HISTORY OF THE INVENTION OF THE PIANO.
In the monochord, an instrument whose origin is lost in antiquity, is seen the first rude step toward the construction of the piano, the acoustic principle which governs both being the same. As its name imports, it had but one string, which was stretched over two fixed bridges ; a third bridge, capable of being placed at different intervals, shortened or lengthened the vibrations, and produced a greater or less acuteness of sound. It served as a diapason, and was used by Ptolemais (about 140 B. C.) to demonstrate the mathematical relations of sounds. Later benefactors of their kind added other things until they numbered twelve or more, and made changes in framework, mounting, and other appliances ; then came the device, the greatest advance as yet in improvement, of setting the chords in vibration by the percussion of two little sticks furnished with cloth balls at their ends.
Thalberg thus speaks of the ancient forms and names of the piano: " More than three centuries ago there were in use two kinds of small instruments with key-boards: the clavitherium, of a squae shape, having strings of catgut, which were vibrated by bits of hard leather about a quarter of an inch long, projecting from the side and at the upper end of the jack, which was operated on immediately by the inner end of the key ; and the clavecin, of nearly the, same, form as the present grand piano, having strings which were vibrated by plectrums of quill or hard leather. These limited instruments, with others of kindred forms, such as virginals, spinets, and harpsichords, continued in use, with very slight improvements, for two hundred years."
In 1711 Bartolomeo Cristoforo, an Italian, is said to have invented a kind of hammer that struck the strings from below. In 1716 Marius presented to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris two horizontal instruments, which he called clavecins ā mallet, (harpsichords with hammuers.) The action of one of them consisted of a hammer suspended on a pin and pushed upward by an inclined lever, but falling back by its own weight ; in the second, the hammers were also moved by levers, but were placed above the strings, and recovered their position by counterweights.
According to some authorities, Cristoforo adding certain improvements to the work of Marius, produced, two years later, what they style the first piano ; the immediate paternity of which others ascribe to Father Wood, an English monk in a Roman convent, and still others to the poet Mason.
What is unquestionable is, that about 1717, some years before Mason was born, Chr. Gottlieb Schröder, of Hohenstein, Saxony, invented, and in 1720 submitted to the Elector, the plan of a piano, in the vain hope of obtaining patronage. Schröder presented his claims to the invention in a pnblic letter dated 1763.
Godfrey Silberman established the first regular manufactory of pianofortes in 1740. The chords of the instruments made by him were arranged in the form of a harp, placed horizontally. The first square piano is said to have been made by Frederick, an organ-builder in Saxony, and dates from 1758. Another German, Zumpe, introduced the manufacture of sqare pianos into England about 1760. Streicher in Vienna, at an earlier, and Virbes in France, at a little later date, worked from the models of Schröder.
The harpsichord was now abandoned by artists. Haydn composed sixty sonatas for the new instruments. Gluck composed his Armida and other works on one made for him by Pohlman.
Beethoven used a Streicher to harmonize his famous sonata opera 106.
The invention of the upright piano has generally been accredited to William Southern a workman in the employ of Broadwood & Sons, of London, in the year 1804. But we find in a letter written by Mr. Jefferson to his daughter Martha in the year 1800, that he had found, in the city of Philadelphia, "a very ingenious, modest, and poor young man, who has invented one of the prettiest improvements in the piano-forte which I have ever seen. It has tempted me to order one for Monticello." This was an upright piano, and we can find no earlier mention of one. "His strings," the letter continues, "are perpendicular, and he contrives to give them the same length as in the grand piano." In 1809, Wilkinson: made the first upright piano with oblique strings.
THE ERARD PIANO.
This brief sketch of the "rise and progress" of the piano, necessarily imperfect if only for its narrow limits, would be inexcusably so were we to omit the name of Erard, one of the most noted in the history of this instrument.
Sebastian Erard was one of three distinguished brothers, children of a Strasbourg cabinet-maker. Antoine, the oldest son, opened a school of design and geometry at Strasbourg. Jean Baptiste went to Germany to perfect himself in the trade of musical instrument maker. Sebastian came to seek his fortune in Paris in 1768, at the age of sixteen, and engaged himself to a clavecin maker. The superior skill of the journeyman soon excited the jealousy of his master, who dismissed him ; his next employer was of so much more amiable temper that having received an order, the execution of which required more skill than he possessed, he gave it in charge to Sebastian, but with the condition that the work when completed should bear the master's name. Erard consented ; but the secret was not long kept, and his growing reputation was soon after widely spread and confirmed by his "clarecin mécanique." He made his first piano for the Duchess of Villeray, who furnished a workshop for him in her own house. He was now joined by Jean Baptiste, and founded the house that exists to this day.
During the troubles of the revolution, which for a time interrupted his business, he established another house in London. The Strasborg journeyman cabinet-maker died, full of years and honors, at his own (once royal) Chateau de la Muette, in Passy, in 1831. He left his business and its good traditions to his nephew Pierre.
Of the numerous improvements in the piano which we owe to the Erards two are specially noteworthy: the upward bearing of the strings patented by Sebastian in 1809, and the repetition action by Pierre patented in 1821, and again improved in 1827, which combines with a stronger percussion than the old grand action a more delicate effect than the Viennese action.
In the early part of this century the nationality of a piano was distinguishable by its action. If it was English, it had the old English action, the originator of which is unknown ; if German, it had the Viennese action, invented by an organ-builder of Augsburg ; if French it showed the first system of Erard, or that of Petzhold.
The English action strikes energetically and produces a brilliant tone ; the Viennese is more sensitive to the touch, and consequently more favorable to expression ; while the Petzhold, or improved English, repeats with more rapidity and precision than either of the former. All of them have been superseded by the double escapement, or new repetition action, of Erard, which unites English force to German delicacy, and either in its original form or with modifications and simplification is now universally adopted.
POWER IN PIANOS.
The next great desideratum with artists and makers was to augment the power of the instrument. The power depends, in the first instance, on the quantity of matter put in vibration ; but to increase the quantity of matter, i.e., the size of the chords, was to increase the strain upon the frame.
The amount of tension necessary to bring all the strings of a first-class grand piano to the proper pitch is equivalent to a force of more than 240,000 pounds weight.
The mechanical problem that constantly presented itself then was, how to obtain the desired strength of frame without an immoderate increase of bulk. Stodart, Broadwood, Erard, made successive advances towards its solution. In 1824 Erard patented a system of metallic bracing "by bars firmly fixed at both ends to plates and abutments of metal, and employed a numuber of thicknesses of oak glued together in a mould to form the bent side." The solidity thus acquired permitted the employment of thicker strings and the use of steel wire throughout the scale. Broadwood, in 1827, patented a third system which combined the metal bars with the metal string plate. These systems mark the main stages of approach to the desired end which it was reserved for American ingenuity to attain.
PROGRESS OF MUSICAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES.
In the first years of this century the taste for music was but slightly developed in the United States. Competent instructors and the material means of culture were hardly to be found outside of the larger towns. Musical education was the luxury of the few, and generally deemed a superfluous accomplishment. Public opinion on this point has been changed as rapidly as wisely, till the children in our common schools are beginning to enjoy the beneficent fruits of this change, and music is properly recogized as a truly useful art - a good and gentle help, meet and comfortable to our everyday life.
With the gradual spread of the love for and desire of culture in the art, there arose a demand for instruments, which domestic manufacture, then in its feeble infancy, was inadequate to meet, and this demand was supplied by importation. Exposed to rough handling in numerous transfers, to the shocks of land travel before the days of railroads, to the hardships of a long sea voyage before the days of steamships, these instruments came into the American warehouse like invalid immigrants to a hospital-bruised, disordered, and suffering. The cost of repairs, always considerable, often nearly doubled the original price of the imported pianos. Being constructed too only with a view to the atmospheric conditions of Europe, they were not, even when put in order, sufficiently strong to long endure unimpaired the sudden and trying changes of our variable climate.
Yet let us speak of them with all respect, for they did us good service, encouraging the growth of refinement, which kept pace with our growth in wealth, and softening the asperities that accompany an eager pursuit of material prosperity.
THE MANUFACTURE OF PIANOS IN FRANCE.
The social importance of the piano is beyond all question fiar greater than that of any other instrument. It is eminently a household instrument, a "friend of the family." At the present day, when it is in some sort taking the place in our homes of the family hearth, and is deemed almost a requisite of housekeeping, the immense demand is met by a domestic manufacture that wields a vast capital, enhances the value of masses of raw material, and gives employment directly and mediately to a multitude of workmen. And in respect to the artisans in this branch of industry it will not be out of place here to mention the fact, often observed in Europe, of their superiority as a class.
In France, out of every 100 piano artizans, 90 read and write and 95 have their own furniture. To any one acquainted with the general conditions of ouvrier existence in that country this statenment will seem remarkable. Wages are not higher in this trade than in others, varying, according to the skill exercised, from 3 1/4 francs to 5, and for a comparatively small number of artisans 15 francs per day.
The annual production of the trade is valued at from 20 to 23,000,000 of francs ; there is a large exportation to foreign countries, especially to South America.
MANUFACTURE OF PIANOS IN THE UNITED STATES.
The oldest existing American house for the manufacture of pianos is that of Chickering & Sons. It was founded in 1823, by the late Jonas Chickering.
He began by bringing together and under his personal supervision the various processes of fabrication for all parts of the instrument, from keys to case. In 1837 he engaged the services of Alpheus Babcock. Babcock was the inventor of the entire cast-iron frame, the fourth and final system of bracing, the greatest improvement recorded in the history of the piano, certainly since 1824, not to assume an earlier date. It was applied with the most satisfactory results to square pianos by Swift & Wilson, of Philadelphia, with whom Babcock was associated ; but it was not until he entered the establishment of Chickering that it received its last modifications and was adapted to the grand and upright piano.
Babcock's patent was obtained in December, 1825, for a cast-iron ring or frame to take the strain or pull of the strings, already referred to as so enormous.
In 1833, a square piano, with a full cast-iron frame, was exhibited by Conrad Meyer, at a fair of the Franklin Institute, in Philadelphia.
The piano manufacturers were slow to adopt metallic frames and preferred to rely upon solid and heavy bed-plates of wood ; but, as the compass and power of the instrument was increased, and consequently the strain upon the frame, it was found that wood could not give the necessary resistance, and the iron frames were resorted to, and were rapidly improved.
In 1840, Jonas Chickering, of Boston, obtained a patent for an "iron wrest-plank bridge," with a projection to hold the wires of the English dampers. In 1855, Messrs. Steinway & Sons, of New York, made a piano with a solid front bar and a full iron frame, and with the wrestplank bridge made of wood.
The reporter upon musical instruments, Mr. Fetis, member of the international jury, says,1 that "the secret of the great tone of the American pianos consists in the solidity of the construction, which is found as well in the square piano as in the grand piano.
1 Rapports du Jury International, II, 258.
"The instrument which was and still continues in general use in America is the square piano, which has almost disappeared from European manufacture. The principle of solidity of the American pianos is found in the iron frame, cast in one solid piece, which resists the tension of the strings instead of the wooden framework of the European pianos."
After noticing the invention by Babcock, and the exhibition made by Meyer, in 1833, he says: " The first who thought of employing these frames for the solidity of the instruments was a manufacturer of Philadelphia, named Babcock ; he finished the first instrument of this kind in 1825. In 1833, Conrad Meyer, another maker, of the same city, exhibited at the Franklin Institute a piano with an entire cast-iron frame. These manufacturers did not understand the advantages of their innovation ; these instruments being strung with strings too thin and not in equilibrium with the metallic frame, their tone was thin and had a metallic sound. In 1840, Jonas Chickerilmg, of Boston, founder of the family of piano-makers of that name, took a patent for an iron wrestplank bridge with a projection (socket-rail,) both being cast with the frame in one solid piece. He commenced to use heavier strings on this apparatus, the sonority of which was found to be better. As is always the case, this invention was improved by degrees. To day the strings of the American pianos are a great deal heavier than those used by the French, German, and English makers. To place them into vibration, the hammers required a more energetic attack than in the English and French actions ; hence the considerable increase of the strength of tone. But this advantage is balanced by the hardness of attack which renders the blow of the hammer too perceptible, an objection more offensive in the grand than in the square piano.
"On the 20th of December, 1859, the firm of Steinway took a patent for a system in grand pianos, which in great part does away with the defect just designated. In this system the iron frame received a new disposition for the placing of the strings and the overstrung bass.1
1 This improvement is described by the Messrs. Steinway (cited in the report of Mr. Frederic Clay upon musical instruments, British Reports, vol. II, class 10, p. 203) as follows: "This improvement consisted of the introduction of a complete cast-iron frame, the projection for the agraffes lapping over and abutting against the wrest-plank, together with an entirely new arrangement of the strings and braces of this iron frame, by which the most important and advantageous results were achieved. The strings were arranged in such a position, that in the treble register their direction remained parallel with the blow of the hammers, whilst from the centre of the scale the unisons of the strings were gradually spread from right to left in the form of a fan, along the bridge of the sound-board - the covered strings of the lower octaves being laid a little higher and crossing the other ones (in the same manner as the other strings,) and spread from left to right on a lengthened soundboard bass bridge which ran in a parallel direction to the first bridge. By this arrangement several important advantages were obtained ; by the longer bridges of the sounding-board a greater portion of its surface was covered ; the space between the unisons of the strings was increased, by which means the sound was more powerfully developed from the soundingboard - the bridges, being moved from the iron-covered edges, nearer to the middle of the sounding-board, producing a larger volume of tone, whilst the oblique position of these strings to the blow of the hammers resulted in obtaining those rotating vibrations, which gave to the thicker strings a softness and pliability never previously known. The new system of bracing was also far more effective, and the power of standing in tune greatly increased.""The disposal of these strings in the shape of a fan was adopted, distributing their whole number on different bridges over the sounding-board. In the treble of the piano, these strings continued to be placed parallel with the direction of the hammers, it being known that in the square piano this position of strings produced tones more intense in this part of the instrument. In the middle the strings were placed in the shape of a fan, from right to left, as far as the space permitted. The bass strings, spun upon steel wires, were placed from left to right above the others, upon a higher bridge placed behind the first. The advantages of this system are as follows:
"1. The length of the bridges on the sounding-board is increased, and the large spaces, which previously had not been utilized, are effectively employed.
"2. The space from one string to the other is enlarged, from which follows that their vibration develops itself more powerfully and freely.
"3. The bridges placed more in the centre of the sounding-board, and consequently further removed from the iron-covered edges, can act with more energy on the elasticity of this board and favor the power of tone ; moreover, in keeping the same dimensions of the instrument, the length of the strings is increased.
"4. The position of the strings, in the middle and the bass, obliquely to the blow of the hammer, produces circular vibrations from which result soft and pure tones.
"The system of overstringing is not new ; it has been tried several times without success, having been employed without intelligence ; for, instead of favoring the vibration of the strings in spreading them, the vibration was damaged by laying them too near each other. It will be seen hereafter that the European manufacturers of pianos have exhibited very good instruments constructed after this system.
"The upright piano has only come into use in the United States within a few years. Messrs. Steinway have introduced, in the construction of this kind of instruments, new improvements, which insure the solidity so necessary in the variable temperature of the climate of the United States.
"These improvements consist in a double iron frame and cross-bars being cast in one piece. The left side remains open, and through this opening the sounding-board is inserted ; a special apparatus is adapted to this board, which consists of a certain number of screws, serving to compress the sides of the board at will.
"The success of this combination for beauty of tone, solidity, and standing in tune, determined Messrs. Steinway to apply the same system to the construction of grand pianos, the powerful tone of which has become more singing and more sympathetic, by these means of compressing the sounding-board. Messrs. Steinway received patents for this important improvement on the 5th of June, 1866.
"From what has been said, it may be inferred that the large tone of pianos is a true acquisition to art ; an acquisition the results of which may be increased by future improvements, and the great merit of which cannot be doubted except by settled prejudice."
NOTICE OF PIANOS AT THE EXPOSITION.
UNITED STATES.
In no branch of industry did the United States win more distinction at the Universal Exposition of 1867 than in the manufacture of pianofortes. The splendid specimens exhibited by the two firms that have been mentioned, Messrs. Steinway & Sons, of New York, and Messrs. Chickering, of Boston, created a profound sensation not only with artists and professional musicians, but also with the musical public at large. Both firms exhibited grand, square, and upright pianos, and each received a gold medal upon the award of the international jury. The award of two gold medals to piano manufacturers in the United States is the more significant and gratifying, when it is considered that the jury on musical instruments awarded but four gold medals, and that no member of this jury was from the United States.
The American mode of bracing, as exhibited at the Champ de Mars, excited the profoundest interest among European artists and makers.
Another feature of the American instruments that also attracted great attention was the fact that their scales, being much larger than those of European make, produced a peculiar freedom and clearness in the vibrations of the strings, and as a second consequence a firmness and roundness of tone not observable in any other piano-fortes at the Exposition.
How to augment the sonority and how prolong the sound ad libitum, were the problems that European manufacturers had been studying for years. They recognize a satisfactory solution of the first in the instruments of Steinway and of Chickering.
The following is the expression of the opinion of Mr. Fetis, of the jury, translated from his report already cited:
"The pianos of Messrs. Chickering & Sons are powerful and magnificent instruments, which, under the hands of a virtuoso, produce great effects and strike with astonishment. Their vigorous sonority is carried far, free, and clear. In a large hall, and at a certain distance, the listener is struck with the fulness of tone of these instruments. Nearer by, it must be added, there is combined with this powerful tone the impression of the blow of the hammer, which produces a nervous sensation by its frequent repetition. These orchestral pianos are adapted to concerts ; but in the parlor, and principally in applying them to the music of the great masters, there is wanting, by the same effect of the too perceptible blow of the hammer, the charm that this kind of music requires. There is something to be done here, to which the reporter must call the attention of the intelligent manufacturer of these grand instruments, without in other respects wishing to diminish their merits.
"The pianos of Messrs. Steinway & Sons are equally endowed with the splended sonority of the instruments of their competitor ; they also possess that seizing largeness and volume of tone, hitherto unknown, which fills the greatest space. Brilliant in the treble, singing in the middle, and formidable in the bass, this sonority acts with irresistible power on the organs of hearing. In regard to expression, delicate shading, and variety of accentuation, the instruments of Messrs. Steinway have over those of Messrs. Chickering an advantage which cannot be contested. The blow of the hammer is heard much less, and the pianist feels under his hands a pliant and easy action which permits him at will to be powerful or light, vehement or graceful. These pianos are at the same time the instrument of the virtuoso who wishes to astonish by the éclat of his execution, and of the artist, who applies his talent to the music of thought and sentiment bequeathed to us by the illustrious masters ; in a word, they are at the same time the pianos for the concert-room and the parlor, possessing an unexceptional sonority."
The cycloid piano, exposed by Messrs. Lindermnan & Sons, of New York, attracted some attention by its peculiarity of form, but received no recompense from the jury.
Two systems of construction for grand pianos are now generally adopted in the United States. In one all the strings are parallel ; in the other the bass or covered strings are crossed as in the square piano. The second arrangement is practiced with advantage in the latter instrument, because the limits of the case, and especially of the width of the sounding board, do not admit a long and broadly expanded scale ; but no corresponding advantage is derivable from its application to the grand piano, where there is ample space in length and breadth.
It was practiced many years since in France by both Erard and Pape, but was afterwards relinquished on account of the imperfect and confused vibrations caused by the two bridges being placed on nearly the same part of the soulnding board. It seems to us - and the opinion of celebrated experts coincides with ours on this point - that it is useless to have recourse to the contrivance of overstringing where there is sufficient space for a parallel distribution of the strings. The reasons for preferring the parallel system are based on the laws of acoustics, and confirmed by the direct testimony of scientific experience.
An attentive comparative study of the American and German instruments, and of the specimens of overstrung and parallel-strung grand pianos in the Exhibition, has practically proved the superiority of the parallel in arrangement. In all that were cross-strung or over-strung one peculiarity was remarked which cannot but be deemed a defect ; for the crossing of the bass strings on a sensitive part of the sounding board that is graduated for plain steel strings makes the bass too powerful and preponderant.
Something has been said of late of an independent sounding board attached to the pianos by screws and metallic bands. This is not a new nor an original American contrivance. It was invented and patented in France by Pape, in 1828 ; and its practical application to an upright and to a grand piano by Cadby was exhibited at London in 1851. It has long since been renounced both by Pape and Cadby. They found that this plan of attaching more or less firmly to the instrument its most vital part, the sounding board, could not be made to co-exist with the requisite solidity of construction.
Before closing the observations upon pianos from the United States we nmay be permitted an expression of regret that more of our manufacturers, such as Bradbury, of New York, Knabe, of Baltimore, Hallet and Davis, of Boston, and many others, were not represented at the Paris Exposition, where, we have no doubt, they would have also borne honorable part in the peaceful contest in which Chickering and Steinway have won so brilliant a triumph.
The masterpieces of ingenuity, mechanical skill, and artistic excellence presented by these gentlemen are so highly appreciated that many European makers have already begun to build from their models, and there is but little doubt that within a few years the old methods of construction will be as thoroughly abandoned in Europe as they are in America.
In addition to the honorable award of the jurors, the American manufacturers have received from eminent artists certificates and other testimonials of their approval, and many distinguished amateurs have ordered for their own use a "Steinway" or a "Chickering."
GERMAN, ENGLISH, AND FRENCH PIANOS.
In the German, as in the French and English sections, we have been struck with the number of specimens, and with the comparative inferiority of the majority of them. Generally speaking, the German pianos have a peculiarly dull and muffled sound. The gold medal was awarded to Streicher, of Vienna.
The English pianos possess a certain brilliancy in their sonority, which, however, lacks something in clearness and freeness. The defect is probably occasioned in part by the thickness of the strings and the garniture of the hammers.
The French pianos are distinguished above others by their refined purity and delicacy of tone, but become harsh and wiry when forced in the forte. When we speak of French pianos we naturally mean those of the principal houses Erard, Pleyel, Wolff & Co., and Henri Herz. Of these the first preserves its early supremacy. Most of the other firms deal only in upright pianos, which all bear a striking common likeness in scale, disposition of the strings, and every other respect, except the name of the so-called maker.
The constituent parts of the instruments, such as keys, action, scales, &c., are made separately and in quantity by as many different makers. The work of the self-styled piano manufacturer consists simply in putting together and adjusting these parts and adding his name to the composition. They are quite moderate in price and very moderate in quality.