The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-09-17
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. @.
THE PIANO IN THE MAKING.

down to the modern player-plano with
its eighty-eight notes aner'its records
which put the music OF the world at
the disposal of anyone who has the
price, is told in the Worch collection
of pianos which has been installed in
the National Museum here
This collection of las instruments Is
Of interest to everyone who listens to
music with pleasure, for it shows how
much we owe to the generations that
have gone before US. The piano, which
is a commonplace fact in the life OF
almost every modern, is one OF the
most intricate and artificial of all
mans achievements. 1t is not an In
yention but an evolution and took as
long to grow as modern CIVILIZATION
itself First no doubt men sang and
whistled. And then they learned to
multiply and enrich the vibrations OF
breath by blowing thru pipes. AND
then someone discovered that there
was music in a stretched string, and
out of this grew the harp. The piano
is a harp, marvelously complex, ana
mechanically manipulated.
The exhibit is so arranged as to
give a. comprehensive idea of how the
modern piano came into being. Start
ing with the more remote members OF
the family, such as the clavichord'
hammer cIaYier. spinet and harp
sichord, the collection ranges IN al
most unbroken sequence up thru the
various stages of evolution until the
modern piano is reached.
Mr.. Hugo Worch, a piano merchant
of Washington. is the donor OF the col
lection. For over thirty years he has
been searching the civilized world for
links in this evolutionary chain, ana
the quest still goes on
The OId-tIme Makers
The older instrun ents were largely
governmental in character. each tndi-
viduaI maker working more or less IN
dependently and putting a deal of his
own personality into his creations. The
keys of the earlier instruments were
Of wood instead Of ivory, as in the
present day, and several of the speci-
mems have black keys with white
sharps. One Of the instruments bears
the name of the maker and the date
of manufacture on a large brass plate
In these times, the purchase of a
piano was something of an event. The
early master of the art was often
proud and temperamental person
The 7vouId-be purchaser of his wares
sought him out and begged to be air
lowed To own one of these Inatchless
instruments. The maker would take
his time considering the matter and II
he was agreeable, a contract was
signed, in which the prospective buyer
agreed to allow him to set the price,
style and date of delivery. 1t was a
slow business, for every part of the
work was done by hand. Finally,
when the task was completed and the
instrument safe in his possession, the
new owner would make a great feast
to which the notables were invited to
view this eighth wonder of the LOCAL
world.
These ancestors Of the piano were
made in many different styles, ranging
| in size from the tiny to the immense.
Some of the models on exhibition look
almost like child's toy. while others
are great unwieldy affairs which
| would almost fill the floor Of modern
sitting room.
In the first stages of their develop
ment both harpsichords and pianos
were made with side levers instead of
pedals. Both instruments were pro-
fuseiy ornamented. One of the harp
its cover filled with paintings depict
ing pastoral scenes. But one should
have a deal of reverence for these old
| instruments. 1t was on and for the
| harpsiehord that the elder Bach COM
| posed his matchless music. He had no
respect for pianos.
Beethoven a Piano Pioneer.
Beethoven was the first of the fam
Gus composers to take kindly to the
piano. He used one of the famous
Stein instruments, manufactured by
Nanette Stein of Vienna. who in addi-
ton to being one of the first business
women of her day and generation, was
| a great friend and admirer of the
| composer and did much to make his
last years happy and comfortabi
The piano was coming into it own
| late in the eighteenth century, and
| the Worch Collection has a number of
| specimens of the instrument dating
/ from about 1775. The oldest upright
| in the collection is one made by Stein
| OF Vienna in 1888. There are also a
number of early English pianos,
| among then a Broadwood Grand made
/ in 1890, and an upright from the fac
| tory Of Stoddard and Southweh which
| bears the date of 1900.
The history of these early instru-
ments is somewhat uncertain. Mr.
| Woreh picked them up wherever it
was his good fortune to find them,
part to trace out anything with refer
| ence to their former owners
The Oldest American piano in the
| collection, is a five octave square
made in Philadelphia in IT'S. 1t was
not until after the Revolution that
/ take up this work and apply them
| selves to it seriously. The first instru-
! ments produced in this country were
! divided in principle between the Ger
man and English models. For Amer
lea is inventive along mechanical
| rather than along esthetic lines, and
| the American improvements to the
piano have been for the most part in
| the mechanical direction.
Even to this day, European instru-
ments have q much greater degree
| Of individuality than our own. Amer
| lea aims at quantity, and our invent
1 i've genius has been exercised rather
along this line than that Of improving
| the individual units of production.
For where the European factories
have turned out one piano, ours have
made dozen or maybe a hundred,
and instead of being mark of dis
| tinetion in America to own a piano.
it is thought that a home is not prop-
/ erly furnished without one
| First UpriShts q Century Old.
The Woreh collection does not in
cluds any of the more modern innova-
tons such as the piauola or player
piano. which are of distinctly Ameri-