The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-21
DO YOU NEGLECT
 YOUR PIANO?
Maud Powell Says We Give Our French Mirrors
 Better Care

"I have been amazed" said Maud Powell, the American v.olinist, "at
 the lack of care the average piano owner gives his instrument. Though a
 piano may be bought by some merely
 as par1or ornament, 1t certainly
 should receive as good care as its own CT bestows on his French mirror. When buying a piano many per- sons are more exacting than we vio- 1inists are in selecting a violin, and goodness knows we are particular enough. They look at piano almost with a magnifying glass, as though
 they were buying diamonds, to see if there is the slightest defect in the varnish. They try every key from bass to treble and find perhaps or
 fancy they find one key, the tone of
 which they think Is not quite right. They magnify blemish in the varnfsh
 or fancied unequal vibration in some one key until the poor salesman is
 nearly distracted. They scarcely see
 the nine hundred and ninety-nine good
 points because of the one fancied fault.
 "But when they finally do buy and
 the piano is placed in their home.
 what a change. The French mirror
 bought at the same time is carefully and frequently cleaned, its polished surface daily wiped with a damp cloth to take off the bluish tint which dulls it's 1uster, and the window shades are carefully pulled down so that the direct rays of the sun do not strike it.
 "But how about the piano? Too of ten I find beautiful instruments set ting snug up against cold damp out side walls, one end perhaps close to
 hot radiator, the other against l cold window or door, while the top is covered with jarring picture frames and miscellaneous assortment of things which, even if ornamented, certainly have no place on the top of beautiful piano.
 "But even this is not the worst crime for which pianos must suffer and their makers be unjustly criticis- ed as result. Ninety-nine of every hundred pianos I find in private
 homes are fearfully out of tune. How can the musical quality which earnest struments be possible when the piano Is allowed to remain out of tune? And did any instrument, violin or piano
 ever become valuable in any market | without beauty of tone? The equal ! ized vibration of a piano in perfect
 tune is delight to the ear. The bloom | is upon the tone of beautiful piano in perfect tune as attractive as any peach that ever feasted the eye or appealed to the palate of an epicure. But this bloom fades the moment i piano is allowed to get out of tune. "A violin must, of course. be in tune or no violinist would play upon 1t. A violinist often stops in the midst of his solo to adjust his strings, yet the poor neglected piano is allowed to go month after month and sometimes,
 think of it, year after year, without being tuned. I had rather play on a
 second rate piano in tune than the best piano ever manufactured out of tune. Yet many people of taste and wealth
 who own the best piano the makers can produce think they have done | their duty if they have their pianos tuned once a year.
 "If violin with only four strings Is tuned each time it is used and fre- Quently during use what careful at- tention should be given to the tuning of piano containing something like 250 strings. America turns out the 1 best pianos in the world, both in me-
 chanfsm and in artistic results. It
 behooves piano owners to see that there is no ground for the criticism that there is a lack of artistic apprecia-
 tion on the part of our public toward
 an American product, such as our
 best pianos which are so universally recognized as perfect. Remember-to possess beautiful object without the
 knowledge to conserve it's beauty is the very acme of snobbishness. Be- oIOCS, Iedl CulIuT6 HiCdIlS of the best. and in music the first
 step in appreciation is to train the ear. Few realize that the ear is the
 most sensitive of nerve organisms. The ability to recognize and appreciate the beautiful and subtle harmonieS of music must rapidly deteriorate from
 hearing musical instruments so badly
 out of tune as to wholly destroy the
 harmony of sympathetic vibration.
 Under such conditions the real joy
 of the musical epicure is never real ized.
 How do I, a violinist, know so
 much about pianos? Well, after trav-
 cling 'toosands and toosands of miles,
 as Harry Lauder would say, giving
 concerts under all sorts of conditions
 and with all sorts of pianos, I have
 had some things taught me by bitter experience. Besides" added Miss Pow
 ell II play the piano myself and next
 to the violin love good piano more
 than any other musical instrument
 
 TORRINGTON MAN