The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-01-18

Iov, am that Judge Ingrahayo bas evass
profound rsr o. tas Question but although esterta
vo,d run MN think the liability OF the Defendants ~
ana that they are subject TO all the esS
ryhoquences OF their liability Judgment affirmed
q, ane same question has been decided tho same w.v
'esA''"' 'e'H supreme Court of tho Second district
|
Foreign Pianos--The Erard Instruments.
Inc dcvelepement which has taken place in the manu-
lecture OF American planes has diminished to a consdera
BILE extent the importation Of foreign instruments Thar
only one foreign establishment which has not suffered
by the composition of native manufacturers and il Is
mat OF The Eards The Is that tho instruments OF
h house have not as yet been approached the perec
ton OF theif mechanism and their volume OF sound The
proof Of their superiority IL that singers will al
ways chouse the Ead instruments wherever thew can DO
obtained 1habeg went to the expense of carrying one
about with him in his professional tours through tho
| States.
Inc hsory on the Erard firm Is that OF the piano tself
ior 10 are owing all the important improvements effect
ed m the instrument during the last seventy years AS
the subject Is one that interests loving community
like ours We propose to give brief sketch OF its abors
Sebastian Erard the founder Of tho firm was born in
Strasbourg, in tho year 1852 From an early age he
evinced the strongest disposition for everything connected
win enc mechanical arts Brought up in the workshop
OF hs iather--a manufacturer Of furnhurehc soon dis
tngushed himself by his extraordinary skill as well as
by the number Of small and ingenious articles which he
invented for his amusement. In his theoretical studies
his taste inclined chiefly to geometry linear drawing and
perspective requirements which subsequently proved of
the greatest assistance TO him in his mechanical creations
On losing his father-who left widow and several
children almost wholly unprovided for-sebasan deter
mined to repair to Paris TO seek employment He was
only sixteen when he formed this resolution and on ar
irving in the French capital he Immediately placed himself
in the factory Of manufacturer Of harpsohords His gu
peror gifts excited the jealousy Of bis fellow work.
men and Of his employer, who dismissed him. with the
reproach that he ambitious OF knowing everything
Fortunately another manufacturer who was embarrassed
in the construction of instrument which had been or
dcred Of him, found his genius suited to his necessities,
and took him into his establishment Young Erard
finished the instrument in the name Of his new patron:
but recognized as its maker he Immediately attracted the
instrument which he called q mechanical harpsichord
and which completed the of his reputation He
then came 10 The determination OF manufacturing hg
own account
The Duchess de villcroi having offered him an apart
ment in her hotel Erard made there his first piano which
brought him numerous orders. few years afterwards
finding himself compelled to enlarge his workshops he
quilted the hotel of bis kind proectrcss and his brother
Jean Baptste Erard, Joining him, they established to-.
gether mandatory of pianos which obtained the
vogue not merely in France, but throughout Europe.
In the meanwhile the approach OF the revolutionary
troubles in France brought sagnaon upon Industrial pur
suits Of every kind and induced Sebastian Erard
that Of Paris he returned to France in 1895 and was
then that he made his first grand pianos in which he
troduced the English mechanism, but with improvements
of his own invention.
The harp had also long occupied his attention This
instrument admirable in regard to sonorousness had
which did permit to moduatc freely Nurnberless
efforts bad been made to remedy this defect but IL still
existed in spite OF all the improvements introduced Sc
bastian Erard applied himself the task and his genius
triumphed where his predecessors had failed Abandon
caed thy ne hse nem
the FIRST Of which were made in Paris towards the year
1885, and which, in 1884, received notifications in the
london factory circulated rapidly throughout France and
England. On the expiration OF Erard's patent, his inn
proyemens adopted by other manufacturers, and
the harp at the highest degree of
perfection which IL could attain; when Sebastian
himself, abandoning his first system, substituted
ior another Which was %s much superior ne IN
London about the year 1905, ho put his idel
into execution and the first harp with double action was
the of the first year harps manufactured thi
system the Of s125 900 He returned TO Franc
since that time ali the harps made in his factories in Lon
den and Paris have been similarly constructed.
Sebastian Notwithstanding these successes could not
abandon himself to repose. Always pre- occupied with
fresh ideas for the improvement Of the two instruments to
which he had devoted his fc he again turned his atten
ton TO the piano After numberless experiments he at
last presented the Exposition Of 1928 the model Of his
grand piano with the double acton-a chef dgmre of me
cbanical combination He had proposed to himself most
difficult probem-that Of giving the pianist the means
Of making the key speak at whatever degree press
ed In other pianos soon as the key is touched the es
capement operates and the hammer falls, and in order to
make tie note sound again the finger must be raised and
pressed anew. In Erard's mechanism, the hammer
only falling in proportion TO the depression OF
the key, the latter sounds at almost imper.
cblc degrees Of compression and one does not require
to raise the finger entirely to make II repeat
Sebastian Erard also effected important improvements
in the organ The idea Of giving expression to this in
srument by finger pressure alone had occurred to him
before the year 1Ieo he had demonstrated his dis
covery in presence Of Grery who describes 1t enthusis
ticaly in his Memoirs as 'he philosophers stone in
musc but Notwithstanding this, the execution of the
instrument had been interrupted and abandoned Thirty
years later Erard again took up the idea and constructed
organ which he exhibited in 1927 and which became
object Of general admiration The instrument had two
finger boards the upper that OF expresson the
lower used when it desired merely 10 produce
the ordinary organ effect This instrument was TO have