The manufacture of musical instruments in the United States imployed, in 1850, in 18 States, 204 establishments, aggregating a capital of $1,545,935. They employed 2,307 male and 24 female hands, who received in annual wages $1,054,728, and produced, from raw materials valued at $698,168, musical instruments to the value of $2,580,715, whereof $1,073,343 was the product of 58 establishments in New York, and $903,52 that of 49 in Massachusetts, those States being the principal producers. On the 1st of June 1860, the total number of establishments engaged in this manufacture in 19 States was 223, of which the invested capitals amounted to $4,431,900, the number of hands to 4,461, including 7 females. The annual cost of raw materials was $2,144,298, and of labor $2,378,520. The value of the product was $6,548,432, an increase of 153.3 per cent. in ten years.
The manufactures included 21,797 piano-fortes, made in 15 States ; 12,643 melodeons and harmoneons made in 12 States ; 245 organs, the produce of 8 States, including 2 in California ; 25 aeolians, made in Maine ; 12 calliopes, manufactured in Massachusetts ; and 300 guitars, made in Pennsylvania.
Of the whole number of establishments, 110, employing a capital of $3,644,250 and 3,482 hands, manufactured piano-fortes of the value of $5,260,907 ; 40 extablishments, having a capital of $418,400 and 451 hands, made melodeons and harmoneons to the value of $646,975 ; and organs were manufactured to the value of $324,750 in 20 establishmenets having a capital of $184,600 and 265 hands. The remaining 53 establishments, representing a capital of $184,650 and employing 263 persons, manufactured instruments of various kinds to the value of $315,800.
New York was the largest producer of musical instruments, its factories, 77 in number, having made 12,800 pianos, 8,100 melodeons and harmoneons, and 75 organs. These employed a capital fo $2,654,700 and 2,454 hands, 4 of them female, whose wages cost $3,592,567. The raw material consumed was valued at $1,072,524, and the product at $4,492,567, which was an increase of 216 per cent. on the product of 1850.
Massachusetts was the next in the value of musical instruments made, and employed 44 factories, having invested $1,08,500, and producing, from $667,287 worth of materials by the labor of 1,054 hands, an annual product of $1,901,470, an increase of 110 per cent. since 1850. The articles made were 5,611 pianos, 1,296 melodeons, &c., 100 church organs, and 12 calliopes.
In Pennsylvania 31 establishments made 1,188 piano-fortes, 238 melodeons and harmoneons, 17 organs, and 300 guitars, together valued at $446,910, which was an increase of 135 per cent.
The only other States which reached a product of $100,000 were Maryland and Kentucky, the former which made musical instruments of the value of $282,000, and the latter $114,730, the increment being, respectively 93 and 555 per cent.
The other States showed, severally, the followign rates of increase in this manufacture, viz. : Maine 96, New Hampshire 33, Vermont 294, New Jersey 59, Ohio 37, Illinois 330, Michigan 172, Wisconsin 486, Missouri 196 percent. Rhode Island and Connecticut showed a decrease in the business, and Indiana, Viginia , and California made no returns in 1850.
The extent and perfection to which the manufacture of instruments of music is carried at the present day may be safely received as an index of the general progress of mankind in civilization and social comfort. It does not detract from this view of the subject to say that instrumental music is addressed merely to the ear, and therefore appears to gratify only the sensuous part of our nature with an artificial strain destitute of the charm of vocalization. We all know that the physical senses are the inlets of many of our purest pleasures, and that a delicate organization may become the medium of awakening emotions of the sublimest and tenderest kind.
In our day, the manufacture of musical insrtumnets, considered in its economical relations, is confined to the production of a few of the larger and more perfect ones belonging to the classes of keyed instruments, which are so improved in construction and so comprehensive in their powers as to combine the characteristics of nearly all other kinds.
In this department, American skill and genius have placed our manufacturers in rivalship with those in Europe, on which , for many years, we were dependent for our instruments of music. So unimportant was this branch of industry a half century since, that its products were recorded by the marshals in 1810 ony in one State, in which they amounted in value to only $17,830, nearly the whole of which was aproduced in the city of Boston. That city now contains twenty establishments, which produce, annually, upward of one and a half million worth of instruments. The State of Massachusetts, in 18[]0, made musical instruments to the value of $1,901,470. In 1820 the statistics of this branch were very limited, and even so late as 1840 we find the returns of the total value of this manufacture in the United States to amount to less than one million dollars, giving employment to nearly one thousand hands. The returns of 1850 make the aggregate value of musical instruments manufactured $2,580,715 in value. The increase in this branch in industry in the succeeding ten years amounts to $3,967,717, being 153.3 per centum.
Although this disparity in the product is probably, in part, due to the greater accuracy of the late returns, there is no doubt of a rapid increase in this branch in the past ten years. This is a cause of satisfaction in a social as well as economical view of the subject, as indicating the progress of a taste for refined and intellectuial pleasures among the masses of the people, and also an increased ability to indulge it.
PIANO-FORTES. - First in importance among musical instruments stands the piano-forte, whether we regard the high place which it deservedly holds in the popular esteem, its wide-spread social influence, or the extent of its manufacture considered as a branch of trade. In addition to several poweres peculiar to this most valuable of instruments, it possesses nearly all the elements of expression which belong to all others. The rapid increase, both in Europe and America, within a few years, in the number of piano-fortes relatively to the popularion, is not only capable of statistical proof, but is apparent to almost every one in the limited sphere of his own observation, a fact which does not apply to any other instrument. Evidence of this adaption of the piano to the wants of the community is also found in the large proportion of piano music now to be found on the shelves of music dealers everywhere, and in the great number of persons who obtain support by teaching the use of the instrument. As the character of the amusements of a people changes with its advancement in civilization, this general disposition to transplant to the home circle enjoyments which formerly could only be indulged abroad is an evidence of progress.
In our country, where wealth is more equally distributed, the piano is no uncommon appendage to the farm-house and is often found in the cottage of the humbler class of artisans and laborers in our cities. It becomes in all, from the highest to the lowest, a source of innocent an intellectual pleasure and moral improvement. It beguiles the hours of sorrow and alleviates the cares of business, while it diffuses through all classes an increasing taste for the enjoyments of the social and domestic circle, harmonized and elevated under the influence of music. Even the higher sentiments of religion and patriotism are powerfully stimulated by its aid, as the national and sacred character of the popular songs and airs heard in public and private at all times abundantly testify.
The piano-forte appears to have originated in Germany early in the last century. The original, from which it came to its present form by successive modification, was a more ancient instrument called the psalterium or tympanum, better known in modern times as the dulcimer. This was played by striking a series of brass wires stretched across a small box forming the musical scale, by means of a pair of little wooden hammers or small rods. Still closer aproximatinos to the piano-forte are traced in the clavichord, in which a keyboard and digital action were employed ; in the clavicitherium, of a square form, in which little leather hammers acted upon strings of catgut, and in the viginal, a keyed instrument, with metallic chords vibrated by quills affixed to the end of levers or keys. The virginal is said to have been invented in England in the time of Elizabeth, and to have been a favorite instrument with the virgin queen, whence it derives its name.
The harpsichord, also a common instrument at that period, was a still nearer approach to a grand piano. It had strings of wire stretched over bridges, and operated upon by little jacks by means of two key-board, which could be used either separately or togehter. The harpsichord was a quilled instrument and was familiar to the first settlers of this country, as was also the spinet, which was only a square harpsichord. Both of these were harsh-toned instruments. Many attempts were made to improve the tones of the harpsichord, aptly described as "a scratch with a sound at the end of it," and also to adapt to it the peculiar action of the piano-forte, to which a century since it still remained superior. Unmelidious were its sounds, the harpsichord has been honored as the medium through which Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, and other eminent composers gave forth their finest inspirations.
Marius, of Paris, is believed to have been the first, in 1716, to improve the quality and character of the tones of the harpsichord by the uise of small hammers instead of plectrums of quills. Two years after Christophero, of Florence, produced an instrument which, being capable of giving forth sounds both soft and loud, was first called piano-forte. Manufactories of the instrument were established in 1760 by Zumpf in England, and by Silberman in Germany, and in 1767 the piano was introduced on the stage of Covent Garden theatre as "a new instrument."
In 1774 Joseph Merlin obtained in England a patent for a compound harpsichord, having hammers on the plan of the piano-forte. But the first grand-action piano was made two years before by Becker, a German, assisted by John Broadwood and R. Stodart, all in the employ of Tschudi, of London. They succeeded in applying to the harpsichord the piano-forte mechanism then in use, or "direct action" as it is called, which has been since employed with slight modifications by the Broadwoods in upwards of 18,000 grand piano-fortes, besides 1,500 of smaller dimensions ; by Stodart, of London, and at least one large firm in this country. The earliest entry of a piano on the books of the Broadwoods was in 1771, and of a grand piano in 1781. Clementi, in the year following, first brought the grand piano into notice as a concert instrument, by playing one of Broadwood's at the Pantheon, in London. We may here mention among the attempts to improve the harpsichord, that the ingenious Governor Hopkinson, of Philadelphia, in 1783, essayed an improved mode of quilling the instrument, and the following year received from the manufactory of the Messrs. Tschudi & Broadwood a harpsichord made according to his plan. He also attempted to adapt keys to the harmonica in 1785.
The first patent of an upright piano was taken out by W. Stodart in 1795, though its first construction is ascribed to an Englishman named Hancock. In 1794 and 1798 Southwall, of Dublin, patented what is known as the "Irish damper" for square pianos, and in 1807 introduced the "cabinet" piano. This was followed by the "cottage " upright, 4 to 5 feet high, by Robert Wornum, in 1811, and in 1827 by the "picolo," 3 1/2 feet in height.
The ample fortunes and high repute acquired by Zumpf, CLementi, Kirkman, and others, in England ; by Silberman, in Germany ; and the Erards, in Paris, were the fruits of successive improvemnets and excellence in the manufacture of the piano-forte. The English manufacturers long maintained the highest reputation in this branch. The extent of the piano manufacture in England may be inferred from the fact that the entire number of piano-fortes of all kinds manufactured by the Messrs. Broadwood from 1771 to 1851 was 103,750, of which number 60,382 were made from the year 1824 to 1850, an average of 2,236 per annum. The Messrs. Collard, of that city, sold in the twenty years previous to 1851 about 32,000 piano-fortes. The entire production of all England in 1853 was estimated at 1,500 instruments per week, of which number about 10 per cent. were grand pianos, a like proportion were squares, and the remainder uprights.
Many improvements have been made in the piano since the great exhibition of 1851, when 173 instruments, shown by 101 exhibitors from different countries, afforded an opportunity for comparison and stimulated improvement.
The result is seen, among other things, in an extension of the compass of the piano, and has been followed by an increase of the price of first-class instruemnts, with a corresponding reduction in those of humbler construction. Thus Broadwood & Son's first-rate concert grands, which in 1851 sold for 175 guineas, commanded 250 guineas each in 1862, in consequence of improved construction, while small uprights of full compass were sold in 1862 at less than £s;20 each.
The piano-forte came into use in the United States before the close of the last century. By whom they were first made in this country is uncertain. Mr. John Osborn, who as late as 1823 made upright, grand, square, and cabinet pianos ,opposite Boylston Market, Boston, and J. Thurston have beem mentioned among the earliest manufacturers. As early as 1790 several piano-fortes, claimed to be equal in workmanship to any imported, were made in Philadelphia.
Even thus early had been observed and urged in favor of the domestic article the fact, since well understood, that in consequence of the great humidity of the climate of London, and that contracted in teh subsequent passage of the Atlantic ocean, instruments made in England shrank and opened at the seames when brought into the dryer atmosphere of this country. This, added to the oxidation of the wires and the loosening of the keys, greatly impaired or destroyed the tone and durablitiy of the instrument. It still remains a valid objection to foreign instruments, notwithstanding various contrivances, the most valuable of which is of American origin, to obviate the effects of a change of climate. Although artificial heat is extensively employed for this purpose, it is very inferior to the natural, and hence large capitals are required to enable manufacturers to keep a sufficient stock on hand, the best of them keeping their material from two to three years in seasoning.
The first American patent for improvement in the piano-forte was taken out in 1796 by James S. McLean, of New Jersey ; and the next in February, 1880, by John Isaac Hawkins, of Pennsylvania, for an upright of novel and ingenious construction, which did not take, however, with the public. For many years the manufacture of piano-fortes, though carried on to some extent in our principal cities, continued to be quite a limited business in teh United States. Our piano-makers have striven with laudable ambition, as the records of the Patent office will testify, to improve the mechanism and qualities of the instrument. In this they have succeeded in adding some substantial improvements, among which may be named the "cast metal plate frame" for sustaining the strings, and which has been adopted abroad. This was introduced by Jonas Chickering, of Boston, who commenced business nearly forty years since. The "eolian attachment," or combination of the accordion and piano in one instrument, was invented by Obed Coleman, of Barnstable, Massachusetts, in 1842. The patent for this improvement sold in this country for $110,000. The "reversed top piano-forte" of Conrad Meyer, one of the oldest manufacturers in the country, the "dolce campana" attachment patented in 1848, the "corrugated sounding board," and the modifications of earlier or later date, may be included among American contributions.
Many American manufacturers now produce instruments admitted by the best performers to be in all respects equal to those of any foreign piano-makers. In the selection of woods, of which a considerable variety is used in their construction, our builders possess many advantages. The principal kinds employed are pine, walnut, white holly, maple, oak, mahogany, ebony, rosewood, &c., on the complete seasoning of which, particularly in the sound-board, the perfect timbre or tone of the instrument is greatly dependent. To this end, as already remarked, the clearness and dryness of the climate materially contribute.
At the great exhibition in London, in 1851, all the Americal exhibitors of piano-fortes received either gold medals or honorable mention. Of four American contributors to the exhibition of 1862, two received prize medals, the number of competitors bein 332, and the number of medals awarded 113. "For excellency of material, simplicity of style, elegance of finish, and faithfulness of workmanship, and, above all, for volume and variety, mellow sweetness, brilliancy and permanency of tone, the American pianos now challenge competition from all quarters of the world." [Moore's Cyclopaedia of Music, page 729.]