New-York tribune., 1910-06-19

sharp blow loud one; and there wera ! - d
the command of the player all the pr,a~. a'
between. The fingers no longer walked S lis
onously over the keys with gentle vai., %
those of the dark lady apostrophized bv So NS
speare in his sonnet, but pounced upon 81
srnartly, and the weight Of the hand caro.
play it's part Now il is not the weight q, -
hand alone, but the energy Of the rnuseIa. !.
the wrist and forearm as well. We shan -.
presently when We come to review the devs1o.
ment Of pianofOrte technique how gradron-
this change in the style Of playing took nIo..
but there is little doubt in my mind thar -
emoticnalism which strove against apstbe..
conservatism from the earliest times down >.
Beethoven exerted a steady pressure along -.
line which has ended in the stupendous instr,
ment and the Samsonian players Of to-day.
With an increase I'm the weight and tensio,
of the strings due in part on the nechanie.1
side To Improvement in the manufacture OF s,s.r
wire. there grew the need Of greater solid.,
and strength in the parts Of the instrunos,.
called upon to endure the strain of the strfng,
The frame was ingeniousIy trussed in varfap,
vyavs but as the strain increased il was for,5
that in spite Of everything the fierce pull 4,
the strings from the piece Of timber holding rs
pins 70 which the further end Of the strings m,
fastened to the wrest plank into which the Inn
ing pegs were driven. warped the voods,
structure so that in a comparatively short trsa
IL became distorted and so disOrganized ths.
the instrument would not stand in tune II W.,
A common thing two generations ago % inter
rupt a concert with an interTnssion, not 50 rnucs
To enable the player to rest and the listeners p
unbend and refresh themselves with chatter as
is the case now, as TO allow the tuner time 70
reset the timing pegs This was due to thrse
defects which have been largely remedied since
namely, want of rigidity in the frame. lack of
elasticity in the strings and Of firTnness in tha
wrest pins. have known pianists 70 render a
pianofOrte discordant in our own day but this
was not 50 much because Of the vehemenes
with which they belabored the instrument As
a rnaltreatrnent Of the pelaIs-shifting the ham,
ner bv means Of the left pedal from one of
each set of unison strings. and then pounding
upon the others. Naturally the struck strings
were stretched by the process. while the IN
| touched unisons remained at the original ten
sion.
| The idea of obviating the defects due to an
atwood frame by the employment Of metal
seems to have haunted the minds Of pianoforts
! makers long before it found realization Preju-
| dice, doubtless. played a role here For quar-
| ter of n century more after its introduction
| metal was looked upon as necessary evil
William Pole, quite as good authority or
| music as on whist, in a book on The Musical
| Instruments in the Great Industrial Exhibition
| of 1851" and DIR. Rimbault after him, expressed
the opinion that the tendency to the use Of too
| much metal in the construction OF pianofortes
| threatened injury to the quality Of the tone.
Mr. Hipkins, a later and greater authority,
writing thirty years after Pole and RInbauIt
was not at all fearful of the modern steel frame
| for he says:
| The greater elasticity of iron compared
| with wood does not allow the lesser vibrating
| sections or upper partial tones Of a string 70
| die away as soon as they would with the less
elastic wood. The consequence is that in instru-
| ments where iron or steel preponderates in the
| framing there is a longer SOSteHeHts or singing
| tone. and increasingly so as there is a higher
| tension or strain on the wire Where wood pre-
| nonderates these vibrating sections die out
| sooner The extremes of these conditions are
| a metallic whiZzing or tinklIng and a dull
| ssWoodv' tone. The middle way, as so often
| happens, is to be preferred
| The three large STEPS from the aIl-wooi
| frame to the modern frame Of cast steel, which
| now takes up in itself all the strain of The
strings. were the use of bars and tubes between
the hitching and wrest pIanks. the addition Of
an iron hitching plate and the casting Of an iron
frame with all its parts in one piece As in The
| case of the action three men of three national
tiles seem to have marked the steps independ-
| emily Of each other. They were John Isaac
| Hawkins, an Englishman. who came to the
United States toward the close Of the eighteenth