New-York tribune., 1910-06-12
THE PI4NOFORTE
Continued from second page.

and teacher in Dresden who became dissatisfied
with the harpsichord because of the inability of
| his pupils to play that instrument with the
taste and expression which they exhibited when
they practised on the cIavtchord He went with
lamentatiOn to the Saxon court chapel master
who advised him to get one of the Nuremberg
| hurdygurdy claviers. He did so and the fact
| that it possible sustain the tones in a
! singing manner on the instrument pleased him
| much. But there was still fly in the oint-
ment. He was unwilling while making music
TO work with both his feet like linen weaver
as he expressed it. While in this frame of mind
ne heard the performance of famous virtuoso
on the duIcimer. and from this performance con-
Ceived the idea of constructing an instrument
on which, if it should not be able to sustain the
tone like the "Gegenwerk' should at least
make it possible to play forte or piano at will
He went to work himself in a joiner's shop dur
ing the resting hours of the workmen and sue
ceeded in constructing two models for a ham
mer mechanism to be applied to the harpsi-
chord. These, in February. 1121 he submitted
to the King Of SaXOny, by whom the invention
was heartily approved, We'll as by the court
chapel master He had no means to build an
instrument exploit his invention. and though
the King ordered built it was never done
Soon thereafter Schr0ter left Saxony Many
years later. finding that every pianoforte builder
instrument, he printed his story. giving all the
dates with the greatest care. He could do this
because he had kept 4 diary all his life and he
even mentioned the time Of day at which he
carried his models to the royal palace The
merit Of having suggested the German inven-
ton OF the pianOforte due to a player on
the dulclmer and since are concerned with
a study Of principles rather than mechanics It
may be profitable to consider what it was in the
performance of this man which so powerfully
excited the imagination Of SchrUter The plaver
was PantaleOn Hebenstreit. for MANY wears a
chamber musician at the Saxon court Al
though an excellent vioIinist his favorite instr1-
ment was the dulcmer, which he had ac-
quired great proficiency d boy. Not content
with the simple form of the instrument as he
found it, he increased its size strung it with a
double system Of strings-one of brass and one
of gut-and tuned it in equal temperament. so
that it might be used in all the major and minor
keys, following in this the way pointed out by
the great Bach. He played it in the primitive
fashion with pair of hammers. and his music
excited the Iiveest interest wherever he went
He played before Louis XIV in 1905, and the
grand monarch honored him by giving the name
'Pantaleon" to his dulcimer. A year later he
became director Of the orchestra and court
dancing master at Eisenach and later still
chamber musician in Dresden, at an annual
salary of 1000 thaIers and an allowance Of 200
-halers for strings.
It is in Hebenstreit's ducimer that we are
privileged TO see the first instrument with some
If the expressive capacity of the modern piano
orte The interest created by his performances
vas not due alone to the effects of piano and
orte which he produced by graduating the
Orce of the hammer blows and utilizing the two
dnds Of strings Discerning musicians heard in
us playing for the first time an effect whose
cientific study Of late years has done more to
erfect the tone Of the instrument and to in
uence composers and players than anything
ise in pianofOrte construction. Kuhnau, who
vas Bachs predecessor choirmaster Of the
'hurch Of st. Thomas, in Leipsic praised the
reat beauty Of the tone Of the pantaeon the
ass notes of which, he said. sounded like those
+ the organ; but. more significantly he re-
9rded the fact that on sounding note its over
ones could be heard simultaneously UP to the
Xth. Helmholtzs determinations as to the in
uence of artiaIs the timbre of musical in
-ruments have Lr-en Of the utmost Importance
pianoforte construction. Fl. f. K.