Theory and Practice of Piano Construction. William Braid White
present day in all grand pianofortes, and its manifold excellences have never been yet surpassed. Erard took out a large number of patents, which were put into use by his successors, and the house founded by him is still in existence and one of the most famous in France or indeed in the world.
John Broadwood, the great English inventor and manufacturer, who also has his name perpetuated in the continued and flourishing career of the firm that he founded, was originally a workman in the shop of Tschudi or Shudi, a London harpsichord maker. He rose from an apprenticeship to the head of the house of Shudi and finally turned his attention to the improvement of the pianoforte. He had early been the recipient of the knowledge of Backers, the inventor of the so-called English action, and when he came to build pianofortes on his own account, this experience was made to bear practical fruit. Broadwood’s first achievement was in the re-designing of the square piano of Zumpe. About the year 1780 he entirely altered its construction, set the tuning pins at the back of the case, and added dampers and pedals. He next set about the improvement of the grand, and divided the bridge, giving a separate bass bridge and permitting the striking point of the hammers on the strings to be adjusted with correctness, something that had never been done before. This completed the divorce of the pianoforte from the harpsichord. With the addition of the action invented by Backers, Broadwood’s pianofortes became at once a standard of quality and excellence and until the introduction of iron framing stood alone.
We now come to Hawkins. This remarkable man was an engineer of Philadelphia, English by birth but American by adoption. In the year 1800 he produced an upright pianoforte, the first of its kind. This instrument, though it was not a commercial success, was remarkable for the fact that Hawkins in it anticipated so many of the ideas that have since become essential to modern instruments. He had an independent iron frame supporting the sound-board, a mechanical tuning device, and metal action frames. His action, too, had many features that have since been adopted. Unfortunately, the tone was so poor that the instrument was a failure from the start. His ideas in regard to upright pianoforte construction were not allowed to languish, however, and the labors of Wornum, who followed Southwell, were at last successful in producing, in 1826, a practical action which at once settled the destiny of the upright. This action had as its peculiar feature the “bridle tape,” which is now such a necessary element of the upright pianoforte. He also introduced the centre pin and flange.
At this point we begin to come to the great dividing line between the early and the modern pianoforte. The introduction of metal framing marks this division and it is from here that the American instrument begins its independent and extraordinarily successful career. Indeed, the development of American instruments is bound up with the almost concurrent progress of ideas as to metal framing.
Although the first application of metal to pianofortes, not considering the unfortunately abortive invention of Hawkins, may be credited to William Allen, an Englishman, yet we must look to the United States for the pioneer in the modern conception of metal bracing. The man in question, Alpheus Babcock, was a Boston maker and had been originally an apprentice of Crehore, who appears to have made the first American pianoforte. Babcock applied his invention in Boston in the form of a cast metal plate for a square pianoforte about the year 1822 and this date is most memorable in that it marks the epoch of the strictly modern conception of the instrument. Continuing the consideration of this National school of design, we find that the celebrated Jonas Chickering produced, in 1840, a cast-iron plate for grand pianofortes, having the string-plate, agraffe-bridge and resistance-bars cast solid in one piece. This revolutionary invention unquestionably paved the way for the wonderful American productions of later years and at once placed the American pianoforte upon a plane of excellence that has never been altogether reached by its competitors in other parts of the world. European makers were at first slow to appreciate the eminently valuable nature of the invention of Chickering, and until lately the solid cast plate was not extensively used in Europe outside of Germany. The house of Collard and Collard, which had the services of Stewart, the assistant of Chickering for many years, was, however, most progressive in this respect and for long was the only London firm which made grand pianofortes with the iron plate cast in one piece. The celebrated house of Broadwood, after much experimenting, produced a form of iron plate for grands that was somewhat different in principle from that of Chickering. In this type, the body of the structure was cast complete, but instead of the multiplicity of braces, we find only two. One of these runs parallel with the line of the vertically-strung bass strings at the extreme bass end of the instrument, while the other crosses the plate in a diagonal direction from near the middle of the agraffe-bridge to the point of greatest tension. Both of these bars are cast separate from the body of the plate and secured to it by means of bolts and nuts. Such a method has usually been characteristic of European as opposed to American methods, but the Broadwoods, about fifteen years ago, brought out a decided novelty in their “Barless Grand.” This remarkable instrument has a plate of cast steel and is entirely without braces or bars of any kind, the necessary stiffness being gained through the tensile strength of the metal employed and the use of a number of turned up flanges along the sides of the structure, these being screwed into the case of the pianoforte at equal intervals on its periphery.
As to the further development of the grand pianoforte, we may look to the progress of the Chickerings and the Steinways in America and to the Broadwoods in England, the Erards in France and the Bechsteins and Blüthners in Germany. These makers are considered here because they have all contributed in no small degree to the development of the instrument as an artistic product and because they have all been responsible for some radical improvement that has later become essential to the make-up of a good pianoforte. We need only mention the Steinway cupola plate, fan-like disposition of strings, overstrung bass, duplex scale and capo d’astro bar to give the reader some idea of the many inventions that have sprung from the fertile brains of the members of this house. The other houses, notably that of Chickering in this country, and Broadwood in England, have been prolific in improvements, and the development of the grand pianoforte has consequently been rapid and successful from the musical and scientific, no less than from the commercial view-point. The history of the type in more recent years is familiar to all, however, and it is unnecessary to enlarge upon it here.
If we have seemed, hitherto, to have neglected proper consideration of the upright and square forms of pianoforte, the fault is more apparent than real. For there are two good reasons why discussion of these types should have been delayed. In the first place, the square is already obsolescent if not obsolete, while on the other hand the development of the upright into a commercially successful and largely produced instrument has only come about in recent years. This sketch would, of course, be incomplete without brief consideration of them and we shall therefore devote some space to this end.
As has already been indicated, the square piano may be considered as having a genesis quite distinct from the grand or upright. It was developed, as we know, by Zumpe, whose purpose was to fit the hammer action to the body of a clavichord. Thus, when we consider the different roots from which the clavichord and spinet-harpsichord types were themselves evolved, and the direct descent of the grand pianoforte from the latter, the entirely separate and distinct growth of the square is easily discerned. This distinction is most interesting at the present day, when the glory of the square has departed and its days are numbered.
The evolution of the square pianoforte in America has been recorded with faithful detail by Spillane in his “History of the American Pianoforte,” and the reader will find in that work an abundance of material to satisfy any curiosity that may possess him. Incidentally it may be remarked that the idea of cross-stringing the bass had been applied to clavichords as early as the time of Händel; so that the overstringing of the square pianoforte came about quite naturally, especially after the improvements of John Broadwood the First. On the other hand, this principle was for long overlooked in the design of the other popular types; so much so, in fact, that European grands and uprights are still to be found in plenty with straight stringing throughout.
The chief reasons for the gradual decline in the popularity of the square may be traced almost as much to social and economic as to artistic and mechanical causes, although these latter had the greater influence in shaping the ultimate destiny of the type. The square was developed in the United States until the native American product left all imitators and rivals far behind, but even at that the fundamental defects