New-York tribune., 1902-12-31
MODERNPI4NOS UPRIGHT
Fec Squares s. and =" Grands
are Made No1c--- History and
Present Condition Of an
Interesting Industry.

crowded out the squares and ''grands' which
were so familiar few years ago. A recent
census bulletin shows that in the year 19OO only
4,251 grand and 101 square pianos were manu-
featured while the number of uprights 1856.
IS6. The value of the uprights was S2o,29i, i,29',
while that of the squares and grands was only
SlI293I0 In recent years the United States
has shown increasing independence of foreign
countries for it's supplies of musical instruments
generally, and of pianos in particular The
value of musical instruments imported in the
year 1900 was only little over 81 100000 The
value of those imported in 1872 about the
amount, but while the figures for the lat
ter year. represented per cent of the musical
instruments produced and imported. in the year
1900 the imports were only per cent of the
production and importations combined In the
same period the value of exports of pianos
has about doubled
In the year 1890 New-York produced 56 per
cent of all the pianos made in the United
States, and Massachusetts in the same year pro-
duced % per cent. and no other State in that
year produced more than 6 per cent of the
whole. The production of the State of Illinois
was less than per cent in 1890. Within the
last ten years, however Illinois has forged
ahead to such extent that, while the value
of the production in .NewYork in 1900 was
about the same as it was in 1S9o-that IS,
S14 500 000-its percentage of the whole was
only about II per cent. while Illinois had taken
second place with little less than 20 per cent.
While the production of Massachusetts was ID
per cent of the entire output.
Frederick S. Hail. who prepared a recent
census bulletin musical Instruments, gives
an interesting account of the origin of pianos
and of the development of their manufacture
from the crude methods used three hundred
years ago to the highly developed state of the
art at the present time. The following account
has been taken from Mr.. Halls article;
The word "pianoforte.' ordinarily abbreviated
to piano" is traced back to 1893. and is said
to have originated with Italian musical in
strument maker who speaks of instrument
called piano forte" the Italian for soft and
loud Nothing is known, however of the in
strument referred to. and the expression, con-
tracted to pianoforte, first became established
when the Italian CristofoTi, the father of the
modern piano, applied it to his invention in
1909.
The significance of the name arose from the
character of the two instruments which the
piano superseded. the cavichord and the harpsi-
chord. Each of these instruments. had differ
ent origin. The monochord of the ancient
Greeks, a long box of thin wood with a wire
stretched across it, led In the Middle Ages to the
invention of the Clavichord- In this instrument
the wires made to vibrate by means or
a keyboard similar to that already in use In
organs. Hammers were raised, pressed and held
against the wires, the player being able TO feei
their elasticity. very delicate tone was OBJ
tained, which had something IN IL .CndrTlHSlS
hesitating and tremulous, capable of rejecting
the most tender gradations of the touch OF the
player" For this reason il was favorite IN
strument with John Sebastian Bach, VINO pre-
ferred 1t to the pianoforte. Mozart also used
the clavichOrd in composing several OF MS
rnasterpieces and Beethoven is reported to have
said one time: Among all keyed instruments
the clavichord is that on which one can pest
control tone and expressive interpretation It's
great fault, however, was the weakness OF It's
The rival instrument. the harpschord, was an
evolution of the psaltery or modiied harp. a
small instrument, played with plectrum or
small piece of iron bone or metal fastened py
rings to the hand of the performer In the
harpsichord the harp shaped frame was IN
closed in box and the wires We're plucked me
chancaIly by quills attached to the end or each
kew It's very unmelodious tone was aptly de-
scrited "a scratch with sound at the end
of it." In spite. however Of this tone quality
and the impossibity Of obtaining soft effects
tone-the harpsichord extensively used by
Beethoven, Mozart, Handel and other eminent
composers, especially for concert work, because
of its brilliancy of tone as compared with the
subdued tone of the clavichord-
1t remained for Cristofor of Florence. in
1909. to produce instrument capable of both
soft and loud" effects-the piano forte. In
this instrument the wire, instead of being
pressed or rubbed by means OF a wedge, as in
the cIavichord or plucked by means of quill,
in the harpsichord, was struck with nam
mer. which Immediately rebounded. lighter
or heavier stroke of the key therefore, pro-
duced the piano forte effects desired.
Plano factories established in 1860 by
many. In 1867, however. fifty-eight years after
its invention, the piano was introduced on the
stage of the Covent Garden Theatre as a ne"
instrument This long. delay in the introduc-
ton Of pianos was due partly to conservatism
and partly to almost sentimental attachment to
the clavichord. A musical critic in Leipsic
wrote in 1872 "In the grand piano the heart
cannot express itself while Forke declared in
his Musical Almanac in the same year that
he preferred the clavichord to all other keyed
instruments. Joseph Haydn was one of the
first of the great masters to accept the piano
Mozart wrote concertos and other compositions
for it, and finally through Beethoven it re-
ceived full acknowledgment.
Cristofori's pianoforte contained the essential
principle of the modern piano. but the improve
ments since that time have been extensive. The
damper and soft pedals We're introduced ABOUT
the year 1880 by John Broadwood. Eng
lishman, Upright pianos were first successfully
made in 1907, when William Southwell. of Dub
lin, brought, out his "ca binet pianoforte-"
Almost all the pianos used in the United
States at the close of the eighteenth century
and at the beginning of the nineteenth century
We're imported. John Jacob Astor, si or New
appeared, however, that instruments con-
structed for the comparatively uniform ana
moist climate of England shrank and opened at
the seams when brought into the dryer atmos-
phere of the United States, with its severe
winters and the general custom of heating
houses by means of stoves. This added to the
oxidation of the wires during the ocean voyage
and the loosening of the keys, greatly impaired
or destroyed the tone and durability of the in
struments, and led, naturally, to the establish
ment of the industry in the United States.
The first piano known to have been built TN IN
this country was made in Philadelphia in 1IIo
by John Behrent. Ten years later one George
Ulsshoefer began manufacturing in New-York
In Boston Benjamin Crehoe and William and
Adam Bent began work in 1913 and 1900. re-
spectively, and lastly. the manufacture was
probably carried on In Baltimore by John
1915 and 1916 great business depression pre-
vailed in Great Britain and number of young
and skilled piano makers and artisans emf
grated to the United States and began making
pianos. Their arrival gave a great stimulus to