Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-02-18
THE art Of music has had many more

| II AAAS uAs Va ihuoAC huO hou nAohS A1AOAS
= or less valuable contributions from
men learned in the other arts and
sciences, and the scientists have been
BY no means tho least in adding to the
mechanical. perfection Of music. both
in instruments and in the theory OF
composition.
Tho latest TO contribute 10 DR..
Morit1 Stoehr, professor Of bacterioloRy
ut Mount st. Vincent's College In New
York, and HIS contribution Is a port
able keyboard which may be ssper-
tains q typewriting device which Will
record whatever one may play. Or:
Stoehr's device consists of manual
which rests firmly upon the normal
claviature of the piano. and the depres-
sion Of the keys Of the manual trans
mits the impact Of the fingers TO the
keys. Of the piano by means of little
rods which pass through holes in the
stationary frame. This frame may be
shifted from side 70 side on the CLAW
iatur, 80 that transpositlon into
higher or lower key becomes matter
Of mechanics and not one Of musicinn-
ship. -. =" o..
BY the use Of this device II will be
possible to play everything in the key
in which 1t is written on the super
imposed manual and by moving the
stationary frame get whatever tonality
IL desired from the actual instrument
beneath.
TT Is to be hoped, IL only for the sake
1 of the inventor, that his device will
meet with more general reception
from musicians than has been accorded
TO other similar devices in ycars past.
There have been many Of them, but
none Of them has come into anything
like general use.
The extra keyboard device has two
reasons for existence, one "A moderately
legitimate one, and the other not 80
good. The first Of these is TO produce
effects of which the ordinary piano is
not capable. and IL 1t be really neccs-
sary to extend the capabilities of the
instrument, this Is good and sufficient
reason for ut least partial adoption.
The other reason is to make piano
playing easier. and to do away with
much of the drudsery inseparable from
complete artistry and perfect mechan-
ical ability.
This reason is open for argument.
The mechanical drudgery of learning
any instrument has another side which
|
is the mental discipline which goes with
any hard work. 1t IS doubtful whether
It is desirable to do away entirely with
the hard labor clement of music. as
this work gives mental. II not intel
lectual. qualities, without which high
attainment, ut least from our present
standards, would be impossible.
THE keyboard Of the piano has been
L the subject Of almost as much at
tention from a few pianists and many
scientists as any other department Of
music. Nearly all these experiments
for few of them progressed beyond the
experimental stage-are Of compare
lively recent date; that Is, within the
last seventy years.
The scale Of the concert grand piano.
tho standard Of the percussion instru.
. ments, was definitely fixed about 1862.
at which time It seemed to be agreed
upon by the makers. at least within a
tone or so of the limit of distinguishable
tone, both high and low. Up to this
point the matter of keyboard held
really serious effort to effect change
But with the tonal range definitely
fixed, the attempt at improvement Of
the keyboard began and. strangely
, enough, these changes were not based
upon the improvement Of tone, but upon
the simplifying Of mechanical achieve
ment.
Among tho early inventors. IL they
may be called such. who endeavored TO
change the keyboard were William a.
3. Lunn. Of England. whose idea was
to group the six upper and the six lower
keys instead Of the seven and five Of
! tho nrI: Thil oH In
major scale in two fingerings, as an
upper or lower key became the key
note. Mr.. Lunn presented his keyboard
about 1910. a decade before the tona
register of the piano had been definitel
fixed. In this conception the note G
became black key, a feature of several
Of the new" keyboards. dse. perhaps
to the fact that the later school Of pian-
lists regard all keys as on I"vel.
Others who experimental without p,
manont success were DR.. X. Il. Schu.
mann, a German physician. and Mr..
BOsanquct. q professor of st. Johns
College. Oxford. It is interesting to
note that these men were not profess
sional pianists, but men who became in
terested in the subject in large meas
urc theoretically.
THE most important application of
L this system was that Of Paul Won
Janko. whose keyboard attained more
vogue than any of the others. or per.
haps IT might be more accurate to say
than ali of the others together. In
this fingerhonrd each note has three
keys. each lower than the other. attached
to q key lever and thus six parallel
rows of whole tone intervals are nro-
duced. The advantage claimed for this
keyboard Is freer use of the fingers
than is possible with the ordinary
board. as the performer has the choice
of three double rows OF KEYS. The
octave is brought within tho stretch Of
the ordinary sixth and the use of the
arpeggio style for wide chords is not
necessary.
But. notwithstanding these apparent
advantages from the standpoint of the
performer and the ful ther fact that
DR.. Janko's keyboard had the benefit of
Mnlimited publicity. it was never a real
rival of the accepted piano.
This is probably largely due to the
fact that the existing literature Of the
piano is thoroughly effective on the
old style keyboard and the pianists
who really count have learned and are
accustomed to this method. 1t would