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THE CHINESE "KE"
The earliest stringed
instruments on record were invented and used by the Chinese as
early as 2650 B.C. and were called "Ke". The Ke consisted of a
set of 50 strings, strung over a box and was much superior to
anything known to the Western world even 4,000 years later. It
had 5 or 6 movable bridges which determined the pitch of each
group of strings. The strings were of silk, each one being made
up of 81 finely woven strands, and each group was colored blue,
red, yellow, white and black showing that, the Chinese
understood the relations of tone to color. The "KE" was similar
to the monochord devised around 550 B.C. by Pythagoras, a Greek
philosopher and mathematician.
THE MONOCHORD
This instrument was used
by Pythagoras about 582 B.C. for experiments regarding the
mathematical relations of musical sound. It consisted of a
single string (the Greeks used catgut) stretched over bridges
resting on a sound board. The bridge was movable according to
markings underneath, distinguishing the intervals of the musical
scale. On it, Pythagoras determined the three Western Scales -
Diatonic, Chromatic and Enharmonic. The tone was produced by
plucking a string. It is the true progenitor of the piano -
insofar as all succeeding in instruments were improved directly
from this - earlier instruments being abandoned. Medieval monks
also used the Monochord to set the pitch for their church
choirs. Occasionally they built an instrument similar to several
Monochords but with a common sound board. The desired string
would sometimes be activated by a primitive key mechanism. These
instruments were used more for 'setting pitch than for producing
music. It was still in use in the 11th century by many singing
or voice schools.
An avid reader has a
choice of works bearing such titles as "Heros of Discovery," "Heros
of Science," etc. For the musician who has read widely in the
history of music, and who should know that it is possible to
make quite a romance about the "Heros of Music." In the whole
history of music no figure looms so lofty, not as much by what
he did for music and in music, but for the whole race, as the
Greek philosopher Pythagoras. Lofty, perhaps, because he belongs
to the early ages when fewer men stood out significantly, but
also because his life was one of pursuit of pure thought and
living, because his teachings inclined to the moral improvement
of mankind, and because he turned their thoughts to intellectual
things.
The Harmony of the
Spheres
The history of music does
not show Pythagoras as a practicing musician. Such men had but
little esteem in his day; in fact, the professional musician was
generally a slave. But he included music and the laws of music
among the subjects worthy of scientific study, and thus, at one
effort, gave it a place which no skill of the player could ever
have claimed or justified. One phase indissolubly associated
with the name of Pythagoras is that of "the harmony of the
spheres an abstract idea, in all probability, although the
master is said to have claimed that, by study and meditation, he
had refined his faculties until he could hear the great rhythm
and melody of the universe moving in its course in obedience to
law, carrying us back to the time in which "the morning stars
sang together."
The central thought of
his philosophy is the idea of number, the recognition of the
numerical and mathematical relation of all things. This thought
crystallized into the formula that all things are numbers or
that number is the essence of everything. Number is the
principle of order by which the cosmos or ordered world subsists.
Harmony of the Spheres
The astronomy of the Pythagoreans marked an important advance in
ancient scientific thought, for they were the first to consider
the earth as a globe revolving with the other planets around a
central fire. They explained the harmonious arrangement of
things as that of bodies in a single, all-inclusive sphere of
reality, moving according to a numerical scheme. Because the
Pythagoreans thought that the heavenly bodies are separated from
one another by intervals corresponding to the harmonic lengths
of strings, they held that the movement of the spheres gives
rise to a musical sound-the "harmony of the spheres."
Microsoft Encarta
Encyclopedia 2000
 The
harmony of the cosmos
The sacred decad 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.
Encyclopaedia 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
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
Clavihords 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
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. They were made in many
sizes both with and without legs. 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, but 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. Great skill was
expended upon its construction, and the decoration was often
rich and beautiful in its effect. 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 drawingroom 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.
This instrument also
known to the Germans as the "Flugel", to the French as the "Clavecin"
and to the Italians as the "Claviscemballo", 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 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.
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.
Bartolommeo 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 Bartolomo 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 Broadwoods 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 Cristofore 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. To him
must be ascribed the invention of the full iron plate for grand
pianos recorded in 1837. 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 grands 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 grands 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 Chickerings 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 Alphaeus 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 Engel hard
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.
We also learn that 97 per
cent of all pianos made in the United States up to 1866 were
squares. Sales of grand pianos, were "as scarce as angels'
visits." In that year many piano manufacturers, began making
uprights, instruments which by 1890 had supplanted the square as
the favorite home piano. The upright held sway until the advent
of the automobile and the radio sounded its death knell, as well
as that of almost the entire industry. During 1896, the five
largest piano manufacturers in the world were American, and more
than half the pianos in the world were made here. During 1909,
374,000 pianos were made in the United States by 300
manufacturers.
The American piano,
boasting innovations by firms like Chickering and Steinway, had
become the premier instrument in the world, displacing Old World
instruments, with their less penetrating sonic personalities.
The piano was the instrument of a democracy, found in log
cabins, parlors, brothels and the White House.
And by l9th century
standards, it was big business. The stakes were so high and
competition among manufacturers was so severe that fraud and
bribery were common at piano exhibitions and in salesrooms.
"Those who have any
knowledge about the piano trade," wrote Music Trades magazine
during the piano's prime, "know that it is often conducted with
an amount of vehement prejudice, animosity, abuse, slander and
vilification, which transcends anything of the kind in any other
trade I know."
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.
But, the
piano changed the world !
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