MACMILLAN'S

MAGAZINE

The assertion that older German grand pianos, as compared with the best English grands of the present day, and especially the square pianinos so much in vogue early in thet century, compared with English equivalents, were practically easier in touch, in the proportion of full three, if not four to one, cannot be dismissed as an exaggeration. The writer's friend, Mr. A. J. Hipkins, has furnished the following most interesting information concerning the English grands known to Beethoven, and the English concert-grands of to-day : - "The grand piano belonging to Her Majesty the Queen, which was bought of Messrs. Broadwood for the Princess Charlotte of Wales in 1817, represents exactly the scale and construction of the instrument given by that firm to Beethoven in the same year. This is well known to have been the one he used until his death nearly ten years later. The compass of the keyboard is six octaves, from C to C. The depth of the key-fall or touch is, within a very small fraction of an inch, that now customary, but the weight required to bring the hammer to the strings is only about half that of a modern concert-grand ; the mean weight to raise the hammer to its escapement distance from the strings being in the 'Beethoven grand' approximately two ounces, and in a concert-grand of to-day four ounces. The weights are about as follows, in ounces and decimal fractions thereof : -

These weights raise the hammers to the distance from the strings at which they drop or 'escape,' but have no dynamic power or impetus to jerk the hammers further upwards to the strings - a quality difficult to estimate. The one thing is 'pressure,' the other 'force.' Observe that no change has been made in the treble weight, taking the highest note ; the increase is downwards, and represents a larger ratio in thet new piano than in the old. The old Viennese grands were much lighter, and probably a very gentle increase in weight towards the bass. The Beethoven grand had doubtless a free, open, vocal or cantabile tone in the centre of the scale, embracing the whole compass of the human voice ; but on either side that territory the falling-off was much greater than in modern instruments ; the deep tones being husky and indistinct, the high tones without that clear ring necessary to appreciation at a distance, such as the extreme limit of a modern concert-room."

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