. Sometimes the trouble is found
perimenting.
in the fact that the keys are too tight on account of
Here is one thing that Royal polish will do: it
the wood swelling around the balance rail pin-
will
self-polish a piano. You will immediately
holes. These may then be reamed out a little
say any polish will polish; but it won't. There are
I he question of whether the keys arc too light
a lot of polishes on the market and there are
may be determined by seeing whether they can be
slightly moved back and forth on or around the hundreds of drug store recipes for making polish,
but how many piano polishes will self-polish at a
balance rail. Again, if this be not the case, it may
be that the damper springs are too weak. These two-cent cost per piano? There is sufficient merit
can be strengthened by bedding them, which will in Royal piano polish to write a volume, but the
best test is to get the free sample. Drop a postal
give more resistance to the touch. Or again, the
to Mr. Carr and he will mail it to you, at the same
keys themselves may be leaded too heavily in front.
time quoting prices in bottles for retail sales and
Or, again, the trouble may come from the ham-
in bulk for wareroom use. Thad. P. Carr's ad-
mers letting off too soon, so that there is not
dress is Yellow Springs, O.
enough power in the stroke. Again, and lastly,
the voicing may be so soft that to produce any
McMILLIN EMPLOYES DINE.
strength of tone a very hard stroke is necessary.
1 his will give the effect of a hard touch.
Hold Second Annual Banquet at Which Fu-
Remedies for these possible troubles are already
ture Plans Are Outlined.
indicated in the statements made above. And by
reversing the processes here suggested, the matter
The employes of the H. E. McMillin & Sons
of lightening a heavy touch may also be under-
Co., Cleveland, O., held their second annual ban-
taken.
quet in that city recently and were addressed by
It is a general opinion among musicians that
H. E. McMillin, Sr., president of the company.
instruments tuned at a high pitch are more bril-
The future policy of the newly formed corporation
liant than those of which the tonic vibration-num-
was set forth and includes a co-operative feature.
ber is lower. But this is, very largely, I think, a-
1'he company handles the Vose, Crown, Ahlstrom.
matter of imagination, arising out of the fact that
Universal. Concord and other makes of pianps.
the higher tones of such instruments are naturally
shriller than they would be if each were at a pitch
which made it sound a semitone or more lower.
It is a matter, too, of mistaking the natural shrill-
ness of very high tones for actual change of qual-
ity. Moreover, the word '"brilliant" is much
abused. Often a piano is said to be "brilliant"
merely because it is endowed with great volume of
tone. "Brilliancy" is a specific quality, inhering
in the partial-tone procession-order of the com-
pound sounds involved, and should be carefully
distinguished from mere noisiness.
Apart from the above facts, it is impossible to
find any rational explanation for the well-known
but generally erroneous assumption nection between pitch and quality. Incidentally,
i: might be said that, in another form, pitch and
quality are continually the subjects of mutual con-
fusion. Many people think a piano is "out of
tune" when actually it is merely more or less like
what they have been led to believe is right as to
WImUr BUI DIatrUt, BOSVWI
tone quality. And any old tuner knows that be
Hammer Head
tnd
Butt Borer
TUNERS SUPPLY CO.