The sacred decade in
particular has a cosmic significance in Pythagoreanism: its mystical name,
tetraktys (meaning approximately “fourness”), implies 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10;
but it can also be thought of as a “perfect triangle,” as in the Figure.
Speculation on number and
proportion led to an intuitive feeling of the harmonia (“fitting together”)
of the kosmos (“the beautiful order of things”); and the application of the
tetraktys to the theory of music revealed a hidden order in the range of
sound. Pythagoras may have referred, vaguely, to the “music of the heavens,”
which he alone seemed able to hear; and later Pythagoreans seem to have
assumed that the distances of the heavenly bodies from the Earth somehow
correspond to musical intervals–a theory that, under the influence of
Platonic conceptions, resulted in the famous idea of the “harmony of the
spheres.” Though number to the early Pythagoreans was still a kind of cosmic
matter, like the water or air proposed by the Ionians, their stress upon
numerical proportions, harmony, and order comprised a decisive step toward a
metaphysic in which form is the basic reality.
In reviewing the accounts
of music that have characterized musical and intellectual history, it is
clear that the Pythagoreans are reborn from age to age. The German
astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) perpetuated, in
effect, the idea of the harmony of the spheres, attempting to relate music
to planetary movement. René Descartes (1596-1650), too, saw the basis of
music as mathematical. He was a faithful Platonist in his prescription of
temperate rhythms and simple melodies so that music would not produce
imaginative, exciting, and hence immoral, effects. For another
philosopher-mathematician, the German Gottfried von Leibniz (1646-1716),
music reflected a universal rhythm and mirrored a reality that was
fundamentally mathematical, to be experienced in the mind as a subconscious
apprehension of numerical relationships. Encyclopedia Britannica 97
The chief illustrations, or
rather grounds of their position, were found in the regular movements of the
heavenly bodies, and in the harmony of musical sounds, the dependence of
which on regular mathematical intervals the Pythagoras were apparently first
to discover. The famous theory of the harmony of the spheres combines both
ideas; the seven planets are the seven golden chords of the heavenly
heptachord. To Pythagoras is due the honor of having raised mathematics in
Greece to a science. He is also said to have introduced weights and
measures. From the monochord other
instruments developed and from time to time more strings were added. There
came the Arab – Sautir and the Dulcimer, which were trapeze – shaped
instruments which was composed of a solid frame, sounding board and metal
wires struck with hammers held in hand.
Music was a prominent and
intricate part of man’s lifestyle throughout history. In biblical times,
when King Saul was emotionally and mentally troubled, he used music to heal
his troubled soul “Seek out a man who is a cunning player on an harp: and it
shall come to pass that when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he
shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well” (I Samuel 16:16).
Using music to heal the
body and soul was common knowledge to societies in that day physicians would
often prescribe music in addition to the accepted medical practices. When
depression and trouble descended on King Saul, the royal physician ordered
David (later King David) to play his harp for the King “.. when the evil
spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp and played with his
hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from
him” (I Samuel 16:23).
In Greek mythology there
were two gods associated with music, Dionysus (Bacchus) and Apollo. Dionysus
the “god of wine and orgies”, employed “wild, unrestrained and undisciplined
music” – Music, wine, and dancing was an intricate part of the sensual
experience of worship and orgies. Apollo, the “god of light, reason, and
order” , accentuated precise mathematical forms of music. Apolloian music
followed set rhythms and intervals that moved in and out of different keys.
Worshipers of Apollo strived to obtain equilibrium and peace in their lives
and environments through music. In the old Greek culture, Aristotle
practiced his belief that music was the key to emotional and spiritual
purification. Likewise, Plato used music and exercise to achieve good health
of body, mind, and soul.
Similarly, in later years
Confucius’ philosophies and teachings of “ritual and music are the clues to
harmonious living” reflected his love of music. Confucius believed that
music had direct effects on the mind, body, soul, and emotions, both
individually and socially.
THE DULCIMER Copyright ©
2001 -2007 The “Original Bluebook of Pianos
This ancestor of the piano
originated in Iran shortly after the birth of Christ. It illustrates the
basic principles of the piano, hammers striking multiple strings tuned over
a flat soundboard. Instead of mechanical hammers, dulcimer players use two
light sticks ending with broader blades. Forms of the dulcimer migrated as
far as China, and modern examples such as the Hungarian cimbatom and Irania
santir continue in use for the folk music of Central Europe and the Middle
East. The large dulcimer, which we so often find in ancient Babylonian and
Egyptian sculptures, is the particular instrument out of which the
pianoforte grew. It had a hollow body covered with parchment and was strung
with many strings, and although extremely primitive and unsatisfactory from
our point of view, it formed the basis of all old military music and was
played at all the great court ceremonials of the Assyrians. It was in Persia
that the dulcimer made the first step in the evolution which was to
transform it gradually into the modern piano. There it was made with a
sounding board strung with wires which were played upon with two sticks.
The Italians developed this
construction still more in the Middle Ages and made the dulcimer long and
flat so as to rest upon the knees of the performer. Soon after this — for
the sake of convenience — a keyboard was added to it, which, of course, was
a great advance. It was then placed on a narrow oblong table and was
thenceforth known as the clavichord. Its mechanism was of the simplest, the
sound being produced by brass pins or tangents, as they were called, fixed
into the keys which struck the wire strings. In spite of its very
rudimentary construction and thin, tinkling sound, the clavichord survived
until well into the last century, and even inspired some of the greatest
composers to write sonatas, preludes and fugues for it. Bach wrote his
greatest works for it and declared that he “Found no soul in the clavecin or
the spinet, and that the pianoforte was too clumsy and to harsh to please
him”.
The Dulcimer was a small,
rather square stringed instrument built along the lines of the monochord but
with several strings. It was played by striking the strings with leather
covered hammers held in the hands of the performer. Its popularity was
largely confined to Germany where it was known as the Hackebrett and to the
gypsies who often called it a Cimbalom. A similar instrument was widely used
throughout the East and it was particularly popular in Persia and adjacent
lands where it was called the Santir. The Psaltery of the Bible may well
have been an early Dulcimer. The Dulcimer’s great importance was that it
introduced the hammer, for it is the hammer and its associated mechanisms
that distinguishes the piano from other stringed instruments. Both the
earlier tangents and plectrums played with the same loudness no matter how
hard the keys were struck.
In like manner, during the
Renaissance Era, William Congreve wrote the play “The Mourning Bride”, in
which the famous quotation “Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast “,
expressed the belief and practice that music can console many a woe. Even
though it is misquoted as “Music has charms to sooth the savage beast,” the
meaning is still the same. The term “breast” refers to the terminology of
that day, where the breast held the emotions and soul of man. Savage breast
held the meaning of someone whose emotions were of a strong, dark nature.
Such emotions as anger, fury, jealousy, etc., were considered savage and
uncivilized. Breast also referred to the chest area of a warrior’s armor
called the breastplate. Historically, societies believed that music was a
powerful and important part of their lives, which should be used to its’
fullest.
The effects of music on the
human body are numerous and beneficial when applied properly. First, music
with its changes in volume, intervals, and tempo causes changes in bodily
functions. These changes include: “pulse rate, respiration and blood
pressure. If an adult or a child feels lethargic, he should choose music
that has major chords, a fast tempo, and is played moderately loud. This
combination is revitalizing, energizing, and stimulating. Likewise, when a
child is hyperactive and needs to calm down, or an adult is tense and needs
to relax, he should choose music that has minor chords, a slow tempo, and is
played softly. This combination induces relaxation. The higher the note, the
more rapid the vibrations, which “produce a strong nervous stimulus” that
increases the pulse, respiration, and blood pressure, consequently,
stimulating the body to activity. Similarly, the lower the note, the slower
the vibrations, which “produce a decrease in nervous stimulus” that
decreased the pulse, respiration, and blood pressure, thereby signaling the
body to relax and rest.
The volume of the music
that the individual is listening to will produce different emotions. These
emotions have direct effects on how the individual feels physically. Loud
music “may give the listener a feeling of being protected.” Whereas, soft
music “may give the listener a feeling of intimacy and serenity”
THE CLAVICHORD Copyright ©
2001 -2007 The “Original Bluebook of Pianos
Clavichords were first
mentioned in 1404. They were rectangular and had brass strings made to
vibrate by a brass tangent attached to the end of a key. Early Clavichords
had all strings of equal length and each was struck by more than one key. By
1700 a separate string, each of graduated length, struck by only one key
came into being. This permitted greater latitude in tuning and the “tempered
scale” came into use. It is a compromise between all the keys in musical
intonation and is the system used in tuning modern pianos. The Clavichord
was the favorite instrument of the 16th and 17th centuries maintaining its
supremacy long after the appearance of the pianoforte. The Clavichord
possessed four of the most vital points of the present day piano. namely –
the independent sound board, metal strings. percussion method of agitating
the strings and application of the damper to the strings. Bach, Mozart and
even Beethoven used it.
THE SPINET Copyright © 2001
-2007 The “Original Bluebook of Pianos
Next came the spinet, or
virginal, which was furnished with little quill plectra with which the
strings were plucked instead of the brass strikers used in the clavichord.
The Spinet was invented by Giovanni Spinetti of Venice about 1503.The true
Spinet was not a piano! It was oblong in form with a range of four octaves.
It had long strings. thus increasing the volume of tone, but the plucking
system was used for vibrating the string. The plectrums were sometimes of
leather, otherwise quill. In England this instrument became generally known
as the Virginal, elsewhere it was sometimes called the Clavicimbalum. The tone was thin and
monotonous and the need for a fuller range of tonal effects led to the
development of the harpsichord. Its tiny mechanism was very ingenious, the sounds produced by it were mechanical to a degree, and the desire for
greater expression led to the addition of several sets of strings and to the
providing of a second keyboard. This improved spinet was called a
harpsichord, and was often a very beautiful instrument. Its case was a small and attenuated form of our
modern grand piano.
One charming old spinet
still in existence is decorated with pictures of saints and angels singing
and playing upon all sorts of quaint obsolete instruments, Sweet Saint
Cecilia, who taught organ-pipes to blow’ in their midst playing an Italian
dulcimer. The most gloriously-decorated piano cases are, of course, those by
or after Vernis Martin, the great decorator of the Louis XVI period. The
exquisite coloring and wonderful lustrous sheen of his piano cases have
never been surpassed, and they are perhaps the most magnificent ornament
that any drawing room could have with their beautifully-blended reds and
greens and amber enriched by touches of gold.
THE CLAVICYTHERIUM
This was a modification of
the Spinet in which the strings were set vertically so that the instrument
could have long strings without taking up too much floor space. The Clavicytherium suffered because the artisans of the day were not able to
produce an action which worked well on the vertical stringing. The
Clavicytherium ’5 malor interest is that the stringing runs vertically as
does the stringing of the modern Console or Spinet piano, the most popular
piano made today.
THE HARPSICHORD
Harpsichord, ca. 1675 Made
by Michele Todini
(none assigned) Rome, Italy Wood, various materials; L. of inner instrument
8 ft. 9 7/8 in. (269 cm); W. of inner instrument 34 3/8 in. (87.2 cm); D. of
inner instrument 7 1/2 in. (19 cm); 3-octave span 19 1/4 in. (48.9 cm);
sounding L. at present (longer of pair for-plucking point) FF 221.9 (14.8),
c2 27.4 (7.5), F3 9.9 (4.4), original c2 was approx. 11 in. (28 cm)
The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889 (89.4.2929)
Description This gilded case encloses
an Italian harpsichord of typical design but unusual length. Decorated with
a frieze depicting the Triumph of Galatea and supported by three Tritons,
the harpsichord originally formed part of Michele Todini’s Galeria Armonica
and was described in his catalogue of 1676. The flanking figures of
Polyphemus playing a bagpipe (Todini invented one like it) and Galatea,
holding a lute, were displayed with the harpsichord in front of a “mountain”
in which a small pipe organ was concealed. The organ simulated the bagpipe’s
sound and the harpsichord represented the sound of the lute. Todini designed
several such lavish instruments and charged admission from the aristocrats
who visited his gallery. The artistic quality of the case ranks it among the
finest examples of Roman Baroque decorative art; Todini’s ingenuity and
search for new forms of instrumental expressivity grew out of the same
musical climate that led to the invention of the piano.
This instrument also known
to the Germans as the “Flugel”, to the French as the “Clavecin” and to the
Italians as the “Clavicembalo”, possessed a tone more brilliant and fuller
than any former instrument on account of its larger sound board and longer
strings. In fact it was only an enlarged spinet if the difference of shape
be excepted. It had a harsh tone, and numerous devices were invented to
remove this fault. Among these were the forte stops (loud pedal) – soft
stops – buff stops (practice pedal) – the shifting key board and 2 to 4
strings were used for each note. Although other devices were used, those
mentioned are of importance as they are all used in the piano of today. The
strings were plucked by plectrums, usually made of quill, and only by the
use of tone modifying devices could any great variations be introduced into
the music. The very first pianos ever made were converted Harpsichords. The
harpsichord held its own until well into the eighteenth century. The
harpsichord is rich in high and dissonant (or disagreeing) harmonics which,
to some people, sound extremely harsh. At first, hearing the instrument’s
crisp sparkle seems strange – even jarring – but the tone is admirably
robust, brilliant, warm, colorful, full and round.
THE INVENTION OF THE
PIANOFORTE (From the Italian piano, “soft” and forte, “loud”)
Bartolomeo Cristofori was
the first person to create a successful hammer-action keyboard instrument
and, accordingly, deserves to be credited as the inventor of the piano. This
example is the oldest of the three extant pianos by Cristofori. About 1700
he began to work on an instrument on which the player could achieve changes
in loudness solely by changing the force with which the keys were struck. By
1700 he had made at least one successful instrument, which he called
“gravicembalo col piano e forte” (harpsichord with soft and loud). His
instrument still generally resembles a harpsichord, though its case is
thicker and the quill mechanism has been replaced by a hammer mechanism.
Cristofori’s hammer mechanism is so well designed and made that no other of
comparable sensitivity and reliability was devised for another seventy-five
years. In fact, the highly complex action of the modern piano may be traced
directly to his original conception.
Bartolomeo Cristofori
(1655-1731) was keeper of harpsichords and spinets at the Florentine court
of Prince Ferdinand de’ Medici. His invention was described in 1711 by
Scipione Maffei in a Venetian quarterly journal:
“Everyone who enjoys music
knows that one of the principal sources from which those skilled in this art
derive the secret of especially delighting their listeners is the
alternation of soft and loud. This may come either in a theme and its
response, or it may be when the tone is artfully allowed to diminish little
by little and then, at one stroke, made to return to full vigor. Now, of all
this diversity and variation in tone… the harpsichord is entirely deprived,
and one might have considered it the vainest of fancies to propose
constructing one in such a manner as to have this gift. Such a bold
invention, nevertheless, has been no less cleverly thought out than executed
in Florence by harpsichord maker named Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori
(sic)… a harpsichord player.”
Cristofori’s instrument
named gravicembalo col piano e forte. (Roughly Translated “soft and loud
keyboard instrument”) Eventually, it was shortened to fortepiano or
pianoforte, and eventually shortened to just piano. A Cristofori instrument
dating from 1720 and is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York City.
To combine the wonderful
tone sustaining capacity of the clavichord with the power of the harpsichord
led three inventors, working separately, to invent almost identical piano
actions – Marius of Paris (1716), Schroter of Saxony (1717) and Christofori
of Padua. Marius never completed a piano, abandoning his models as they were
not applicable to the existing harpsichord. Schroter’s action developed into
the Vienna action and school of piano building while one of the
Christofori’s pianos came into the hand of Silbermann in 1747, and it was in
Silbermann’s workshop that the English school of piano making was developed.
The invention of the Pianoforte as an entire and complete instrument must be
credited to Bartolomeo Christofori of Padua, Italy.
Italian and German makers
now replaced the quills of the harpsichord by hammers and gradually overcame
the many problems presented by its construction until Sebastian Erard, a
French instrument maker gifted with great mechanical cleverness, contrived a
mechanism far in advance of all previous ideas, and from his invention the
“action” of our day has been developed. The Broadwood’s also did much to
develop the power and tone quality of the instrument, and the manufacture of
pianofortes came to be one of the world’s industries. Germany and France,
Austria and England were all doing their best to improve the popular
instrument. The demand for greater power led to the introduction of the
massive metal framing made necessary by the increased strain of the steel
strings. In the matter of increased strength and solidity, qualities which
add power and sonorousness to the tone, American inventors and makers have
contributed much to the development of the instrument.
These are the outlines of
the history of the horizontal, or grand, piano. The upright pianoforte so
familiar in the modern household is a thing of comparatively recent
introduction. The earlier forms introduced about the beginning of the
nineteenth century were much larger than our present convenient instrument
which came into vogue some fifty years later. The construction of an upright
piano differs very much from that of the grand piano, and it has been
subjected to many changes of design; in fact, it is only within the last one
hundred and fifty years that it has been made the beautiful and excellent
instrument that it now is. The pianoforte has been brought to perfection as
the result of the labors of many lifetimes.
As the 18th century drew to
a close, the piano was firmly established as a musical instrument. It then
had a five-octave normal range and sixty-one keys not eighty-eight as it has
today. Mostly, pedals were worked by the knees but the foot pedal introduced
in England was catching on. The framing was still wooden; the iron frame had
not yet been thought of. The strings and hammers often broke. The tone and
action was very light. In about 1800, Joseph Smith of England made a
complete frame of metal for resistance to strains. It is only fair to say it
did not much resemble the modern conception of a metal plate. About 1820,
various makers used sections of metal for hitch pins, resistance bars and
pin plank reinforcements.
In 1822, the most famous of
all piano actions was patented by the Erard brothers: the double escapement
action. The purpose of the mechanism was the same as that of 1808, but while
showing its descent from the Cristofori – Silbermann action, the function of
each of its separate parts was worked out with still greater insight and
ingenuity. Again the hammer did not fall back completely after its initial
escapement, but returned to rest simultaneously on a check piece and a
sprung, oblique lever which retained the hammer close to the strings. If
they key was then raised slightly, the check released the hammer and it
could be propelled against the strings once more, the movement of the key
being transmitted to the hammer not by the hopper, but via the oblique
lever. The action was noted at once for its remarkable lightness,
flexibility and reliability. Its significance cannot be exaggerated since,
with only small modifications of detail, it became the action to be fitted
to the modern grand piano.
In the history of the grand
piano, the advantages of gravity-operated over dampers were not so clearly
appreciated as the superiority of up striking to down striking hammer
mechanisms. In his earliest pianos, Erard had chosen the conventional over
dampers of the English piano, but in his action of 1822, he opted for an
under damper which his firm continued to use even until near the end of the
nineteenth century.
Alpheus Babcock of Boston,
in 1830, cast a square piano – the first one-piece frame. While it was crude
in design, it was the first. The evolution from this simple frame by Babcock
to the carefully designed powerful frame of the modern piano was gradual;
but by about 1860, was essentially what it is today and was capable of
withstanding any strain that might be imposed by the piano maker.
The development of this
plate was the greatest single invention in development of the modern piano
with the exception of the Cristofori escapement. As it was with the
development of the metal plate, so it was with the development of the
action. There was more than one hundred years of continuous inventive genius
put into it before Pierre Gerard came out with his so-called “double
repeating action” for grand pianos in 1821. This action contained every
essential of the modern grand action. It was the invention of the full metal
plate that finally permitted makers to greatly increase diameters of strings
as well as lengths and tensions which finally produced the modern piano
tone. The iron frame was not developed in one swoop, but was a very gradual
growth. The use of metal for added strength goes way back to the
harpsichord.
Until the early years of
the nineteenth century, two types of piano appealed to professional
pianists: the Viennese piano and the English piano. The action of the first
was light, had little carrying power and needed very little pressure on the
keys. The tone was round and flute like.
Compared to modern pianos,
many of the earliest ones looked awkward. Most were like pieces of
overwrought furniture thick-legged and heavily carved. It seemed unlikely
that they could make delicate music. The designs were fancy and the
outer-case decorations unbelievably elaborate. Some of the instruments were
almost smothered by decoration – ivory and precious stones, silver and gold,
colored glass and enamels. Many of the pianos had paintings and complicated
inlay work inside their lids. The entire outside cases of some instruments
were painted with fanciful designs in oils.
Because the strings of many
of these pianos were mounted vertically above and behind the keyboard, the
instruments looked tall and top heavy. Some of these so-called pyramid
pianos that were made in Prague even had clocks in their string towers. A
similar skyscraper was a piano called the giraffe. The fanciest giraffes
with the most ornate carving were made in Czechoslovakia. Another curious
piano of those pioneer days was the metal pianoforte, made about 1815. It
consisted of a normal piano with a keyboard for fingering, and a second
legless instrument on which the first one stood. The keyboard of the lower
piano was operated by the feet, like the pedals of an organ.
THE PIANO IN AMERICA
The period of greatest
development in piano construction lay between the years of 1760 and 1830 and
then between 1835 and 1880. The first piano made in America was by John
Behrent of Philadelphia in 1775
CHICKERING & SONS. Established in 1823,
Chickering & Sons celebrated in 1923 the completion of a century of
continuous manufacture of the Chickering pianos. This illustrious firm, the
oldest piano house in the United States, has been at all times in the
forefront and has received world-wide recognition for its part in developing
the pianoforte on distinctive lines. Jonas Chickering, the founder, was born
at Mason Village, New Hampshire, in April, 1796, where, after a sound
schooling, he thoroughly learned the business of cabinet-making. Impelled by
a restless ambition to seek a larger field, he went to Boston in his early
twenties.
There he entered the
factory of a well-known piano maker of those days and pursued a course of
study in piano-making in its then primitive stage. It was not long before
the genius of Jonas Chickering manifested itself, and he introduced a series
of changes and improvements which have since become standard and which
revolutionized the methods then prevailing. His name from the earliest times
has been constantly linked with the Americanizing of the piano by methods of
such importance and value that both America and Europe today admit their
worth by universal adoption. This invention was
accepted by the scientific world as one of far reaching importance; indeed,
it proved to be the foundation of all modern piano construction, for without
it the sonorous grand’s of today would not have been impossible. It
successfully solved the problem of the proper support for the great strain
of the strings and defined a new era in the history of piano-making .
In 1843, Jonas Chickering
invented a new deflection of the strings and in 1845 the first practical
method for over stringing in square pianos, that is, instead of setting the
strings side by side, substituting an arrangement of them in two banks, one
over the other, not only saving space but bringing the powerful bass strings
directly over the most resonant part of the sound-board, a principle which
obtains to this day in the construction of all pianos, both grand’s and
uprights. Until the year 1852, Jonas Chickering superintended each
department of his business with his usual scrupulous care but was relieved
of much of this responsibility upon his taking into partnership his three
sons, all of whom had received under their father a practical training of
the highest order. The genius of C. Frank Chickering as a “scale” draftsman
soon became internationally know and acknowledged and to his extensive
scientific research is to be attributed much of the renowned beauty of the
Chickering tone. Not content with retaining this invaluable knowledge
himself he imparted the secrets of his studies to those in the factory in
whose gifts he had confidence, thus insuring their perpetuation. In addition
to the many patents taken out by Jonas Chickering, his sons and their
successors, various methods exclusive to themselves have also been employed
and there are in constant use operations of an abstract character which may
be described as mechanical subtleties possessing great value and which are
an integral part of the Chickering system.
The outline of the
significant importance of the Chickering system will appeal to the practical
minded but to those who would know more of the romance and charm which the
Chickering story holds for the student of America’s musical development. The
significance and historic value of the Chickering in the development of the
pianoforte in America is seen in the preservation at the Ford Museum at
Dearborn of several important Chickering’s including the very first
instrument made by Jonas Chickering in 1823. Others are: the first
Chickering upright made in 1830 and the first Chickering grand completed
prior to 1850. Chickering & Sons have received upwards of 200 first medals
and awards. These have been received from States and sovereigns,
international expositions and learned societies in all parts of the world
embracing every known method of honoring distinguished merit. C. Frank
Chickering was personally vested with the Imperial Cross of the Legion of
Honor at the hands of Napoleon 111. The significance of this high honor is
the more appreciated because of its extreme rarity, very few such honors
having been bestowed for accomplishments in the fine arts. In 1923
Chickering & Sons were the recipients of a remarkable tribute from musicians
and persons of prominence in all walks of life who united in celebrating the
Hundredth Anniversary of the founding of Jonas Chickering’s epoch making
enterprises. A committee headed by the Hun. Calvin Coolidge (then
Vice-President of the United States) carried to a successful and brilliant
conclusion what was termed the Jonas Chickering Centennial Celebration,
culminating in a banquet held at the Copley Plaza, Boston, at which Mr.
Coolidge was the chief speaker. It marked in a most significant manner a
century of musical achievement that is without parallel in the history of
American piano making. The most famous virtuosi including pianists, singers
and instrumentalists have exhausted superlatives in expressing their high
admiration of the Chickering. The Handel and Haydn Society of Boston the
world’s foremost oratory group, established 1815, has used the Chickering
exclusively for more than a century. His name from the earliest times has
been constantly linked with the Americanizing of the piano by methods of
such importance and value that both America and Europe today admit their
worth by universal adoption.
THE SQUARE GRAND PIANO
The Square piano was
inspired by the desire to produce a piano taking up less space than those
instruments then in use. In its early stage the Square Grand, as with all
stringed instruments built previous to it , had a weak wooden frame. This
meant that thin wires at low tension could only be used.
In 1825 Alpheus Babcock of
Boston invented the one piece full cast iron frame or plate as it is now
called. This allowed pianos to be built with heavier wire at higher tension
which caused the instrument to have a much fuller singing resonant tone than
had heretofore been possible. This was one of the most important of piano
inventions. Near the end of the 18th century, square grand pianos became
widely used. Measuring 3-1/2 by 7 feet, in a rectangular case. The square
piano would be replaced as the dominant piano for the home by the upright
piano which gained increasing popularity during the second half of the 19th
century.
The modern, streamlined
vertical that hugs the wall of today’s compact apartment may be a far cry,
socially and culturally, from the ornate upright that graced the parlor in
1900, but the piano remains above all instruments the one most worthy of
esteem. As Busoni pointed out in his preface to the 1910 edition of
Gottfried Galston’s Studienbuch, for all its “obvious, great and
irremediable” disadvantages, “the piano’s excellencies and prerogatives are
little miracles.”
No small credit for making
these “little miracles” possible is due Henry Engelhard Steinway. What’s in a name?
Everything its possessor has been and done goes into whatever evaluation
others may place upon his name. At birth, a name may be no more than an
identification tag, or it may be something to live up to-or live down, but
that is not important. What matters is that each of us is given a name, in
trust, for a lifetime to pass on to the future, embellished, or tarnished,
or unchanged.
To inherit a good or noble
name might seem to be an advantage, but history disproves this theory, for
the temptation to bask in the glory of a predecessor’s credit is too strong
for most great men’s sons. No benevolent despot can guarantee a succession
of benevolent despots; no artist or musician can insure his progeny’s
inheritance of talent. In the world of business, founders of empires are
often grandfathers of paupers. Man can inherit neither goodness nor
greatness. He may be exposed to their beneficent influence, but he must
achieve them for himself.
When six generations
successively honor and distinguish their common name, this is not only a
family of a great man – this is a great family! A name thus honored and
distinguished is Steinway, symbol and trademark of the world’s most esteemed
piano. The secret of this rare and proud achievement is simply that the
Steinway name has been accepted by each generation, not as an honor or
advantage, but as a solemn trust and threefold responsibility, to the
family, to the product which bears it’s name. and to the public it serves.
Each new member, however, before being assigned a task best suited to his
abilities in the hierarchy of the firm, must undergo a rigorous period of
apprenticeship in the factory, where he is thoroughly grounded in all
aspects of the art and craft of piano making.
The achievements and
tenacity of the Steinway dynasty are all the more remarkable when we
remember that at the turn of the century, and for a decade or more
thereafter, there were at least a dozen, out of some 200-odd independent
piano manufacturers in this country, competing for the quality market. Among
them were such time-honored fallboard names as Mason & Hamlin, Chickering &
Sons, Gildemeester & Kroeger, Knabe, Weber, A. B. Chase, Henry F. Miller,
Ivers and Pond, and Everett.
Today the piano hardly
seems worth shouting about It has suffered one turn of the screw after
another – the bicycle, the radio, the phonograph, the automobile, movies,
television, the computer, pop music, video games. the digital keyboard – and
has emerged thoroughly scathed. The number of pianos sold in the United
States dropped from 282,000 in 1978 to 99,000 in 1994.
Recorded history shows that
mankind has always tried to create music by mechanical means. The first big
commercial development came with the Swiss music boxes of the late 1700s. In
Switzerland and the Black Forest of Germany, artisans long famous for their
precision watches created music box music of astonishing beauty on tuned
steel combs plucked by raised pins arranged on a cylinder. These craftsmen
produced inexpensive novelty music-boxes as well as elegant furniture-styled
consoles affordable only by the super-rich.
The piano as a modern
musical instrument experienced its greatest period of development in the
1800s, and it is not surprising that attempts to mechanize it were
widespread. As in the case of so many devices, it is not easy to pin down
just who should get the credit for the earliest piano playing machine. A
Frenchman named Forneaux, who developed the first player operated on
pneumatic principles, probably deserves the most recognition. He named his
machine the “Pianista,” and it was first exhibited in America at the
Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. It operated by means of a hand-crank which
operated a vacuum pump; the vacuum in turn was used to operate little
bellows or ‘pneumatics” that pushed the levers that played the keys of the
piano.
It remained for a business
genius by the name of H. B. Tremaine to bring about the commercial
exploitation of the piano player on a big scale. Tremaine’s father had built
a successful small business making hand-cranked table-top-sized mechanical
organs, a very popular item in homes in the late 1800s. He founded the
“Aeolian Organ and Music Company” around 1888; the firm achieved
considerable success with larger instruments and organs. His son took over
in 1899 and immediately set about to apply his own business acumen to the
company’s affairs. With the newly perfected “Pianola,’ he launched an
aggressive advertising campaign which was entirely new to the stodgy piano
business. With four page color advertisements (almost unheard of in that
day) published in the popular magazines, he literally stunned the piano
industry with the message that here, indeed, was the answer to everyone’s
prayer for music in the home! Tremaine and Pianola built an enormous
business empire over the next thirty years .It wasn’t long after the turn of
the century that it was deemed desirable to “miniaturize” the clumsy
Pianolas and other similar, instruments so that they could be built directly
inside the pianos. Within a few short years, the “push up”players
disappeared from the scene.
It was a great period in
American history, when every backyard inventor saw the chance to reap his
fortune by developing some new gadget, and the piano business provided a
fertile field for the clever minds that thought along these lines. By the
turn of the century, a number of piano playing devices had appeared on the
Most of them took the form of an apparatus which sat in front of the
instrument and “played” the keys.
The paper music roll
business was thriving but disorganized until 1908 when the roll makers got
together in Buffalo, New York, and agreed on a standard size- and-hole
arrangement. All music rolls without expression made for regular player
pianos since the “Buffalo Convention” are interchangeable. This constructive
move resulted in the formation of over fifty new companies operating solely
in the roll business in the United States. In contrast, however, the rolls
of the three major expression reproducing piano companies were not
compatible-and could only be reproduced on the pianos made specifically for
that roll.
The peak popularity of the
piano occurred in the early 1909 when an all time high record of 374,00 new
pianos were sold. You can probably remember the old upright player piano
that may have graced your grand fathers parlor, but you have little
recollection about the reproducing piano, the digital computer technology of
the day. Today, when we hear the words “digitally enhanced,” we think of a
highly-sophisticated disc electronic sound system replete with elaborate and
costly loudspeakers, magnificent cabinetry tailored to fit properly into
one’s home and all backed up by extensive marketing and advertising by
numerous manufacturers. One wonders how anything could possibly sound finer.
Yet to many, the true
ultimate in “digital piano” occurred when the reproducing piano reigned
supreme in its ability to re-create “live” the performances of great
keyboard artists right in the home. The ordinary player piano performs only
one basic function, that of striking the notes. The reproducing piano added
the ability to recreate the touch, the shadings, the nuances, of the
original recording – all the expression characteristics, and making the
difference between purely mechanical sounds and true artistry. The paper
roll was obliged, therefore, to include extra perforations which carried the
“expression information” in coded form. These codes, which bear a
resemblance to the language of modern computers, were either captured at the
time of the initial recording or added later in an editing process. The
reproducing piano was equipped with apparatus to “read” these expression
holes and to reconstruct the exact expression of a piece while other holes
played the notes.
In 1903, the German firm of
M. Welte & Sons in Freiburg introduced its “Welte-Mignon” piano player, and
immediately set about to make recordings of all the great classical piano
artists of the day. Made with typical Teutonic thoroughness, the Welte
machines were not only magnificent in construction, but were enormously
costly to purchase. It is extremely fortunate that this development came as
early as it did, for keyboard giants whose works would otherwise be only a
memory can come alive through the Welte -Vorsetzer; To mention just one
example among many, Edward Grieg, the great Norwegian composer, made several
piano roll recordings before his death in 1907. No other technology existed
to capture his work for future generations. Now, right in our own homes, we
can hear exactly how Grieg performed and enjoy his work as did those who
heard him in person during his lifetime.
Edwin Welte and his able
partner, technician Karl Bockisch, claimed the only “true” recording system
and kept it a dark secret. Apparently the Welte system used a piano with a
special keyboard containing a trough of liquid mercury beneath the keys.
Attached to each key was a spring mounted electrical probe which would dip
into the mercury a distance proportional to the force with which the key was
struck by the pianist. The electrical resistance to a current passing
through the probe was thus variable, and this was then translated to the
proper holes in the paper. These holes would, in turn, control the amount of
pneumatic force applied to the keys which played the resulting roll.
The message of the
reproducing piano was not lost on American builders. It wasn’t until a full
decade after the Welte introduction of their machine, however, that a
home-grown reproducing system appeared on the market. It was put out by the
Aeolian Corporation, and named the Duo-Art. It was fitted into such fine
pianos as the Weber, the Steck, and even the prestigious Steinway under an
agreement whereby that firm made pianos with specially designed frames and
cases. In those days, the reproducing piano was a very costly item, within
the reach of only the wealthy. For example, in 1929 a typical Steinway Grand
Piano model “L” was around $1,600, a reproducing-grand piano cost some
$4,500 which was, in those days, half the price of a nice home! The rolls
were costly, too: one of Josef Hoffmann playing Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G,
for example, sold for $4.00, the equivalent of $20 or $25 in today’s
purchasing power. For companies that made and sold the rolls, it was a
period of great prosperity and the business was enormously profitable. But
then, in the 1920s, almost everyone had a chance to be wealthy, if only on
paper.
Two or three years later,
the American Piano Company introduced its device to the market and called it
the Ampico. It was based on the designs of an eccentric mechanical genius,
one Charles Fuller Stoddard. Stoddard, whose home was a maze of new-fangled
contraptions of his own design, spent the last few years of his life
entertaining the world’s greatest piano virtuosos who would record on his
unique Ampico recording piano. Ampico reproducing systems were eventually
installed in such fine pianos as the Mason & Hamlin, the Knabe, the
Chickering, the Beale in Australia, and the Willis in Canada.
In the mid-twenties, the
Ampico Corporation engaged a scientist, Dr. Clarence Hickman, to completely
re-engineer the Ampico reproducing system and roll making process. His work
resulted in the so-called “Model B” Ampico pianos which represented the
highest possible standards of technology available at the time. Hickman
developed the famous “spark chronograph” method of capturing expression
characteristics of individual pianists and today, the “Model B” Ampico
pianos are in great demand by collectors, and at prices that go right
through the roof, $100,000 to $200,00 in mint condition. Hickman recognized
that the best way to measure expression is in terms of the energy imparted
directly to the piano strings by the piano’s hammers. He devised a scheme by
which the velocity, and hence the energy, of each hammer could be measured
just prior to hitting the string. This information was then directed to a
recording device and the coded expression holes were adapted directly to the
master production roll. Hickman was also a renowned expert on explosives,
and he is responsible for the development of the tank busting recoilless
rifle, the “bazooka,” which helped the United States secure victory in World
War II. The bazooka is named after still another musical instrument, but
that’s another story.
The years from 1900-1935,
saw a revolution in the piano business. The invention of the automobile and
the radio had a tremendous influence on the way people lived. No longer able
to afford living in spacious homes, they moved to small apartments. The
whole social pattern of living took a mighty flip-flop. One result was that
the old upright went out like a light, to be replaced by the spinet-type
piano. During the depression we developed the two sizes of verticals one
40,’ high, the other 45″-which we manufacture today. The trend turned all
manufacturers to making spinets. Today, by units, about 95 per cent of the
market are small verticals. The market for grand pianos has remained fairly
stable and in the last few years has been on the increase. With the
tremendous changes it has brought about in our way of living has come a
terrific competition for the few luxury dollars that are left over. There is
a constant pressure to buy this, that and the other thing. The social
evolution changed the piano business.
And, the piano changed the
world !
