The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1907-09-05
About 100000 new pianos were made

11st year by American manufacturers,
according to the official figures. OBJ
viously, nothing could have been more
futile than the fears that this indus
try would be damaged by the automo-
mobile mania or the great output Of
musical monographs. No doubt these
had their effect; but it was more than
eounterbalanced by the vast number
Of instruments needed to go with the
mechanical piano Players" the de-
mand for which Is. now being supplied
by more than seventy rival makers.
There are many thousands of persons
who would never have thought of buy
Ing piano had not the application of
the perforated-roll principle enabled
them, after an hours experience, to
play pieces which, by the old method,
would have required years of daily
drudgery.
1t is with some degree of amuse-
ment that we read the complaint of
Ernest Pauer, written a quarter of a
century ago, that the escape-move-
ment and other improvements in the
MECHANISM of the keyboard had les
xened the earnest study on the part of
the player which was formerly neces-
gary for the production of tone and
for securing a smooth execution. He
would have been doubtless scandalized
at the present-day piano player"
which relieves the performer of all
finger work, leaving his hands and his
mind free to attend to the expression
alone. He would have good ground for
eontending that heretofore the mechan-
ical players have left much to be de-
sired in the production of tone and in
the matter of accenting the melody.
The tone problem still remains, no real
substitute for the touch of the fingers
having been found as yet; but recent
ingenious inventions make it possible
to emphasize the melody in way
which places such instruments on
much higher artistic level The touch
problem seems invincible; yet it is un-
safe to prophesy, in view of the mar
yels already achieved. There are play
ers" which enable the performer to re-
produce infinitely all the details of
phrasing and shading In the interpre-
tations of masterworks by great plan
lists; others, which require no retrac-
ing performer at all, but give repro
auctions Of the style of the great plan
lists as exact as the cameras copies of
their faces. The very latest of the
maryels is the promised conveyance,
by electric wire, OF q musicians per-
fo.enance to hundreds of homes, hun
dreds of miles apart, thus filling the
~long-felt want" of having music on
tap, like gas or water.
The popularization of the pianoforte
forty years ago the annual output was
only about $25,000) has had as an in
evitable result the cheapening of the
instruments in quality as we'll as in
price. The best pianos in the world are
undoubtedly made in the United States
but only very few firms can claim
credit for this. The average American
piano is not equal to the average Eng
giiSh, French, or German instrument;
very often, indeed, it is so fimsy in
construction as to be a fraud on the
purchaser at any price. Fortunately,
not only is vigorous war being waged
against the fake or stencil piano,
but large number of firms are at this
very moment raising their prices again,
to avoid further lowering in quality,
Sr to keep pace with the increased
cost of production. 1t is only by
la 4, 4: IL.
American firms can hope ever to COM
pete with the Germans in supplying
satisfactory instruments for export to
South America, Africa, Australia, In
dia, and other countries with tropical
climates. The German makers are
credited with an income of several
million dollars a year from such colo
nial sources. M
So far as tone is concerned, the
best American piano is noble work of
art, equal in it's way to the violins of
the old Italian makers. But the best
piano is very far from perfection when
we look at it from other points of view.
Compared with the clavichords and
the harpsichords of the time of Bach
and Handel, with their thin, brief,
small tone, incapable of variation in
Ioudness, the modern pianoforte is
indeed a marvel of progress. Even
Beethoven and Schubert had no pre-
monition of the luscious beauty of
tone, and the power of sustaining it
which we enjoy. But in one respect
the pianoforte is still far inferior to
1he voice, the violin, and the wind in
xtruments: it lacks the power of in
creasing or decreasing the loudness
of tone or chord after it has been
struck, which is one of the most pow
erful media of musical emotion Some
judges hold that the individuality of
the pianoforte would be married if this
defect and the comparative evanes-
cence of it's tone were overcome; yet
It is difficult to see why this should be
80. Its distinctive qualities would re-
main, but there would be added new
aids to expression. A number of in
ventors have been at work on the prob
lem of securing crescendo and de-
crescendo for the pianoforte tone; and