Full text of "The M. Steinert collection of keyed and stringed instruments : with various treatises on the history of these instruments, the method of playing them, and their influence on musical art"

462

N44M67

1893

c.l

MUSIC

?aiit

THE

M. STEINERT COLLECTION

KEYED AND STRINGED
INSTRUMENTS.

WITH VARIOUS TREATISES ON THE HISTORY OF THESE INSTRU-
MENTS, THE METHOD OF PLAYING THEM, AND
THEIR INFLUENCE ON MUSICAL ART.

MORRIS STEINERT,

NEW HAVEN, CONN.

ILLUSTRATED.
PRICE: PAPER, $1.00; CLOTH, $1.50.

r*.

PUBLISHED BY

CHARLES F. TRETBAR,

STEINWAY HALL, NEW YORK.

flrcss of
H - A. ROST,

No - M FRANKFORT STREET,
NEW YORK.

DEDICATED TO MY FRIEND
A. J. HIPKINS, F.S.A.,

OF LONDON, ENGLAND,

AS A MARK OF APPRECIATION.

PREFACE.

THE articles in this pamphlet have been written for a twofold
purpose. First. In order to serve as a catalogue to the visitor of
the Exhibition, to fully explain to him the nature and construction
of the different instruments of my collection and to serve as a book
for future reference. My experience at Vienna, where 1 exhibited a
part of this collection in 1892, has taught me that students of music
in order to fully understand these instruments, should be provided
with some work of guidance, explanation and instruction. In this
little volume I have endeavored to fully meet this demand.

Second. In order to teach the student the polyphonic nature of
the music of the great masters of the eighteenth century, as played
on the instruments of that period, to remind him that the music of
Bach and his contemporaries was written for the instruments of that
period solely, and that their innate beauty can only be fully compre-
hended if rendered on them, although the music of Bach has been
resuscitated by Mendelssohn and others, the instruments for which
it was intended had been lost sight of. For this reason I have made
it one of my dearest tasks to collect and fully repair these instru-
ments and learn the original method of playing them, in order to
reproduce these works strictly in conformity with the composer's
intention.

In my researches I have been greatly assisted by my friend,
A. J. HlPKINS, F. S. A., of London. His various works on the
history and construction of musical instruments have been of immense
value to me, and have furnished me with many an item for this
little work which, as a mark of appreciation, I dedicate to him.

MORRIS STEINERT.

CONTENTS.

NO. I'AGE.

1. INTRODUCTION', ......... II

2. CATALOGUE OK KEVKI) INSTRUMENTS, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 15

3. HISTORY OF THE PIANO-FORTE, ...... 63

4. A SYNOPSIS OF THE ATTAINMENTS OF THE GREAT PIANO-

BUILDERS OF THE I7TH AND iS'l'II CENTURIES, . . 83

5. THE RENAISSANCE OF JOH. SKI!. HACIl'S METHOD OF PLAYING

THE CLAVICHORD, ........ 95

6. ARTICLE OF DR. HIRSCHFELD, VIENNA, . . . Ill

121

8. ARTICLE FROM "WIENER AP.F.NDHI.ATT, " . . . I2y

133

10. HISTORY OF THE VIOLIN, ....... 139

11. CATALOGUE OF STRINGED INSTRUMENTS, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 153

CATALOGUE

OF THE

M. STEINERT COLLECTION

KEYED AND STRINGED INSTRUMENTS

EXHIBITED AS A LOAN COLLECTION AT THE
WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXTOSITIO&C

HY ITS PROPRIETOR

MORRIS STEINERT,

NEW HAVEN. CONN., U. S. A.
THE SAME COLLECTION AS SHOWN AT THE

INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION FOR Music AND THEATRE,

VIENNA, 1892.

INTRODUCTION.

THIS CATALOGUE describes my collection of Keyed and
Stringed Instruments at the Exhibition at Chicago. To fully
understand their construction, and the art of playing on them, it
is necessary to resort to books treating on these subjects. Such
a one I have prepared and submit it to the music-loving public.

A visitor glancing at these instruments may at first view con-
sider them as antiquities, such as are met with in Art Museums.
Herein he commits an error. It is true that while engaged in my
task as collector I discovered them in a dilapidated condition,
and unfit to be played on. In that state they did not exhibit
their former usefulness, and no one beholding them could surmise
that they served the musicians of the past centuries as musical
instruments, for which the great masters of that period composed
their divine works, and that they were of sufficient capacity to
transport the performer to the most exalted realms of inspiration.

I have succeeded in repairing these instruments, so that
now, after centuries of quiet rest, they appear in their original
living state. In this I was actuated by the desire that these
instruments should serve as a medium for performing on them the
compositions of Bach and his contemporaries, so as to enable the
student of music to hear these masterly works in their original
garb.

For this purpose I present these classical instruments to the
public, and hope that doing this I may render some service to our
present generation.

M. STEINERT.
NEW HAVEN, June 19, 1893.

CLAVICHORDS.

No. i. Clavichord, 4^ octaves. "Gebunden."

Of the 1 5th century. In this instrument a small bit of brass
called a "tangent" is fastened to the back end of the key, and
when raised by pressing the key, both strikes the string and
divides it, thus producing at the same time tone and pitch. An
excellent method to obtain variety in force and quality of tone.
This instrument has more keys than strings, and three different
tones are produced upon each set of strings; a system which
is called in German "gebunden," and in English fretted.

No. 2. Clavichord, 4)4 octaves. "Gebunden."

Of the 1 6th century. In this instrument two different tones are
produced upon each set of strings.

No. 3. Clavichord, 4^ octaves. " Gebunden." Case in rococo style.

In white enamel and gold, latter part of the lyth century.
In this instrument also two different tones are produced upon
each set of strings.

No. 4a. Clavichord, 4 octaves. "Gebunden." Mahogany naturals
and black sharps.

The case is in black enamel with gold, and rests upon a frame.
Two different tones are produced upon each set of strings.

No. 4b. Clavichord, 5 7 's octaves. " Ungebunden,"

Made by Schiedmayer in Neustadt an der Aisch, 1789. Has
black naturals and white sharps.

Here each tangent has its own set of strings, a system which
is called "ungebunden," or unfretted. This invention was made
by Daniel Faber, in Crailsheim, Germany, 1725.

No. 5. Clavichord, 5% octaves. "Ungebunden."

Made by Michael Voit & Son, in Schweinturt, Bavaria, Germany.

No. 6. Clavichord, 5^ octaves, "ungebunden," made by
Michael Voit & Son, in Schweinfurt, Bavaria, Germany.

No. 7. Clavichord, 5'^ octaves. " Ungebunden."

The maker's name unknown, although certain peculiarities
indicate that it is the product of Gottfried Silbermann (born 1683,
died 1753).

SPINETS.

No. 8. Italian Spinet, 3^ octaves, from the middle of the
i 5th century.

The spinet is a keyed instrument, with "plectra" or jacks,
which was probably invented during the i4th century, and con-
tinued in use until the i8th century. It was the favorite instrument
of Queen Elizabeth. It has one string to each note, which is
plucked by a crow-quill fastened to a jack resting upon the key,
which sets the string in vibration when the key is pressed down.

2 5

No. ii. Italian Spinet, 3^ octaves, from the middle of the
i 5th century.

No. 12 Double Spinet. 4 octaves. With paintings.

Made by the amous Hans Ruckers the elder, ot Antwerp.

The Ruckers made spinets as early as 1579, and their instru-
ments were noted as being of the finest quality. The little spinet
at the left, which sets into the spinet proper, is tuned one octave
higher than the one whose keyboard is placed to the right. In
performing upon both instruments at the same time, the smaller
instrument is removed and can be set upon a table. The maker,

as is proved by his initials H. R. and his device in the rose of
the sound-hole, is no other than the famous Hans Ruckers the
elder, of Antwerp, and on the jack rails of both spinets may be

read

" Johannes Rvqvers me fecit."

The paintings upon the lid represent a contest before the gods
between Apollo and Marsyus, the former divinity playing a viol
and the latter a pipe. The background is a hilly country, with a
lake and a castle, and a man in a boat. Above ana below the
removable spinet are painted landscapes, with figures immediately
above it, children dancing, and at the fixed keyboard men and
women dancing in pairs. The instrument rests upon a stand with
seven pierced arches and columns. With the exception of one at
Nuremberg, made in 1580 by Martin Beest, it is doubtful whether
many other double spinets are still in existence.

No. 13- Spinet, 3^ octaves.

Made by Andreas Ruckers, Antwerp, 1620.

Andreas was the son of Hans the elder, and was equally
celebrated as a spinet and harpsichord maker. Handel's favorite
harpsichord, which he used, and is now at the South Kensington
Museum in London, was built by Andreas Ruckers in 1641. On
the inside jack rail is the name of "Andreas x Rvckers me fecit
Antverpia," and on the rosette his initials "A. R." and King
David playing on the harp. On the inside lid, " Sic transit gloria
Mvndi."

No. 14. Spinet, 5 octaves.

Made by Johannes Hitchcock, London, about 1750. Johannes
and Thomas Hitchcock were the most celebrated spinet makers
in England.

No. 15. Spinet, 5 octaves, made by Thomas Hitchcock,
London, about 1750. It is to be presumed that Thomas and
Johannes Hitchcock were brothers, but worked separately and
followed different schools.

No. 16. Spinet, 5 octaves, made by Thomas Barton, London,
1730. Inscribed, "Thomas Barton, MDCCXXX."

No. 17. Spinet, 5 octaves, made by William Pether, London,
about 1725, having the following inscription on the name-board:
' Somcitae jucunda oblivio vitae/' which motto reads in English
as follows: "The pleasant oblivion of long life." The upper keys
made of ivory and ebony. This instrument is on exhibition in
the Connecticut Building.

HARPSICHORDS.

No. 18. Harpsichord, 4^ octaves.

Made by a Florentine at Pisa, 1626.

This harpsichord, which sets in a separate case, from which it
can be withdrawn, is according to the style of the Italian school
of the 1 6th century. It has three registers on the right (outside)
of the instrument, two strings of eight-foot, tuned in unison, and
one shorter string of four-foot tone. The natural keys are made

of boxwood and the sharps of ebony. The case is highly
decorated with paintings, representing figures and flowers, both
inside and outside. This highly interesting instrument is probably
one of the oldest yet in existence.

No. 19. Harpsichord, 4 octaves, 3 registers.

Made by Johannes Couchet, Antwerp, 1679; with painting by Van Kessell.

This instrument has three registers, of which two are of eight-
foot and one of four-foot tone. It rests upon a frame, and the
case and sounding-board contain a most beautiful painting by the
celebrated Dutch painter Van Kessell. Couchet is considered
one of the most celebrated harpsichord makers of the Netherland
school, was a grandson of the celebrated Hans Ruckers the elder,
and a nephew and apprentice of Hans Ruckers the younger.

No. 2oa. Harpsichord, with two keyboards, 5 octaves.

Built by J. A. Mass, Hamburg, 1710.

This instrument has two keyboards, with tortoise-shell naturals
and ivory sharps; also eight stops, similar to an organ. This is
probably the largest harpsichord in existence, both as to di-
mensions and musical capacity. It contains a long set of strings,
producing a sixteen-foot tone, also two shorter sets, each set

producing an eight-foot tone, and a still shorter one of a four-foot
tone, and finally two very short sets, each giving a two-foot tone.
Furthermore, one stop imitating the lute and another one the
harp. On account of the extraordinary size of such an instru-
ment, and in view of the diminutive size of instruments of that
period, it was deemed expedient to supply this harpsichord with
eight strong legs. The sounding board is painted with flowers
and other artistic decorations. But especially it is the rich
paintings on the inside lid which display the most excellent
specimens of Japanese art, both in conception and in execution.
The outer case and legs are decorated in imitation of tortoise-shell.
The builder of this instrument was noted as the most celebrated
harpsichord maker of that period in Germany. Whatever must
have influenced the builder to produce a keyed instrument which
was capable of reproducing the prominent elements inherent in
the organ, it is to be presumed that certain influences emanating
from great musicians must have operated upon him; and when
we consider that Hamburg and its vicinity was the home of the
greatest musicians, such as Buxtehude, Reinken, Handel, Bach,
Hasse and Mattheson, it is to be deplored that this unique instrument
is silent as to its past history, which, no doubt, would excite our
admiration, could we know who were the musicians who have
used it. Bach's Concerto in the Italian style and his French
ouverture were composed for a harpsichord with two manuals.
Its original title reads as follows:

"Zweiter Theil der Clavier-Uebung, bestehend in einem
concerto nach italienischer Gusto und einer Ouverture nach
franzosischer Arth, vor ein Clavicymbel (mit zwei manualen)
deren Liebhabern zur Gemiithsergotzung verfertigt von J. S.
Bach."

The harpsichord was the most important keyed instrument
used during the i6th, iyth and i8th centuries. It served as an
accompanying orchestral instrument in opera and oratorio. Like
the spinet family, the harpsichord is on the plectrum principle.

The strings were set in vibration by points of quill or hard leather,
elevated on wooden uprights known as jacks, and twitching or
plucking them as the depression of the keys caused the points to
pass upwards.

The earliest mention of the harpsichord is made by Eberhard
Cersne, A. D. 1404. Vincenzo Galilei, the father of the as-
tronomer Galileo Galilei, infers its direct derivation, in view of
its harp-like disposition, to the harp.

No. zob. Harpsichord, <, octaves. Decorated.

Built by J. A. Haas, Hamburg, 1710.

No. 21. Harpsichord, with two keyboards. 5 octaves.

Made by Jacobus Kirkman, London, 1769.

Has seven registers, two of eight and one of four-foot tone,
one harp, one lute, and one machine stop. Dr. Burney, in Rees'
Cyclopaedia, gives Jacobus Kirkman's harpsichords high praise,
regarding them as more full in tone and durable than those of
Shudi. They retained certain features of the Antwerp Rucker
model as late as 1768, preserving Andre Rucker's keyboard
(nearly 5 octaves) with lowest G sharp wanting. This, as well as
the retention of the rosette in the sounding-board, in which we
find King David playing upon the harp, between the letters J and

K. Dr. Burney met with no harpsichords on the continent that
could at all compare with those made in England by Jacob
Kirkman and his almost life-long competitor, Shudi. (Grove's
Dictionary of Music, vol. ii, page 61.)

No. 22. Harpsichord, with two keyboards, 5 octaves, made
by Burkat Shudi.

Five registers, two of eight and one of four-foot tone, one lute
and one harp stop. Shudi was a celebrated harpsichord maker,
and enjoyed Handel's friendship. One of his harpsichords, No.
94, made in 1740, formerly belonging to Queen Charlotte, is now
in Windsor Castle. The harpsichord in the Steinert collection
bears No. 144, but has no date, and was probably made about
1743. The two harpsichords Nos. 511 and 512, both built in
1766, were made by Shudi for Frederick the Great, and are still in
the Royal Palace in Potsdam. The Shudi harpsichord No. 762,
built in 1775, was once the property of Jos. Haydn, and is now
owned by the Music Verein in Vienna.

No. 23. Harpsichord, single keyboard, 5 octaves, made by
Jacobus Kirkman in London, 1755

It has three registers, of which t\vo are of eight-foot tone in
unison, and one register imitating the lute. Thii instrument was
formerly owned by Napoleon Bonaparte; was given, after his
banishment to St. Helena, to a French sergeant, who brought it
with him to this country, \vhere he settled at Scituate, Mass. In
1833 he sold the instrument to Simon Bates, of Scituate Harbor
Light, and by inheritance it passed into the hands of his son,
James G. Bates, who is still alive, and from him into the pos-
session of his daughter, Mrs. M. Wharff, now living at Gloucester,
Mass., of whom M. Steinert purchased it. The Bates family is
one of the oldest in Massachusetts, and traces its direct descent
from Peregrine White, who came over in the Mayflower. They
claim that Daniel Webster and other noted statesmen were in the
habit of listening to the music of this harpsichord.

No. 24. Harpsichord, 5 octaves.

Made by Jacobus and Abraham Kirkman, London, 1776.

Has four registers, of which t\vo are of eight-foot tone, tuned
in unison, and one of four-foot tone, also one register and knee
pedal to throw on the octave.

HAMMERCLAVIERE

The hammerclavier is the German name for the pianoforte, a
musical instrument of the percussive group, the tones being pro-
duced by blows of hammers upon stretched strings, and the
hammers being operated from a keyboard. Essentially the
hammerclavier is a large dulcimer with a keyboard; but historically
it replaced the clavichord and harpsichord, which were keyboard
instruments, more akin to the harp than to the dulcimer. Several
attempts were made during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
to combine a keyboard with it, perhaps the most important being
the pantaleone of Hebenstreit. The keyboard instruments then
known were nearly or entirely incapable of gradation in the loud-
ness of their tone; hence the new instrument when invented in Italy
was called a piano e forte, because its main peculiarity was that
its tone might be made either loud or soft at the player's will.
Its widespread use in consequence of the many improvements
made, brings into prominence, however, the disadvantages of a
percussive tone, which cannot be sustained or varied after the
initial stroke, of an ease of manipulation which invites slovenly
and vulgar use, and of a temperament which, with the common
neglect of frequent tuning, often hopelessly corrupts the player's
musical ear.

No. 25. German Hammerclavier, 4^ octaves, by Johann
Christoff Jeckel in Worms, February 18, 1783, single action.
There are two stops, one piano of the "celeste" and the "forte."
Both are divided into two sections, the bass and the treble, each
moved independently of the other by four registers on the front

side over the keyboard. The chief interest lies in the forte stop,
which raises the dampers in two sections by two stops. It con-
sists of a strip of cloth fastened to a frame, which touches the
strings lightly, so as to prevent their sounding when in their
natural state; having no separate set of dampers for each set of
strings, as in the present piano, which signifies its very primitive
construction. Grove (III, 683) speaks of a French instrument
similar to this, which he supposes was made in the reign of Louis
Quinze. The action is very interesting. Grove calls it the
"rudimentary German action," improved by Stein about 1777.

No. 25.

No. 26.

No. 25. German Hammerclavier, 4!^ octaves.

Made by Johann ChristofT Jcckel, at Worms, February iSth, 1783.

No. 26. German Hammerclavier, 5 octaves.

Made about 1750, by Johann Friedrich Schneider, Niirnberg.

Black naturals and white sharps, two stops to draw the forte
and celeste. Small wooden uncovered hammers strike the strings,
single action. It rests, like the clavichord, upon a frame.

No. 27. German Hammerclavier, 4^2 octaves. About 1760.

Maker unknown, possibly made by Charles E. Frederici, of Gera,
Germany. The sounding board covers the whole interior of the
piano, and the keyboard projects from one side of the case similar
to a spinet. The hammers strike the strings in front of the key-
board, the tuning pins being to the right side of the instrument.
It has single action, and the dampers are raised by means of a
stop to the left. Black naturals and white sharps.

No. 28. German Hammerclavier, 5 octaves, black naturals
and white sharps, single action; has hand-stops to the left, and
rests upon a frame. The case is richly inlaid. Tuning pins to
the right, similar to the clavichord.

No. 29. Upright Hammerclavier, 4'^ octaves.

Two knee pedals, forte and celeste; no maker's name (about
1780). The case has the shape of an old-fashioned secretary,
and its strings run in a horizontal direction, in opposition to the
usual vertical on upright pianos. It is tuned to the right, and
has double action, white naturals and black sharps. This is one
of the most interesting instruments of the collection.

No. 30. Square Pianoforte, 4 octaves. One pedal.

In form of a lady's sewing table; Stein action, white naturals and
black sharps; is tuned one octave above the ordinary pianoforte.
This interesting instrument has been in the possession of the
Princess of Turn and Taxis in Regensburg, Germany, where it
was purchased by Mr. Steinert.

No. 31. English Square Piano, 5 octaves, made by Broad-
wood & Co., London, about 1771. The action is single, known
as the "Zumpe." It has two stops, the piano and forte. The
forte is divided into two sections; they are operated by three
levers inside the case at its left end, moved by hand. The
sounding-board only extends across the right hand, not over the
action. Rests, like the English spinet, upon a frame.

No. 32. English Square Piano, 5^2 octaves. Painted.

No maker's name. Double action. The case and legs are beauti-
fully painted with flowers, and the top is richly inlaid with fancy
woods.

No. 33. Square Piano, 5^ octaves.

Made by Johann Schantz, Vienna, about 1780.

Two knee pedals, forte and celeste, double action. The case
decorated with rich brass trimmings of the period of Maria
Theresa, about 1780. Johann Schantz was Jos. Haydn's favorite
pianoforte maker.

4 6

No. 34- Pianoforte, <j l / 2 octaves.

Made by John Geib, New York, about 1815.

Three pedals and triple strung. The instrument, which is
inlaid with brass, rests upon a frame with claw feet, which are
beautifully carved and gilded.

No. 35. Square, 6 octaves.

Made by A. Babcock, Boston, about :82o

The case, in the empire style, is beautifully inlaid with brass.
The pianos of Babcock were of most delicious tone and touch,
and this instrument represents an excellent specimen of his pro-
duction.

No. 36. Square Pianoforte, of German pattern, 6}4 octaves.

Made by Joseph Hiskey, Baltimore, Md., about 1820.

The sounding board covers the action, tuning pins above
the keyboard like the grand piano, triple strung; four pedals,
forte, celeste, bassoon, jani/ary music with drum, triangle and
cymbal.

GRAND PIANOS.

No. 37 Concert Grand, 5 'is octaves.

Made by Johann Andreas Stein, in Augsburg, about 1760.

Black naturals and white sharps, with knee pedal. The
case is made of German oak; the top is panelled. Stein, like
Silbermann, was a celebrated builder of church organs, clavi-
chords, harpsichords and pianofortes. He was the inventor of

the so-called Vienna pianoforte action, the knee pedal, and con-
trivances for shifting the keyboard, whereby the hammer, instead
ol striking three strings, strikes one string only, thus producing
the "una corda" effect. Stein grands are hardly ever more met
with

No. 38. Concert Grand, <j octaves.

Maker's name unknown. Was used by Haydn.

Black naturals and white sharps, knee pedal, and one stop in
front of the keyboard to produce the "celeste." This instrument
has been the property of Jos. Haydn, and was used by him in his
birth-house, and later on in his summer residence in Rohrau near
Vienna.

No. 39. Concert Grand, 5 octaves and knee pedal.

Black naturals and white sharps, with the inscription on the
sounding-board, " Mozart's Spinet." Xo maker's name. This
instrument was found in Salzburg, and is an exact counterpart
of the grand used by Mozart, now in the Mozarteum in Salz-
burg, which does not bear the maker's name, but it is claimed
was made by Anton Walter of Vienna. Haydn and Mozart
used to play duets upon this instrument.

5 2

No. 40. Concert Grand, <-, octaves and knee pedal.

lias black naturals and white sharps. A true copy of Joh.
Andreas Stein grand. Built about 1770.

No. 41. Concert Grand Piano, 6 octaves.

Made by Anton Walter it Son, Vienna.

Six pedals: No. i, shifting the keyboard for una corda;
No. 2, shifting the pedal for tua corda; No. 3, bassoon; No. 4,
forte; No. 5, celeste; No. 6, drum, triangle and cymbals. The
case with elegant decorations and the legs artistically carved.
Anton Walter was Mo/.art's favorite pianoforte maker. About

No. 42. Concert Grand, 6 octaves.

Made by Joh. Grober, Insbruck, Tyrol.

Five pedals: No. i ; shifting keyboard; No. 2, forte; No. 3,
piano; No. 4, pianissimo; No. 5, bassoon.

No. 43. Beethoven's Concert Grand, 6l4 octaves.

Built by Madame Nanette Streicher, nee Stein, Vienna, 1816.

Five pedals: No. i, una corda; No. 2, tua corda; No. 3,
celeste; No. 4, bassoon; No. 5, forte. Bearing on the sounding-
board the following inscription: "Nanette Streicher nee Stein,
Wien, 1816." Madame Streicher was the daughter of the cele-
brated piano maker, John Andreas Stein of Augsburg, and is
the builder of this instrument. She was an intimate friend of
Beethoven, and it is said that this instrument has been loaned
by her to the great composer during his stay in his summer
retreat in Baden,

No. 44' Concert Grand, 6 octaves.

Made by Madame Nanette Streicher, ntje Stein, Vienna.

It is marked Xo. 1570, and has four pedals: No. i, una

corda; No. 2, tua corda; No. 3, celeste; No. 4, forte. There

is a grand piano made by the same lady at Windsor Castle,
England, the property of the Queen of England.

No. 45. Vertical Concert Grand, 6 octaves.

Made by C. Miiller, Vienna, about 1780.

Has black naturals and white sharps, three pedals : No. i, una
corda; No. 2, celeste; No. 3, forte. The front of this instrument
is highly decorated, and contains a gilded swan on top of it.

No. 46. Concert Grand, 6 octaves.

Made by Andre Stein, d'Augsburg, Vienna.

With knee pedal, black naturals and white sharps. Andre
Stein was the son of the great Joh. Andreas Stein of Augsburg,
and a brother to Madame Nanette Streicher.

No. 47. Vertical Grand. 6 octaves, 4 pedals.

CLOSED.

Made by Andre Stein, d' Augsburg, Vienna.
On the inside are the letters A. S., 1779.

No. 47 Vertical Grand.

OPEN.

Made by Andre Stein, d' Augsburg, Vienna.
On the inside are the letters A. S. 1779.

No. 47. Piano Violin, 6 octaves.

Made by Baudet, Paris.

The strings in this upright piano are made of wire as in a
pianoforte, but of greater relative thickness, there being one
only to each note. They run in a vertical direction, and to
each string is attached a small bundle of bristles, projecting
in front about one inch. A metallic roller, slightly rosined, is
made to turn by means of treadles. When the keys are put
down, a tangent holding a piece of whalebone presses the bristles
toward the roller, when motion is then communicated through
the bristles to the strings, and in consequence their musical
vibration is excited. The impression on the ear is that of a
string orchestra.

HISTORY OF THE PIANO-FORTE.

FROM CLASSIC MONOCHORD TO MODERN

PIANO.

/!?,__.

HE history of the pianoforte dates from the monochord
and the ancient Greeks.

The monochord is an instrument consisting of a
long box of thin wood, with a bridge fixed at each end, and an
intermediate movable bridge, over which is stretched a wire or
catgut string.

The monochord is said to have been invented by Pythagoras
in the sixth century, E. C. Its principle was used twenty-four
hundred years before by the Egyptians. The instrument was used
for centuries in the church to initiate the singers into the mysteries
of the eight tones.

Ultimately it was found more convenient to dispense with
shifting bridges and at the points of division to adjust fixed bridges
raised by an apparatus resembling the keys of the organ, to press
the strings and produce the notes required. This led to the
invention of the clavichord. The clavichord has been followed by
the square pianoforte, of which it was the prototype.

The lower or natural keys were usually black, and the upper
or chromatic, white. The strings of finely drawn brass wire, were
stretched nearly in the direction of the length of the case, but
with a bias toward the back. On the right of the player there
were inserted in the soundboard, strengthened on the under side
by a slip of oak to receive them, the wrests, or tuning pins, round
which the strings were fastened, while at the back and partly

along the left hand side of the case, they were attached by small
eyes to hitch-pins of thicker wire. On the right hand the strings
rested upon a curved bridge, pinned to fix their direction, and
conducting their sound-waves to the soundboard, a flat surface of
wood beneath, extending partly over the instrument. Nearly at
the back of each key, in an upright position, there was placed a
small brass wedge or "tangent" about an inch high and an eighth
of an inch broad at the top.

USES OF THE "TANGENT."

The tangent, when the key was put down, rose to the string
and pressing it upward set it in vibration. With a good touch the
player could feel the elasticity of the string, and the more this was
felt the better the instrument was considered to be. By the
pressure of the tangent the string was divided into two unequal
lengths, each of which would have vibrated, but the shorter was
instantly damped by a narrow band of cloth interlaced with the
strings, which also damped the longer section as soon as the
player allowed the key to rise and the tangent to fall.

The tangent thus not only produced the tones, but served as a
second bridge to measure off the vibrating lengths required for
the pitch of the notes. Thus a delicate tone was obtained that
had something in it charmingly hesitating or tremulous. The
tone of the clavichord, although very weak, was yet capable,
unlike that of the harpsichord or spinet, of increase and decrease,
reflecting the finest and most tender gradations of the touch of
the player. In this power of expression it was without a rival
until the pianoforte was invented.

Koch, in his musical lexicon, describes the clavichord as
"Labsal des Dulders, und des Frohsinns theilnehmenden Freund"
(the comfort of the sufferer and the sympathizing friend of
cheerfulness).

The clavichord was a favorite instrument with Johann
Sebastian Bach, who preferred it to the pianoforte. Mozart used

the clavichord now in Mozarteum at Salzburg in composing his
''Zauberflote" and other masterpieces. Beethoven is reported to
have said: "Among all keyed instruments the clavichord was
that on which one could best control tone and expressive
interpretation."

Clavichords made prior to the last century had strings for the
lower or natural keys only, the semitones on the upper keys being
produced by tangents directed toward the strings of the lower.
Thus C sharp was obtained by striking the C string at a shorter
length. D sharp and E in a like manner also.

About the year 1725 Daniel Faber, of Crailsheim, gave the
semitone its own string, and instruments so made were distinguished
as "bundfrei" from the older "gebunden," which was a system of
"fretting."

The early history of the clavichord previous to the fifteenth
century, together with that of the chromatic keyboard, rests in
profound obscurity. Welcker describes the oldest clavichord he
had met with as bearing the date 1520, having four octaves, but
the notes D sharp and G sharp were wanting. Clavichords had,
even with the last improvements, a soft, hesitating tone. After
they came into general use the idea arose of constructing an
instrument whose strings could be set into stronger vibration by
means of more powerful tangents, in order to gain thereby a more
powerful, more intense tone.

STRINGED INSTRUMENTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES,
ON THE PLECTRUM SYSTEM.

Of the many stringed instruments that could be used for this
purpose there were known in the Middle Ages, in addition to the
harp, the psaltery and the dulcimer (German, hackbrett).

The psaltery, in triangular, square, curved or harplike form,
was either carried with a ribbon around the neck, or when used
was placed on some piece of furniture. Its strings were operated
by means of a plectrum, which was fastened by rings to the hand

of the performer. The psaltery was the prototype of the spinet
and harpsichord, particulary in the form described by Praetorius
in his " Organographia" as "Istromento di porco," so-called from
its likeness to a pig's head.

Musical writers of the year 1650 say that the psaltery, played
with a skilled hand, stood second to no other instrument, and
praise its silvery tone in preference to that of any other and its
purity of intonation so easily controlled by the fingers.

The spinet is a keyed instrument with plectra or jacks. It was
used in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It
may be described as a small harpsichord or virginal, with one
string to each note. It is said to be the invention of the Venetian
Spinetti. Banchieri, in 1608, derives the name "spinetta" from
this maker. It is in shape the same as the clavichord and has the
same keyboard. The jack action is derived from the psaltery
plectrum, while the tangent of the clavichord comes from the
monochord bridge. All instruments of the spinet, harpsichord,
virginal and clavicymbalo family were on the plectrum principle,
and therefore were incapable of dynamic modification of tone by
difference of touch. The strings were set in vibration by points
of quill or hard leather, elevated on wooden uprights known as
jacks, and twitching or plucking them as the depression of the
keys caused the points to pass upward.

THE HARPSICHORD.

The harpsichord in its form and in the arrangement of the
keyboard and strings resembled a piano. In form it resembled a
modern grand pianoforte. The compass of the keyboard was
from four to five octaves. The number of separate strings to
each key varied from one to four, sometimes including one tuned
an octave or two above the others. Two keyboards were some-
times combined, one for soft effects, the other for loud. Numerous
devices usually connected with the jacks, were introduced at differ-
ent times to secure variety in force, and especially in quality.

6 9

These mechanisms, which often aimed to stimulate the tone
qualities of various orchestral instruments, were usually controlled
by stop-knobs near the keyboard. The harpsichord was the most
important keyed instrument during the last century. It was
regularly used in all dramatic music, especially in accompanying
recitatives, and in orchestral music. The conductor usually
directed from his seat at a harpsichord placed amid the other
instruments.

THE EARLIEST HARPSICHORD.

The earliest mention of the harpsichord is under the name of
clavicymbalum, in the "Rules of the Minnesingers," by Eberhard
Cersne, A. D. 1404. With it occur the clavichord, the monochord
and other musical instruments in use at that time. The absence
of any prior mention or illustration of keyed instruments is negative
evidence only, but it may be assumed to prove their invention to
have been shortly before that date say, in the later half of the
fourteenth century. Jean de Muris, writing in 1323 and enu-
merating musical instruments, makes no reference to either
clavicymbalo or clavichord, but describes the monochord, as in use
for measuring intervals at that time. Moreover, there was no
music wire before this epoch; the earliest record of wire drawing
being 1351 A. D., at Augsburg. There were three different shapes
of jack instruments made the harpsichord of trapeze form, the
clavichord of oblong or pentangular form, frequently called spinet
or virginal, and the upright harpsichord or clavicytherium. It
must be remembered that the long harpsichords were often
described as spinets or virginals from their plectra or their use by
young ladies, but the table-shaped ones known commonly by the
Latin names were never called harpsichords.

FAMOUS SPINET AND HARPSICHORD MAKERS.

The most celebrated spinet and harpsichord makers were
Joanes Antonius Baffo, Venice, 1574; Hans Ruckers, 1575;

Andreas Ruckers, Antwerp, 1614; Pascal Taskin, 1786. Paris
Annibal Rosso, 1555; Keene, 1685; John and Thomas Hitch-
cock, 1630; Charles Harvard, 1676; Haxby, of York, 1766.
Haas, Hamburg, 1700. The Ruckers, of Antwerp, stood the
highest in the art of harpsichord making. It was the school
of the Ruckers, transferred to England by a Fleming named
Tabel, that was the real basis of harpsichord as a distinct business
in that country, separating it from organ building, with which
it had been, as in Flanders, often combined. Tabel's pupils,
Burkhand Tschudi and Jacob Kirkman, became famous in the
last century, developing the harpsichord in the direction of power
and majesty of tone to the furthest limit.

FROM DULCIMER TO PIANO-FORTE.

The dulcimer is the prototype of the piano, just as the
monochord was that of the clavichord and the psaltery that of the
harpsichord. The psaltery and dulcimer were so nearly alike that
one description might serve for both, were it not for the different
manner of playing them. The strings of the psaltery were set in
vibration by a plectrum, whereas the tones of the dulcimer were
produced by small hammers held in the hands of the performer.

It is also no less desirable to separate in description instruments
so nearly resembling each other, on account of their ultimate de-
velopment into the harpsichord and pianoforte by the addition of
keys. The roughness of description used by mediaeval Italians in
naming one form of psaltery "strumento di porco," pig's head was
adopted by the Germans in their faithful translation " schweins-
kopf," and in naming a dulcimer "hackbrett," a butcher's board
for chopping sausage meat.

The dulcimer is a trapeze shaped instrument of not more than
three feet in greatest width, composed of a wooden framing en--
closing a wrestplank for the tuning pins around which the strings
are wound at one end and a soundboard ornamented with two or
more sound h'oles and carrying two bridges between which are the

lengths of wire intended to vibrate and a hitch-pin block for the
attachment of the other end of the strings. Two, three, four and
sometimes five strings of fine brass or iron wire are grouped for
each note.

The dulcimer laid upon a table or frame is struck with hammers,
the heads of which are clothed on either side with hard and soft
leather to produce the forte and piano effects. The tone, harsh in
the loud playing, is always confused, as there is no damping con-
trivance to stop the continuance of sounds when not required.

LOUIS XIV. 'S "PANTALEON."

Pantaleon Hebenstreit, of Eisleben, became about 1697 a
virtuoso upon the dulcimer, which he quadrupled in dimensions,
and had constructed as a double "hackbrett" with two sound-
boards, each with its scale of strings on one side, overspun catgut
on the other wire. With this powerful chromatic instrument, de-
manding herculean force to play, Hebenstreit travelled to Paris in
1705, where Louis XIV. christened it with his name, " Pantaleon."
Kiihnan (in Mattheson's "Critica Musica," December 8, 1717),
praises the instrument and its superiority over the harpsichords
and clavichords in possessing the properties of piano and forte.
It was this, according to Schroter's account, that led him to
ponder over a keyed instrument to do the like and to his
notion of a pianoforte.

In Germany, France and Italy the celebrated organ builder,
Gottfried Silbermann, was formerly universally considered as the
inventor of the pianoforte, until the organist, Ch. G. Schroter, ten
years after the death of Silbermann, in 1763, claimed the honor
of said invention for himself, and attempted to furnish proofs for
his claims by means of documents and drawings. Lately, how-
ever, extracts from Italian and French archives have been
published, which for the first time accurately reveal the part taken
by Schroter and Silbermann in this invention.

CRISTOFORI THE REAL INVENTOR.

These communications, verified by the pianofortes of those
times still existing, necessitate a complete revolution of all previous
histories of the pianoforte. They are chiefly the results of the
efforts of a society in Florence which had resolved to have a
celebration on March 7, 1874, in commemoration of Cristofori,
the first and without doubt independent inventor of the "clavi-
cymbel with piano and forte." This instrument, known since
1711, was called by its inventor " pianoforte," and has retained
such name ever since outside of Italy. After the inventor's death
he was casually named " Cristofori," " Cristofani," " Cristofali," &c.
Cristofori, according to the latest researches, was born May 4,
1653, at Padua. Here he attained such a high renown as a keyed
instrument maker that the Prince Ferdinand of Medici, known as
a patron of arts, and especially as a connoisseur of music, induced
him to settle in Florence and enter his services as Court maker of
clavichords, spinets and harpsichords, and to also serve as custodian
of his collection of musical instruments. In the year 1711, in a
newspaper published in Venice, the invention, hitherto considered
impossible, of a " Gravecembalo col piano e forte" was announced.
It was further added that the lucky inventor was the paid and
employed Cymbalist of the Prince of Toscana namely,
"Bartolommeo Cristofali," and that he had already completed
three grand pianos of the usual size and equal quality. It was
especially mentioned that in these new instruments it depended
upon the strength with which the player touched the key to pro-
duce a weaker or stronger tone with all its gradations. Many
musicians, the author of said article, Marchese Scipione Maffei di
Verona, continues, refuse to pay the tribute due to this invention,
because its tone is too weak and obtuse, although one gets easily
accustomed to it, and soon even prefers it to the former instru-
ments. The chief objection made to the new instrument is this,
that one has to become accustomed to the manner of playing it
even if expert oil the other keyed instruments. Maffei, however,

says, as this is a new instrument, its properties must be first
studied in order to cause its peculiarities to be exhibited with skill
and taste.

MARIUS, SILBERMANN AND SCHROETER.

Marius, doubtless, is the second equally independent inventor
of a pianoforte. In 1716 he presented to the Royal Academy in
Paris the designs and descriptions of four different pianoforte
models. The Court composer, John F. Agricola, in Berlin writes
in a musical publication in 1767: "Mr. Gottfried Silbermann is
renowned on account of his beautiful grands and other claviere,
of his invention of the cymbal d'amour and also on account of his
improvement of the pianoforte. The first attempt at this piano-
forte, however, was conceived and executed in Italy. But Mr.
Silbermann has made so many improvements in it that he is not
much less than the inventor thereof."

In 1763 Organist Ch. G. Schroter, in Nordhausen, hereinbefore
mentioned, published a minute description of a new invented
clavier, on which one can play loud or soft, according to the way
the keys are touched. He says that he was led to this invention
by the pantaleon of the renowned virtuoso Hebenstreit, and that
already in 1717 he had made attempts to produce a keyed instru-
ment whose strings could be set in motion by means of beaters or
hammers instead of the tangents, quills or plectra hitherto used.
He further narrates that in 1721 he submitted two models to the
Court in Dresden. In one the hammers struck the strings from
above, in the other from below; that both were supplied with
dampers and that the strings could be made to resound softly or
loudly. The models met the approval of the King, who ordered
the construction of the one struck by hammers from below. The
execution of this order was never completed, and when Schroter
desired to leave Dresden he could not obtain possession of his
models in spite of all his efforts. Without his knowledge and

consent, as he says, his invention became known in Germany, and
bad imitations thereof were made and called pianofortes.

Agricola adds the following to the history of the pianoforte:

" Mr. Gottfried Silbermann had made at first two of these
instruments. The blessed chapel master, Johann Sebastian Bach,
had seen and played on one of them. He had praised its tone
and even admired it, but he had found the fault that in its high
notes it was too weak, and that it was too hard to play. Mr.
Silbermann had heard these complaints with ill grace and had
been angry with Mr. Bach for a long time. But his own con-
science told him that Mr. Bach's criticisms were correct. He
came to the conclusion, it must be said to his glory, not to make
any more of these instruments, but to work hard in order to in-
vent something to do away with the faults mentioned by Mr. Bach.
On this he worked many years. Finally, after Mr. Silbermann
had in fact made many improvements, he sold another instrument
to the Court in Rudolstadt, and shortly afterward one to His
Royal Majesty the King of Prussia, and, as this one met with
universal approval, many more. He even had the praiseworthy
ambition to exhibit one of these instruments of his later con-
struction to the chapel master, Mr. Bach, and to have him examine
the same and received from him his utmost approval."

According to this report of Agricola, who knew Silbermann
personally, there remains no doubt that we are indebted to the
industrious Silbermann for the practical construction and intro-
duction of the pianoforte.

CONSERVATISM OPPOSING PROGRESS.

The greatest musicians of that age, Johann Sebastian Bach in
1737 and Mo/art in 1777, had acknowledged the value of the
invention of the pianoforte, but still a long time transpired before
it could assume the rank due to it among the keyed instruments of
that age. As in the history of music, we can here plainly see the

strife of progress against conservatism, the resistance of established
rules against new principles.* A musical critic in Leipsic writes in
1782: "In the grand piano (referring to the harpsichord) the
heart cannot express itself, with it no picture can be completely
produced, as light and shadows cannot be expressed ; only a
clearly denned sketch can be made. It is adapted either to bear
or to carry away the stream of music in short, to flow on with it."

GRAND PIANO-FORTE.

"The forte piano," that writer continues, "stands higher,
especially one made by Frederici, piano maker in Gera, or
Stein, piano maker in Augsburg. Here the heart can express
itself and manifest its manifold feelings and exhibit light and
shadows. But it is deficient in shadings and minor attractions,
so that it is adapted as an instrument for concerts and chamber
music. The clavichord, however, stands highest of all. Although
on account of its nature excluded from the concert hall it is the
companion of the recluse. Here I can reproduce the feelings of
my heart, can shade, fully express, drive away and melt away a tone
through all its swellings."

He closes his remarks as follows: "In order to judge a
virtuoso one must listen to him while at the clavichord, not
at the forte piano, and least of all at the grand piano." (Harpsi-
chord.)

Forkel, in his " Musical Almanac" of 1782, prefers the clavi-
chord to all other keyed instruments, although he praises greatly
the fine execution and the finely shaded playing on a pianoforte
made by Spath.

OLD TIME MUSICAL CRITICISM.

The poet and musician, Ch. Fr. Daniel Schubart, in 1785 thus
expresses himself: "The musical coloring cannot be executed on

*"So giebt der anonynie ' Verfasser des Musicalischcn Haudbuches aitf das Jahr i~S2,
welches in ' Alethinopel ' (Leipzig) gleichzeitig mit dem Musicalischcn A Imanach (von Forkel)
in Schwickerl'schen Verlage herauskam, dem Pianoforte noch nicht den Vorzug." G. F. WEITZ-
MAN, Geschichte des Claviers, page 275.

7 6

the pianoforte in all its nuances, but the clavichord, this solitary,
melancholy and inexpressibly sweet instrument, if it is made by a
master, is preferable to the Grand and Fortepiano through the
pressure of the finger, through the swinging and vibrating of the
strings, through the strong and soft touch of the hand, the increase
and decrease of tone, the melting under the fingers of the player,
expiring trill of the portamento, in short all expressions of feeling
can be visibly manifested."

We see that long after the general introduction and use of the
pianoforte, the clavichord was preferred.

Silbermann's pianofortes in the beginning seem all to have
been made in wing shape.

Of Charles E. Frederici (died 1779), of Gera, one of the
oldest makers of such instruments, it is reported that he made
them in clavichord, or square form also, and that he called them
by the distinguishing name of "Fortbien." On account of their
excellent workmanship, we are assured that they were scattered
over half the globe.

The pianofortes which John Adam Spath (died 1796) in
Regensburg made and sold for forty ducats were also wing shaped.
They were highly esteemed in Germany. The instruments of
Johann Andreas Stein of Augsburg, (died 1792,) far surpassed
them, however. When Mozart had become acquainted with these
instruments he selected them especially for his performances, and
thereby brought them into public favor and the widest circulation.
Being in Augsburg in October, 1777, he was introduced to the
pianos of Stein.

MOZART'S FAVORITE INSTRUMENT.

Stein's newly contrived pianoforte escapement appears to have
charmed Mozart. In a letter to his father he refers to the evenness
of its touch, saying that "the action never 'blocks' and never
fails to sound as is sometimes the case with other pianos. On
the other hand, it never sounds too long, and the machine pressed

by the knee (to act as a foot pedal) is prompt to raise the dampers,
or on discontinuing the pressure ever so little is as prompt to let
them down upon the strings again."

The Stein escapement differs from Cristofori's and the English
action in the fact that the axis of the hammer changes its position
with the rising of the key, the hopper (Ausloser) becoming a
fixture at the back of the key. From this difference a radical
change of touch took place, and an extreme lightness became the
characteristic of the Stein action, as developed by Andreas
Streicher, of Vienna, Stein's son-in-law, who, in 1794, improved
and finally established the great renown of the Viennese piano-
fortes.

Returning to Mozart, his concert grand in the Mozarteum at
Salzburg is a small five-octave instrument with black natural keys
and white sharps made by Anton Walter, who became in the end
Mozart's favorite maker.

The merits of establishing German pianoforte making belongs
to Stein, whose inventive talent and artistic devotion were dis-
played in the good instruments he made, which by 1790 at latest
were adopted as models both in North and South Germany, as the
two grand pianos formerly belonging to Queen Louisa, made by
Huhn, organ builder of Berlin, and preserved in memory of him
at Potsdam, unmistakably show. One of these instruments, and
apparently the older one, bears no name outside, but internal ex-
amination shows that the maker was the same who made the 1790
one. Both closely resemble Mozart's piano, by Walter, of Salz-
burg, and the original model by Stein of 1780.

A FAMILY OF PIANO MAKERS.

The Stein's were a family of pianoforte makers and players.
They consisted of the father, Johann Andreas; his two sons,
Matthaus Andreas, Friedrich, and a daughter, Maria Anna,
known as Nanette, who in 1794 married Streicher and was really

the most prominent of the group. Though Streicher ultimately
succeeded to the business, which had been removed from Augs-
burg to Vienna, his name does not appear for several years in
connection with it. The firm, as late as 1801, was " Geschwister
Stein," subsequently " Nanette Stein" only, which appears as the
maker's name on a grand piano with six pedals, existing (1882)
in Windsor Castle.

Nanette Stein was born January 2, 1769, at Augsburg. When
barely eight she played to Mozart on his visit to Augsburg in
1777, and in spite of the bad musical habits she had contracted
he said of her, "She may do yet for she has genius." Her talent
and capacity were so obvious that her father early initiated her
into the details of his business, and on his death, February 29,
1792, she carried it on in conjunction with her brother, Matthaus
Andreas Stein, with a decision and energy almost masculine.
In 1793 she married Johann Andreas Streicher, an excellent
pianist and teacher from Stuttgart, and then her husband and
mother moved to Vienna.

The new firm of Nanette i\: Andreas Stein was established.
In 1802 the brother and sister dissolved partnership and setting
up for themselves as " Matthaus Andreas Stein" and "Nanette
Streicher, nee Stein." Both firms endeavored to perfect their
instruments in every possible way, while still adhering to the
traditions of their father, and Stein, of Vienna, became as cele-
brated as Stein, of Augsburg had been. Nanette Streicher was at
once an energetic and capable woman of business, a pianist of re-
markable excellence, a person of great cultivation and a model
wife and mother. Her name is closely connected with that of
Beethoven. It is well known that she did much to help him in
his domestic arrangements, lightened the burden of his house-
keeping and even looked after his bodily health. Thayer, in his
work on Beethoven, says: " In May, Beethoven, on the advice
of his medical men, went to Baden, hither he was followed by his
friend, Mme. Streicher, who remained at Baden for the summer

and took charge of his lodgings and clothes, which appears to
have been in a deplorable state. On his return to Vienna the
Streichers continued their friendly services, procured him two good
servants and otherwise looked after his interests. These servants
remained with him for a year or two, and this was probably the
most comfortable time of the last half of Beethoven's life."

BEETHOVEN'S CLEVER PATRONESS.

Beethoven, as well as Mozart, always showed a preference for
the pianofortes made by Stein and his daughter Nanette. Thayer
has unearthed a record of Pastor Junker, showing that Beethoven,
in 1791, when residing at Bonn, always used an instrument of
Stein. It is claimed by those knowing the history of the grand
piano made by Nanette Streicher, forming one of the collection
of M. Steinert, as illustrated here, that it was furnished by the
maker to her friend Beethoven for his concerts and during his
many wanderings away from home, that he enjoyed playing upon
that particular instrument, and that Mme. Streicher kept it ex-
clusively at the disposal of the great master whenever he felt
like using it.

In one of his many letters to Mme. Streicher, Beethoven says:
" Perhaps you do not know, though I have not always had one
of your pianos, that since 1809 I have invariably preferred yours."

The instrument has a very soft and sweet tone, and no true
musician will fail to pay a silent homage to an instrument used by
the immortal Beethoven, and as such it will always remain an ob-
ject of reverence not only for the great genius who probably
created some of his grandest works out of its depths of harmonies,
but also for the noble woman who built the grand instrument,
and, above all, who served the master in his domestic afflictions,
and thus sweetened his life during his many sufferings.

A German, Johann Zumpe, transplanted in 1766 the Silber-
mann invention, the pianoforte, to London. This resonant instru-
ment, made by him very skillfully, met here with universal favor,

and soon attained such a splendid reputation that it was used to
embellish a benefit performance. On a theatre programme of
May 16, 1767, we find the following:

"End of Act I. Miss Brickler will sing a favorite song from
' fudith,' accompanied by Mr. Dibdin on a new instrument called
pianoforte."

THE PIANO IN LONDON.

A year later the London Bach Johann Christian Bach
played in a concert for the first time publicly on a pianoforte.
It was of great influence for the growth and improvement of the
pianoforte, that in 1775 Muzio dementi used the pianoforte in a
concert in London, not only with great success, but since that
time adapted his brilliant compositions to this useful instrument.
The mechanism of the Silbermann piano, in which the hammers,
independent of the key and over them, rest on a particular rail,
was especially improved by Backer, Stodart and Broadwood to
such an extent that the new invention was known under the name
of " English action."

In 1768 Sebastian Erhard (he afterward changed his name to
Erard) came from Strasburg to Paris. He entered the workshop
of a piano maker, and showed himself to be such a discreet, enter-
prising and persevering workman that his reputation soon filled all
Paris. At the wish of an influential patron, the Duchess of
Villeroy, he built in 1777 his first instrument, which met with uni-
versal applause at the soirees of his patron.

PIANO MAKING IN PARIS.

About this time also John Baptist Erhard came to Paris and
shared from that time all the labors of his brother. Soon the
piano factory erected by these brothers at Paris became highly
esteemed and patronized. Sebastian, inexhaustible in inventions,
built for the Queen, Marie Antoinette, a " piano organise" with
two keyboards, of which one operated a pianoforte and the other

an organ, and on which a "stop expressive" had been provided.
A second stop transported the instrument as much as three semi-
tones higher or lower.

An everlasting name in the history of piano making Krard
made for himself by his invention, in 1823, of the hammer
mechanism (double repeating action), which invention has since
then been used in all concert grands with English mechanism.

John Broadwood of London, as early as 1770, represents the
English School of pianoforte building. He was a man of
inventive genius and thereby he made many valuable improve-
ments in the piano. His sons James Shudi and Thomas
Broadwood likewise contributed greatly to give the Broadwood
piano its world-wide reputation.

In many cities of Germany distinguished piano makers can be
found, of whom Bluethner of Leipsic, Schiedmeyer of Stuttgart,
Kapps of Dresden, Bechstein of Berlin deserve chief mention.

In Austria, the most prominent builder of grand pianos at the
present date is Ludwig Boesendorfer of Vienna. In the United
States of America good pianos were made already in the beginning
of the present century. The names of John Osborn and Alpheus
Babcock, both of Massachusetts, may be mentioned in this con-
nection. They were succeeded by Jonas Chickering, the founder
of the celebrated house of Chickering & Sons.

In Philadelphia, Conrad Meyer occupies a high position as the
inventor of an iron frame.

In Baltimore, Knabe & Co. holds a most prominent place
amongst its Piano builders.

In New York, Nuns &: Clark, Bacon & Raven, Dunham &
Stoddard, Hazleton and others may be mentioned as makers of
good instruments. During the last 40 years, however, the house
of Steinway & Sons has made so many radical improvements in
the art of piano building as to completely revolutionize it, and
their system called the "Steinway System" has been adopted all
over Europe, being considered the best.

A SYNOPSIS OF THE ATTAINMENTS

THE GREAT PIANO-BUILDERS

OF THE

1 8tJ? AND i 9 th CENTURIES.

history of pianoforte building is replete with almost
many celebrated men as that of the violin. While the
latter has its shining lights in Caspar di Salo, the Amatis,
Guarneris, Stradivaris, Stainer and others, the pianoforte can
enumerate as many historical names amongst its builders. To
begin with, mention must be made of Gottfried Silbermann, a
member of a family of organ, clavichord, harpsichord and piano-
forte makers. He was born in Frauenstein, Germany, 1683.
He was first apprenticed to a book-binder, but soon left him and
went to his brother Andreas, at Strasburg. This city he had to
quit in 1707, on account of an attempted abduction of a nun, and
then returned to Frauenstein, where he built his first organ.
Although he attained great celebrity as an organ builder, he became
equally renowned as a maker of clavichords. Philip Emanuel
Bach used one for nearly half a century, and while playing on the
same, he excited the admiration of Dr. Burney. It is a well estab-
lished historical fact that Gottfried Silbermann was the first maker
of pianofortes in Germany. He built three grand pianos for
Frederick the Great, for his castle at Potsdam, where they still
remain to-day.

Agricola adds the following to the history of the piano:
' ; Mr. Gottfried Silbermann had made at first two of these
instruments. The blessed chapel master, Johann Sebastian Bach,
had seen and played on one of them. He had praised its tone
and even admired it, but he had found the fault that in its high
tones it was too weak, and that it was too hard to play. Mr.
Silbermann had heard these complaints with ill grace, and had

been angry with Mr. Bach for a long time. But his own con-
science told him that Mr. Bach's criticisms were correct. He
came to the conclusion, it must be said to his glory, not to make
any more of these instruments, but to work hard to invent some-
thing to do away with the faults mentioned by Mr. Bach. On
this he worked many years. Finally, after Mr. Silbermann had in
fact made many improvements, he sold another instrument to the
Court of Rudolstadt, and shortly afterward one to His Royal
Majesty the King of Prussia, and, as this one met with universal
approval, many more. He even had the praiseworthy ambition
to exhibit one of these instruments of his later construction to the
chapel master, Mr. Bach, and to have him examine the same,
and receive from him his utmost approval."

He was followed by Johann Andreas Stein, born at Heides-
heim, 1728. Although nothing is known of his early career, he is
known to have lived in Paris in 1758. He, like Silbermann, was
a builder of organs, clavichords and harpsichords, and later on of
pianofortes. After leaving Paris he became organist of the Bar-
fiisser-Kirche at Augsburg, and while there he built the celebrated
organ of that church, as well as the organ of the Kreuz Kirche.
As a pianoforte builder he justly deserves the name of "the father
of the German school," for the reason while Silbermann adopted
the action used by Christofori, the real inventor of the pianoforte,
Stein invented an action totally different and more simple. The
Stein escapement differs from Christofori's and the English action,
in the fact that the axis of the hammer changes its position with
the rising of the key, the hopper, (Ausloser) becoming a fixture at
the back of the key. From this difference a radical change of
touch took place, and an extreme lightness became the character-
istic of the Stein action, as developed by Andreas Streicher, of

Vienna, Stein's son-in-law, who, in 1794, improved and finally
established the great renown of the Viennese pianos. Stein was
also the originator of the Kneepedal, called the genouilliere,
which preceeded the foot pedal and served to raise the dampers.
He also invented the shifting of the keyboard, whereby the
hammer, instead of striking three strings, only strikes one, and
this "una corda" he named Spinettchen. Mozart was a great
admirer of Stein's pianos, and in his historical letter to his father,
he speaks at length of its evenness of touch and remarkable tone.

As hereinbefore stated, Johann Andreas Streicher, son-in-law
of Stein, his wife, the celebrated Nanette and Stein's two sons,
Andre and Frederick, moved to Vienna in 1793. Streicher him-
self was an excellent musician and professor of music, renowned for
his learning and his great friendship for Schiller. This family
while in Vienna, made many improvements in the Stein piano,
and their piano, the Streicher piano, attained a world-wide repu-
tation. In England, John Broadwood of London made many
improvements in the construction of the pianoforte. He changed
the customary construction of the square piano by removing the
wrest-plank holding the tuning pins, from the right hand side as
in the old clavichord, to the back of the instrument. He also
introduced the division of the bridge on the sound board of the
grand piano. His son, James Shudi and Thomas Broadwood
also invented many improvements in the construction of the piano.
In France, Sebastian Erard constructed in 1809 a repetition grand
piano action, and also invented the inverted or upward bearing
bridge at the wrest-plank. Ignatz Pleyel founded in 1807, in
connection with his son Camille, a piano factory in Paris. Their
pianos were noted for their sympathetic tone, and for offering to
the performer such tone colors as to highten the expression of
the composition. Chopin thus expresses himself on the Erard
and Pleyel pianos :

"Quand je suis mal dispose, je jour sur un piano d'Erard et
j'y trouve facilement un son fait. Mais quand je me sens en

verve et asse/ fort, pour trouver mon propre son a moi, il me faut
un Piano cle I'leyel."

In Germany, in 1855, Frederick Wilhelm Carl Bechstein estab-
lished a pianoforte factory in Berlin. Hitherto the north German
piano was far inferior to the Viennese system, but Bechstein, by
adopting the American system of iron frames and the English
action, constructed instruments that became celebrated. Ignatz
Boesendorfer established a factory in Vienna in 1828. He
strengthened his instruments in their vital parts to such an extent,
that Liszt in his early career found them only adequate for the
many demands for his new powerful school. His son Ludwig
succeeded him in 1859 and followed in the footsteps of his father,
and by making many new improvements, built only grand pianos
noted for the strength and purity of tone and elasticity of action,
and his instruments to-day are not surpassed by those of any
builder in Germany and Austria.

In the United States of America, Benjamin Crehore of Milton,
Mass., a suburb of Boston, built excellent square pianos in 1798.
His instruments were constructed according to the English system.
Although piano building at that time was something new in
America, yet it is well established that this little shop was the
training school of such men as John Osborn, and of the two
brothers Lewis and Alpheus Babcock, who served their appren-
ticeship there. The instruments of these latter makers, were not
only the equal of the celebrated London makers, such as Broad-
wood, Longman, Broderip and Clementi, but even surpassed
them in many respects, as shown by instruments still in existence.
The Babcocks made pianos in Boston as early as 1810. John
Osborn in the same place in 1815. In 1819, Jonas Chickering
became an apprentice inOsborn's shop. James Stewart, a Scotch-
man, became Osborn's partner in 1820, and after quarrelling with
him, entered into a copartnership with Jonas Chickering in 1823,
which partnership was dissolved two years later. In 1829 John
Mackay became Chickering's partner. The instruments of that

8 9

firm and their successors were noted all over the United States as
most durable, and for possessing great musical capacities. They
were prolific in inventions. In 1837 they constructed a square
piano with a complete iron frame, with the exception of the wrest-pin
block, and afterwards they followed the same system in grand
pianos. Their grand pianos at that period were unsurpassed by
any foreign make.

The principle of using iron frames had been previously (1825)
invented by Alpheus Babcock, and by Conrad Meyer of Philadel-
phia, and owed its origin probably to the climatical conditions
and changes of the country. An event of the greatest importance
is the construction of an upright piano by John Isaac Hawkins,
an Englishman, in Philadelphia in 1800. This upright piano was
constructed with an iron frame, was braced with iron rods and had
a metal bridge. The statistics of the history of arts and industries
of the United States in 1829, show that 2500 pianos were made
during that year of the aggregate value of $750,000. Of these
pianos goo were made in Philadelphia, 800 in New York, 717 in
Boston, the balance in Baltimore and minor places. In New
York piano making received an impetus from emigrants of families
of piano makers from Germany and England, the foremost of
whom were the Geibs, Nunns, Kiersing, Uubois and Stoddard: they
all followed the English system. One of the first piano makers in
Baltimore was Hiskey, who constructed his pianos on the Vienna
principle, namely, having the tuning pins above the keyboard, a
sounding-board extending over the whole instrument, and an iron
plate which held the hitch-pins for the strings. He also applied
four or five pedals to his square piano in order to produce the
various orchestral effects, so much desired at that time in Europe.

Baltimore, on account of its geographical position, became
the chief center for the sale of pianos to the Southern states, and
became early noted for the construction of excellent pianos.
Foremost amongst its early makers Gaehle may be mentioned.
Although built on the German system, contained the English

action. He formed a co-partnership with Knabe under the name
of Knabe and Gaehle in 1841. After their dissolution Knabe
continued the manufacture of pianos, and built up such a demand
for his instruments in the Southern states, so as to counterbalance
the progress of the Chickering's in the East. Knabe deserved
his success, for he zealously labored to improve his instruments.

While Baltimore and Boston in a great measure monopolized
the piano trade of the United States, New York, although it had
such piano makers as Bacon and Raven, Stoddard and Dunham,
Nunns and Clark, occupied a very subordinate position, which
continued until the establishment in business of a family of piano-
forte makers from Germany in 1853, namely the Steinway family.

Since the invention of the pianoforte in 1709, it has undergone
many changes and many improvements have been made in its
construction. But notwithstanding all these facts, a careful ex-
amination of the modern pianoforte will develop many defects in
its intrinsic musical properties. Unlike the violin, 'cello or the
human voice, the piano does not possess the power of unlimited
tone prolongation. It furthermore manifests a certain monotony
in its tone nuances. In comparison with the voice or stringed
instruments, its tone appears cold and unsympathetic. Its tone
being produced by the stroke of a hammer, naturally dies away
nearly as soon as it is created. It is not within the limits of the
hammer to modulate each tone, and the performer, unless he is an
artist, can hardly overcome this natural tendency of the hammer.
In fact, the natural condition of the pianoforte is such, that its
tones cannot be increased or decreased like the tones of the voice,
and therefore does not respond to the requirements of true
artistic musical nature and therein lies its greatest innate deficiency.
With the deficiencies herein mentioned, the piano remains the
predominant instrument of the age for the following reasons,
unlike the violin and the human voice it serves to produce a
complete harmony by reason of its unlimited tone-compass,
comprising the lowest bass tone of the contra basso and the

9 [

highest tones of the piccolo flute, thus can be used to reproduce
orchestral compositions by one performer only. Furthermore, on
account of the producing of sound by means of hammers, the
piano possesses certain dynamic elements, which in the orchestra,
are attained by means of kettledrums, basedrums and cymbals
and in the more refined parts, by means of brass instruments.
This dynamic element produces a certain feeling of rest on the
nervous constitution of the piano player, and thereby, he is
enabled to continue at his task longer than at any other
instrument.

Aside from the action, the most essential part of the piano is
the construction of the sounding-board, the soul of every musical
instrument. The tone of the pianoforte depends upon the
movement and variable pressure of the strings at the point of
contact with the bridge by which their vibrations are conveyed to
the belly or sounding-board to be intensified by the vibrations of
the fibres of this elastic support. It is to be regretted that the
science of acoustics furnishes no fixed laws for the construction
of a toneful sounding-board, but leaves it to experiments only.
The difference in the character of tone of pianofortes by different
makers depends very much upon variations in the proportions,
direction of the grain and burring of the belly.

Aside from both action and sounding-board there must exist
other requirements in the construction of the piano, which lend
the instrument a singing and soul inspiring tone, one that can
express all the sensations of the heart, the lyric, tragic and
pathetic moods.

While there have been no improvements made during the last
two centuries in the construction of the violin and other kindred
stringed instruments, it has been the aim of pianoforte builders
during that same period to excel each other and to produce an
instrument more perfect than any other heretofore known.

As before mentioned, New York, the metropolis of this country,
up to 1853 occupied a subordinate place in the production of

pianofortes. It received its first impulse in that direction through
Henry Engelhard Steimvay and his sons Charles and Henry, and
later on, by his sons William and C. F. Theodore.

These manifold improvements made by the firm of Steinway
in the building of pianos, have given their instruments certain vir-
tues and powers never before possessed by instruments of other
makers. Through their efforts the defects in the construction of
the piano hereinbefore mentioned have been greatly eliminated.
Formerly only the greatest artists were able to produce on the
pianos of that day rich and sustaining tone colors. Now even
the amateur and unskillful performer on a Steinway piano can
produce such effects as were formerly not even dreamed of.

Although about fifty patents have been granted to Steinway &
Sons for improvements in the art of pianoforte making, it will be
interesting to mention only the following most important ones:
Overstrung Scale, Patent No. 26,532, December 2oth, 1859.
Tubular Action Frame, Patent No. 81,306, August i8th, 1868.
In Uprights and Grands, Patent No. 93,647, August loth, 1869.
The latter two patents were granted for an ingenious invention
to strengthen the hammer apparatus, and to prevent its warping,
due to atmospheric influences.

Duplex Scale, Patent No. 126,848, May i4th, 1862.
An invention to control and utilize the acoustical properties of
piano strings. By its means a rich, sonorous, and pure tone
quality is produced.

Capo D'Astro Bar, Patent No. 170,647, Nov. 3oth, 1875, ^ n
Grands.

By means of this invention, the suspended wrest-plank can
neither be raised nor depressed by the great tension of the strings.
Although this patent was granted for Grand pianos, it has been
adopted for the construction of Upright pianos also.

Bent Rim Cases, Patent No. 204,106, May 2ist, 1878.

By this new method, the case is thoroughly strengthened, and

in no way yields to the immense strain of the strings, while at the
same time, it allows free vibration of the case and rims.

Most all these patents emanated from the inventive genius of
Theodore Steinway. He was born in Seesen, Germany, in 1825.
He received his first instructions in the building of stringed and
keyed instruments from his father. He devoted all his energy to
the improvement of the pianoforte, and his success in that art is
fully described in a letter written by Liszt in 1883, which reads as
follows: "Your new Grand piano is a glorious masterpiece in
power, sonority, singing quality and perfect harmonic effects,
affording delight, even to my old piano-weary fingers." He died,
65 years old, in 1889.

His nephew, Frederick Steinway, who devoted himself under
the teachings of his uncle, Theodore, to the scientific researches
of acoustics, has also added important inventions to the strengthen-
ing of the piano, which consist particularly in an ingenious combi-
nation of resonant metal framings, which, in their normal
condition, give both strength and a special tone color to the
instrument.

Henry Ziegler, another nephew of Theodore Steinway, also
served his apprenticeship under his uncle, and has enlarged the
field of the Steinway system of piano-building. He is both a
theoretical and practical mechanic, who has ventured upon the
yet unexplored field of giving the sound-board scientific formation.
Henry Ziegler and Frederick Steinway, working in conjunction,
have imparted to the Steinway pianos those musical characteristics
which make it famous to-day.

Although the piano in its present state may appear perfect to
many, yet it is capable of being still more perfected, and it is
earnestly hoped that the genius of improvement which has changed
the simple pianoforte of Silbermann into the modern Grand, may
not rest, but may continue on its march of progress.

THE RENAISSANCE OF

JOH. SEE. BACH'S METHOD

OF PLAYING THE CLAVICHORD.

the winter of 1840 Liszt came to Leipsic for the first
time. The emporium of the German book-trade at that
time was no longer Goethe's "Klein Paris." For, at
that time, it represented the predominant centre of German music,
the stronghold of the Romantics. It was the Leipsic of Felix
Mendelssohn, the Leipsic of Schumann.

Liszt, at that time, was at the zenith of his virtuosity. Memo-
rial coins proclaimed his renown. Their inscription was " Nostri
saeculi clavichordi orpheus!" In Leipsic also, as everywhere
else, he caused showers of applause. Artists and people revolved
in a Liszt-turmoil. The leader of the first was no less person
than Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Using a characteristic ex-
pression of Beethoven, " Liszt's playing infused holy fire into
the soul of Mendelssohn, whose great artistic mind was at all
times impervious to narrow-minded feelings of envy."

Such a musical festival as at that time Goethe's excellent
friend, Felix, gave in honor of Liszt could only be arranged by a
Mendelssohn. They were without exception compositions
unknown to the guest, that were brought to the attention of Liszt.
It is a matter of the utmost significance that Mendelssohn could
not conceive to offer to this celebrated man known as the greatest
pianist of the nineteenth century from all his talents anything
higher, grander and more appropriate than the, at that time, com-
pletely unknown work of a long forgotten composer, the grand
D-minor concerto for three pianos by Johann Sebastian Bach,
composed in 1730.

Ferdinand Hiller and Felix Mendelssohn were the performers;
at the third Grand, Franz Liszt himself presided. Schumann has

9 8

written a report concerning this greatest mark of respect to the
genius of Bach. For, was there anyone more gifted to write a.
criticism of such an artistic festival than an artist himself, and
moreover an artist like Robert Schumann? It is contained in
the twelfth volume of the " Nciicn '/.eitschrift" where anyone may
read it. Like mostly everything written by Schumann, it offers
even to-day, after the lapse of more than half a century, a full
enjoyment of things gone by.

That marvelous time of that early period is repictured in it.
That time when German politics were so insignificant, but German
Art was so great great in its own creations and perhaps still
greater in the reawakening of the creator of harmony, the great
Sebastian Bach. Next to Zelter we have to thank the enthusiastic
propaganda of Mendelssohn for this artistic feat. It is forever
inseparably connected with his name. Characteristic enough for
Mendelssohn himself, whom a mind like Hans von Billow has
distinguished by the words: "The greatest form genius since
Mozart."

During his whole life Mendelssohn adhered to his active
veneration for Bach, which was permeated by the noblest passion.
His advocacy of the old master proved most effective at the great
national music festivals of the lower Rhine, where Bach was
hardly known by name.

Mendelssohn in January, 1838, writes as follows to the com-
mittee in Cologne: "It appears to me more important to have
one number on the programme this year by means of which this
festival distinguishes itself from others, and whereby, perhaps, a
step in advance can be pointed out. For this purpose I consider
it indeed necessary to include the name of Sebastian Bach in the
programme, e\en if it only be a short piece; but it is certainly in
time that at these festivals, to which Handel has given so much
renown, also that other immortal master, who in no sense stands
below any other master, but in many stands above them, should
no longer be forgotten. The same objections that may now be

raised against Bach must have existed in former years against
Handel's works. Because, if once one of his works is produced,
it will not be difficult to find it beautiful and to produce it again.
There must be a beginning."

And in the same manner as Mendelssohn at these great national
music festivals on the lower Rhine reinstated the German old-
master victoriously into his rights, he conducted with untiring en-
thusiasm at all points his great contest for the Renaissance of Bach,
the battle of the artist for the artist ! And he only rested when the
accumulations of oblivion were completely removed from this in-
destructible memnoncolumn, which had so wonderfully heralded
the future dawn of German classical music by its divine sounds.

Five years before his death, Mendelssohn had the pleasure to
behold the unveiling of the monument of Sebastian Bach, the
magnificent old "Periickengesicht" (wig-face) as he often called
it (1842), and the costs of which he had earned by his own play-
ing. Already two years before that time he had arranged an
organ concert in the Thomas Church for that purpose. He gave
it "solissimo," and had practised for the same for many weeks
with the greatest diligence, so that, as he expresses it in a letter to
his mother "he could hardly stand on his feet, and only executed
pedal passages on the street."

Less, in fact hardly known, is the extraordinary influence
which Mendelssohn's father exerted on these efforts of his son.
The time will come which will deal more explicitly with this
excellent man, who in his altogether too great modesty is totally
eclipsed by the greatness of his father, the philosopher, Moses
Mendelssohn, the glory of his son Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

Since that time fully fifty years have passed by, and with the
great master of the Romantic, the old Sebastian survives to-day
in all his power and glory. In fact it may be stoutly maintained
that Bach now really begins to live, and with him and depending
upon him without being limited in time, the elements of true and
genuine art will continue to all eternity.

Before his surpassing greatness all those who came after him
now bow down.

Weber maintains boldly that the Classics admit the following
about Bach : " That Mozart never would have risen to his great-
ness without the stairs built by Bach."

Another expression of Weber's which is more dogmatical and
of more significance for our theme we wish to annex here. "The
art to play Bach's compositions effectually has been perhaps com-
pletely lost, inasmuch as the enjoyment to be expected therefrom
neither lies on the surface nor, because on account of the richness
of the harmonic construction, the outer melodious contour can
appear so prominent as is desired by our spoilt ear." The earnest
movement which tries to produce at present Bach's works in their
artistic interpretation may be termed in these words of C. M. von
Weber. It represents in the present also one of the most interes-
ting questions of art on which subject Spitta in his unsurpassable
Bach Biography in truly wonderful manner has said: " Bach's
clavier compositions represent an inheritance which was destined
to be accepted by us Moderns in its full scope, as an inestimable
present for a period whose musical Spring does not flow any more
in its former profuseness. an unmovable rock in the turbid commo-
tion of passionate aberrations, and for all those who are still able
to hear an earnest admonition not to forget the dignity of art ! "

I found a very noticeable indication of this question of art in
a letter from Mendelssohn Bartholdy's father, who in 1835, wrote
to his Felix, to Diisseldorf, as follows: "Your intention to restore
Handel in his original form has caused me to reflect on the latter
instrumentation of his works. Generally the question arises,
whether Handel, if he would compose to-day, would not use all
the musical means of the present day for composing his oratorios,
which, in fact, means nothing more or less whether that artistically
moral form to which we give the appellation Handel, would
assume to-day the same outer form which it has had one hundred
years ago, or, in an enlarged meaning, whether the world appears

to-day as it has appeared one hundred years ago. This question
answers itself. The question, however, must be put in another
way, namely, whether Handel to-day would compose oratorios
at all ? Well, hardly, if they must be written to-day, as has been
the fashion lately. From what I say to you, you can learn how
confidentially and relyingly I foresee your work, which without
doubt will solve the question of uniting old thoughts with new
methods, otherwise no result would be effected, in the same man-
ner that the painters of the nineteenth century would only make
themselves laughable if they would represent the religiosity of the
fifteenth century with long arms and legs, and with a perspective
placed on the head. To me these new means, as also everything
in the world seems to have come at the proper time, in order to
support these inner motives that are growing weaker, for at the
height of the religious sense at which Bach, Handel and their
contemporaries are found, they certainly needed no orchestra for
their oratorios."

These certainly very noteworthy explanations of the banker
Mendelssohn lead directly to the question of art indicated above.
I shall, however, later on find occasion to speak of the striking
contradiction by the preraphaelitish school of painting of the final
remarks relating to the paintings of the fifteenth century. The
repeatedly stated question of art "is the reproduction of Joh. Seb.
Bach's clavier compositions by our modern artists completely con-
genial?" remains the subject of our consideration. I do not
believe that this can be answered with yes without some reserva-
tions.

For whatever relates to our modern reproduction of Bach's
clavier compositions, it must be admitted that hitherto the strictest
historical research has not been able to become closely allied to
the same, even if attempted by our greatest virtuosos. The student
of Bach must absolutely pre-suppose that the most numerous
clavier compositions of the old master were written for the clavi-
chord and cembalo, and that the clavichord especially was the

instrument to which Job. Seb. Bach assigned a quite distinguished
preeminence before all other keyed instruments of that time.
This predilection of Bach for the clavichord must be still more
considered as of great importance, because we know it to be a well
established fact that the master, during his whole life was accus-
tomed to ask in relation to his instruments for many very far-
going requirements, and even such that could only be satisfied
with difficulty. In Arnstadt and Miihlhausen, in Coethen, Wei-
mar, also in Leipsic, in fact everywhere, the different church organs
gave him a great deal of trouble. He nowheres finds an instru-
ment whose capacity reaches the level of the artistic sensitiveness
of his artistic craving.

The records of Bach's complaints on this subject are still in
existence. They teach us that Bach had more than anyone else
penetrated the spirit of organ building and that he not only under-
stood how to criticise, but moreover could demonstrate and order
how to obviate the deficiency and error. Thus the records of the
free city Miihlhausen, in 1708, contain the following: "The new
organist, Mr. Bach, has reported different defects in the construc-
tion of the organ in the church of St. Blasius, and also has handed
in a written plan how to remedy the same."

Yes, according to the records of the Liebfrauen church in
Halle, Bach all alone conceived the plan for building a new and
grand organ, which the celebrated organ builder, Christof Cuntius,
had acknowledged through his own signature as lawfully proper
for making, and which he in fact contracted to build for the price
of 6,300 Rixthaler.

Can anyone therefore wonder that the University of Leipsic
in 1717 sent extra for Bach while in Coethen, in order to have
him thoroughly examine the new organ of the Pauliner church, in
presence of two witnesses only ?

In the use of stringed instruments Bach did not demand less
requirements. It is well known that he himself played the viola,
and thereby enjoyed amongst his fellow-players the freest super-

io 3

vision over the execution of the different parts. Thereby he made
the unpleasant discovery that not one of the cellists (Viola de
Cambists) was adequate for the execution of his figured Bassos.
According to some anecdotes such deficencies were often very
apt to cause a serious unpleasantness to the delinquent. For in
everything that pertained to art Bach possessed a devilish hasty
temper, and it is related that he sometimes tore his mighty wig
from his head in order to hurl it against that of a stupid pupil.
Certainly such an insult he could not give to his cellists, especially
as he knew too well that the fault in this case was not of the
player, but was due to the size and construction of the violoncello
of that time. It is now noteworthy and very characteristic for
our description, that Bach knew most thoroughly to obviate this
difficulty through the invention of a totally new stringed instru-
ment, the "viola pomposa."

Bach, in questions pertaining to the spirit and reproduc-
tion of his works, was not only not conservative, but more-
over really revolutionary, and thus, besides other technical
accomplishments, he is credited with the invention of a musical
clock and of an improved keyed instrument, the so-called Lauten-
clavicymbel.

Therefore, it can be maintained with apodictic certainty that
Bach was always accustomed to claim the highest pretensions in
regard to the capacity of all instruments used by him, and that
he had without doubt weighty artistic reasons for preferring in
such a distinguished way the clavichord for the execution of
clavier compositions. The reasons for this embrace in the first
place, the fact that the clavichord must by no means be considered
as a primitive precursor which is subordinate to the later construc-
tions of keyed instruments. In fact it demands a prominent
place in the line of all piano instruments even to the present time,
not only as a keyed instrument of quite peculiar tone productive-
ness, but more especially on account of its unique tone color and
power of inspiration.

104

These matters, however, have been explained at length else-
where in this work, and therefore it is sufficient to remark here,
that accordingly the method of playing the clavichord can exhibit
a whole array of very important and distinguishing differences
from that of the Hammerclavier, and completely from the method
of playing the modern pianofortes. In order to illustrate this
fact by a few examples, I would like to remark that at the
clavichord, the feeling of the player is more capable of being car-
ried out, for the reason that the different degrees of the intensity
of the touch, find expression not only in the power, but also in
the song-like pitch of the tone. Certainly the pitch of the tone
forms itself by the striking of the tangent against the string. But
in the same manner as on the violin, the accent of the player
increases the pressure on the finger-board, if the tangent rises
higher, then the string extends itself and thereby produces that
trembling, chromatic, echoing sound, to which even the modern
ear cannot deny the oscillating property of a deeper soulful sen-
sation.

Therefore there cannot be any doubt that in this respect alone
we run across a technic which has been lost, and whoever has
heard one of our virtuosos attempt to play the clavichord under-
standingly, must at least admit that this technic is very capable
of being resuscitated. In fact, this superb responsiveness of the
clavichord has encouraged a great number of attempts of produc-
tion, which cannot be attained on any other instrument. These
naturally are completely lost as soon as any attempts are made to
produce, unconditionally and without consideration on other
keyed instruments, compositions which are written for the clavi-
chord. Otherwise, in order to introduce another reason, we assert
that the legato-bows in Bach's clavichord works have quite a dif-
ferent significance from those in modern piano-playing. Because
legato-playing on the clavichord can only be accomplished by an
increased pressure of the fingers, and thereby a crescendo is
always caused. '

I0 5

Therefore Bach's legato-bows signify always a sign of expres-
sion for the performers.

At every step, however, we meet such differences. What,
therefore, is the natural consequence? None other but that
the interpretation of Bach on his contemporaneous keyed instru-
ments must lead to essentially different musical sound effects
and sound mixtures from those that can be attained on the
pianoforte. There is no question which of these two may be
more instructive.

Is there any necessity in our period of historical justice and
seriousness of conception, to enter the arena in order to maintain
that Joh. Seb. Bach, "the Orpheus of the clavichord of his period,"
may demand that he should be studied and investigated on his
own most peculiar, favorite instrument?

We must permit the great old master to defend his cause with
his own peculiar power, and especially with the means of art and
the technique of his period. Far more pressing than in painting,
we need in the field of music a peculiar art of restoration, in the
same manner as such one has existed for a long time for the
plastic arts.

Who will dare to-day to whitewash the dried-up colors of a
quatrocento-painter with the chalky crayons of the Pleineair
Pallet?

Could anything defeat this aesthetic demand in the field of
music, in which the individuality of the composer cannot be ap-
pealed from even in the last instance, while in the plastic arts our
so much exalted education and capacity of objective viewing may
be appealed to?

We are therefore yet far removed from a truly congenial repro-
duction of Bach's compositions, notwithstanding that historical
musical performances have become the order of the day every-
where.

There can be no question that in this study the selection of
the instrument is of the utmost importance.

io6

Historical truthfulness and historical justice are therefore the
battle-cry which we wish to promulgate in the study of Bach.
We behold, all over, the principles of historical study duly
acknowledged, yet in all these fields of labor of the mind, historical
truth stands firmly as the fundamental principle of true art.

We read the poets of former ages in their original language,
in the study of law we go back to the very fountain, we imitate on
the stage, and while relating the things of the past conscientiously,
their historical conception and shape, even in such things which
in the other world is called good and bad in the consideration of
the moral itself, we have attempted to use historical criticism. I
only remind you of the celebrated rescue of Lucrezia Borgia, by
Gregorovicus, therefore, what should deter us so to hear the music
of our ancestors, and so to feel it as it appeared intelligible and
full of enjoyment to our great predecessors?

The almost incomprehensible successes of the English Pre-
raphaelites, which I have hereinbefore briefly mentioned, can
amply teach us what surpassing and infinite vitality to-day still
exists in even quite removed and seemingly defeated periods of
art, and how they in an astonishing degree can gain the as-
cendency over modern minds. The school of painting of the
Preraphaelites embodies in their efforts, as is well-known, the most
unheard of and rudest reaction against every progress in which
painting may glory since the days of Raphael and Perugino.

"Smear" the Preraphaelites term everything which painting
since the death of Van Dyck had brought forth. Heaven and
Earth, Gods and Heroes, everything that creeps and flies, the
Preraphaelites behold and clothe with the eyes and conception of
the period of Renaissance.

I have watched their conduct for obvious reasons with the
greatest interest. The audacity of their artistic religion possesses
in fact something imposing from which one cannot easily escape.

They teach that " Raphael is the highest summit of art." They
call an attempt to surpass him " to perish without help in man-

nerism." In order to gain the height of artistic labor, we must
enquire into its inception; therefore we must go back to Perugino.
Before all we must create out of ourselves an ideal, namely our
own ideal. Thus the Preraphaelites seek only the beauty which
permeates them, the absolute beauty. This battle raged for thirty
years, but to-day the Preraphaelites reign with their pure, deep
Idealism all over England, over its entire art and the entire
nation, and over all that territory wherever only Albion's flag is
supreme!

The Renaissance of Bach cannot naturally be exerted to such
an extent, and the time is probably distant for the formation of a
brotherhood of Pre-Sebastianists. We would severely depreciate
such a condition of zealotism in this otherwise sad era of music.
Surely the fantastic richness of inmost power of creation and gift
of formation which emanates without limit from Bach, must be
considered as the triumph of unfettered activity of art. We must
not, however, pervert to excess the strictly historical method of
studying Bach by foolishly claiming Bach's clavier composi-
tions must without exception be heard on the clavichord. Noth-
ing could be more one-sided and erroneous than such a limitation,
which in addition would include a total ignorance of the true
substance of Bach's art.

According to the grand researches of Phillip Spitta, it is a
well established fact that all clavier creations of Bach were com-
posed for an ideal instrument, which was destined for our times,
but the sound of which, like a vision, must have agitated even
then with irresistible vocation, the expectant heart of the great
old master. These researches explain from these facts, that almost
unapproachable bruskness of the character of so many composi-
tions of Bach, and especially the almost horrifying regardlessness
of sound, in which compositions Bach manifestly, with complete
disregard of their outward appearance, only aimed at the creation
of their spiritual worth.

In the beautiful words of Spitta, he is "the excessive idealism

io8

of a German mind, who always looks up towards the clouds with-
out caring whether his feet entangle themselves in earthly thorns."

This pure, spiritual tenor of the Polyphony of Bach appears
on no other instrument so unlimited and so clear in its naked
beauty, as on the clavichord.

The peculiar effect of sound of the latter, which conduces to
only very modest perceptions of the senses, permits, however, in its
stead a deeper insight in the worldless strife and labor of tones, if
I am permitted to say it, in the status nascendi of polyphonic art
. itself, in which the voices ascending and descending finally form a
tone palace.

There is only one completely satisfactory course to attain
analytically a full understanding of Bach's art, namely to study
Bach on the clavichord. Here we can see the whole chemism of
complicated connection of sound effected in full purity; the mole-
cular powers of harmony, the affinity and allied breaking through
of sounds. It is easy to fathom this great spiritual development
of polyphony with the extraordinary richness and abundance of
tone of the modern piano. The sensual nervous enchantment of
sound harasses too much the grasping of the mind, we listen too
much to the effect of the volume of sound on the ear, but the
motive powers that reign supreme and cause all this, remain
invisible.

We are too easily induced to search for the effect on the sur-
face in purely accidental harmony, in coloristic effects, which are
however only side issues, and therefore the warning cry must again
be raised to confine yourself closely to the clavichord for the
study of Bach. Only after one has gained on the clavichord a
full understanding of his polyphonic architecture, can he attempt
to paint the clavier compositions of Bach with the shining colorit
of modern piano music. And then only will be disclosed the
whole wonderful beauty which filled the master's imagination.
We hear more distinctly the sound of the bells from the deep,
and clearly the forms from below send their greetings.

ARTICLE OF DR. HIRSCHFELD,

VIENNA.

A TREATISE

ON THE

M. STEINERT COLLECTION

DR. ROBERT HIRSCHFELD,

PROFESSOR OF MUSICAL AESTHETICS AT THE VIENNA CONSERVATORY.

Taken from the Vienna " Press?,'' July 30, 1892.

STEINERT'S PIANO COLLECTION.

Whoever wishes to study the development of the piano from its earliest
beginning to the most noble productions of modern technique, not, however,
in dry words and dead pictures, but in resounding and well preserved
exhibits, will find in Steincrt's collection, which stands next to the English
department, full satisfaction and a rich artistic enjoyment.

The owner has brought more than 25 keyed instruments, the fourth part
of his precious, splendidly arranged collection at great cost from his residence
in New Haven, near New York, to Vienna.

The result, however, amply repays his efforts, for Steinert's collection is
a most prominent ornament of the exhibition. His department has become
for a long time the resort of earnest investigators and a favorite studying
place for lovers of music, whom Mr. Steinert regales with great liberality by
a pleasing exhibition of these instruments and beneficial lessons of their
interesting construction.

The collection is closely related to its owner. One cannot picture
Steinert, the lover and excellent judge of old instruments without his old
pianos, with which he lives continuously in spirit and in practice; but the
collection itself finds in Steinert not alone its well-versed guardian and
custodian but also its necessary complement, because he knows unlike any
other to bring forth the tone from the old clavichords and harpsichords and
he resuscitates with wonderful skill, deeply entering the art of the former
generation, a long lost technique of playing.

Whoever hears how Steinert, with delicacy and artistic knowledge,
colors the clavier tone of the oldest instruments and wonderfully modulates
the same, falls in love immediately with the old plain looking boxes that
represent the clavichord, and loses himself in an enticing romance of sound
as far as the sense for sound, which is far distant from the noise of tone of
our times, can be awakened in him.

The tradition of the good old city musician (stadt musikant) still lives
in Steinert. As a son of a peasant, he enjoyed in his earliest youth in a small
city in Bavaria the popular instruction of a well meaning city musician in the
playing of all possible instruments; for that reason none of them seem strange
to him to-day and he is most at home on those which are least known to-day.
He who is now the representative of the famous piano factory of Steinway
studied and practiced before he emigrated as a boy on a very old clavichord,
the patriarch of our pianos.

Numbers I to 5 of the Steinert collection exhibit old clavichords, square
cornered bodies without legs. The levers of the keys rest in their middle
part on a pin and strike at the rear end with a metal tongue against the metal
strings, which are strung above the same. Their mechanism is the most
simple imaginable. The metal tongue is called a tangent, because it touches
the string, and for that reason the clavichord is also called the tangent piano.
Four clavichords of the collection are gebunden or fretted, because three or
four consecutive tones are produced on one string, so that the instrument
contains many more keys than strings. No. 5 is free from this condition.
In it aparticular string ("bundfrei " or unfretted) belongs to each key. It is
said that the organist, Daniel Faber, invented the latter instrument in 1725.
Immediately, then, the necessity arose to deaden the shorter part of the
strings of the clavichord. This was done at that time, according to
Sebastian Vivdung, by inserting small pieces of woolen cloth between the
strings. "This frees the strings from rattling and from the coarse, un-
pleasant reverberations, so that they do not continue to resound." The
tone of the clavichord is thin, but not without charm. Therefore Dr. O.
Fleischer says with full right in his instructive catalogue of the Berlin
royal collection of instruments: "If any one lends his ear after isolating
the same from the massive sound of modern musical instruments to
this naive sound, he will very soon find it very charming. It is most
decidedly adapted to attract the attention of the listner to the utmost.
While the full tones of our hammer pianos especially attract the senses, one
can justly describe the tone of the clavichord as purely spiritual. This
characteristic is not only lovely, but also strictly true. This spiritual con-

dition of the clavichord manifests itself in its peculiar adaptation to poly-
phonic playing. Chords sound like glass, but the intermixture of
independent harmony is of unspeakable charm. It is an instrument that
urges improvisation, not, however, to empty humming of sounds, but to the
deep combinations of living, trembling voices. Mr. Steinert has again
acquired the old technic of playing the clavichord, he shows in his tuneful
improvisations that the player of the clavichord like the violionist has full
power over the lightly stretched strings, that in each string there lives and
trembles a susceptible soul, which can proclaim mourning and joy, or in the
words of Hans Hayden of Nuremberg, "And although the text cannot be
expressed by words the player can make known his feelings, whether sad or
joyful thoughts animate him, by the courageous or timid manner with which
he attacks the clavier." Mr. Steinert plays on the clavichord, ex
improviso, with the deepest expression to the elevation of the senses of the
listener, recitatives, as can be found in the chromatic phantasy of Bach.
The tone of the instrument is in the hands of Master Steinert of astonish-
ingly long duration. We learn to understand that the clavichord, which
permits singing and shading, was indeed the favorite instrument of Johann
Sebastian Bach.

Moreover, Philipp Emanuel Bach admonishes that if any one plays con-
tinuously on the quillgrand he gets accustomed to play in one color, and
the different touch, which only a good clavichord player can produce on a
grand, remains hidden. Mozart yet used a clavichord, and the instrument
in the exhibition in the Mozart department, erroneously termed a traveling
spinet, is in fact a clavichord. Whoever, under the skillful guidance of
Mr. Steinert, examines his collection will tear himself away with difficulty
from his clavichords. Mr. Steinert loves them as a father loves his good
children. He has adopted these foster children when they were in a
neglected condition ; he has newly dressed them and brought them up with
great care. Many a clavichord in the exhibition whose strings are wanting
and whose keys are broken and for which, neither through flattery nor the
rough pressure a tone can be produced, seems to yearn after a foster father
like Papa Steinert.

W r e next advance in this learnedly arranged collection to the spinet (No.
6.) The instrument dates from the beginning of the seventh century and
was built by John Hitchcock in London. The spinet derives its name
either from the supposed inventor, Spinetti, or from spina (a thorn.) On the
end of the key lever you find in it loosely attached a jack (a small wooden
stick,) from whose side protrudes a pointed elastic thorn, the spina. At the

striking of the key the jack jumps up in a straight line and the thorn, usually
cut from the quill of a feather of a raven, plucks the string. The tone of the
spinet is chirping, more powerful and more intensive than that of the
clavichord, but not as pliable. In the spinet the strings lie like as in the
clavichord, obliquely to the direction of the keys, but in a more advanced
phase of progress. In the clavicymbel, also called cembalo, quillgrand and
in Knglish harpsichord, the strings are stretched in the same direction of the
keys. The clavichord has, therefore, the keyboard on the larger end of the
body, while the harpsichord, in the form of modern grands, has its keyboard
on the shorter end. The harpsichord is also provided with a resting frame
and legs, which were for a long time wanting in the clavichord and spinet
and which were placed, when used, on a table. Soon afterwards, in order
to produce different tone coloring in all kinds of changes, various stops were
added to the harpsichord and clavicymbel, whose description would lengthen
this article too much and which can be read in the catalogue of Dr. Fleischer,
herein before mentioned. The collection of Steinert includes a harpsichord,
newly purchased and not yet repaired, by Couchet of Antwerp in 1679 and
also in Xo. 7 a harpsichord by Jacobus and Abraham Kirkmann, 1776,
London, with three stops. Kirkmann, whose real name was Kirchman, was a
German, who emigrated to London, and who there founded a harpsichord
factory. The harpsichord No. 8, also built by Jakob Kirkmann in 1755, has
leather tangents instead of quills and consequently has a softer tone. Here
it may be remarked that England produced harpsichords, but no clavichords,
which were indigenous to Germany and Italy.

One generally calls the tone of the harpsichord, because the thorn does
not strike but merely plucks the string, soulless, but whenever Master
.Steinert through attentive listeners is inspired to the true mood, he knows
how to play the harpsichord with such expression that we obtain a clear
insight of the skill of the old masters.

Xo. 9 of this instructive collection brings us to a great progress, to
the Hammerclavier (pianoforte). The Italian Christofori is called the
inventor of the modern hammerclavier. The new system is discovered,
however, in the beginning of the last century almost simultaneously in
different places. Models of the hammer mechanism of Christofori can be seen
in the English division of the exhibition. They are already astonishingly
perfect and complicated. The celebrated Gottfried Silbermann takes a great
share in the improvement and introduction of the hammer mechanism; in
fact, every German piano maker, even talented school teachers and organists,
have added something to its improvement from their own ingenuity, and, the

old forms for this reason, as shown by Steinert's collection, are so diversified
and individual that their continuous development cannot be easily followed
in one direction only. The hammer piano No. 9, made by John Frederick
Julius Schneider in Nuremberg, has bare wooden hammers, not covered with
leather, without means of release; that is, the hammers, after striking, re-
turn to their respective places by means of their elasticity, and not by means
of any mechanical contrivance. This instrument has five octaves and still
adheres to the clavichord form. A strip of leather can be carried as a sort
of sordine of the tone by a. register under the strings. Especially
noteworthy are the independent dampers which are connected with every
single hammer. The hammer piano No. 10 removes itself in its form
from the clavichord character, only the tuning place on the right hand side
recalls the clavichord, the mounting of the strings and the method of the
striking of the hammers carry back the form of the spinet. Thus as the
features of our predecessors are depicted in the faces of their grandchildren,
old forms recur always in different instances in new instruments. The
hammer piano No. II points to John Chris. Jeckel (Worms, 1783). The
frame resembles the clavichord, but in distinction to No. 9, in which we find
a separate damper for each hammer, the damping here is done by a strip of
cloth that is extended over all the strings. In the mechanism of the hammers
the maker manifests himself as the predecessor of the so-called Vienna
mechanism of Stein, who makes the hammer strike the string in front in the
direction of the keys. The English mechanism lifts the hammer in front, so
that it hits the string in the rear in an opposite direction from the keys.
The hammer piano, No. 12, by John Broadwood, about 1771, exhibits the
latter system. The hammer is raised in front and strikes in the rear.
Christofori has used this system for the grand piano. Silbermann adopted
the same. Zumpe, a German, however used it for table-form pianos and in-
troduced the system in England, where it became prominent for the English
school. This piano is tuned on the right hand side, like the clavichord.
Also No. 13, with Zumpe's mechanism, without any release to the hammer
(see above) and three registers, is tuned like the clavichord and has a
clavichord frame. The instrument No. 12 previously mentioned, because of
English origin, shows the spinet frame, especially since only spinets and
harpsichords were made in England. Very remarkable is No. 14, an up-
right hammer piano, dating from the midst of the last century, in respect to
the mounting of the strings. The strings, to the astonishment of mechanics,
are not strung vertically, as one might expect from its upright form, but
horizontally. The hammer has means of release, that is, it has scarcely

touched the string when by means of a certain mechanism it is liberated, so
that it can return to its resting place.

No. 15 shows John Schantx, as exponent of the Vienna hammer
mechanism. No. 16 again leads us to England. The hammer rests inde-
pendent of the keys over them on a separate strip of wood. The piano by
C'ulliford, Rolfe and Harrow has mechanism to drop the hammer after
striking. Short mention is made of No. 1 7 from the year 1825, and No. 18,
an English piano. No. 19, made by Babcock, is distinguished for its elastic,
beautiful tone; also No. 20, coming from New York. No. 21, from
Baltimore, has a fagotte, forte and celeste register, also a pedal for Turkish
music. Conspicuous by reason of its soft, noble silvery tone is the grand
piano No. 22 with black lower keys of five octaves. The heads of the
hammers in it are not made out of wood, but are formed by a pasteboard
ring, which produces this wonderful softness of tone. The collection of
Mr. Steinert's embraces in No. 24 a very interesting concert grand marked
"Nannette Streicher nee Stein." This instrument gives rise to many
reminiscences. We remember the jolly visit of Mozart at the house of the
celebrated Andreas Stein in Augsburg, the enthusiastic report of Mozart of
the Stein pianos and the mischievous, comical criticism which tore to pieces
the piano playing of Nannette Stein, then eight years old. Thus his
criticism of October 24, 1777, begins: "Whoever hears and sees her play
without laughing must be a stone (stein) like her father." Later he adds,
"she may improve," and in fact she became a lady of high cultivation, a
splendid artist and a thorough judge of the art of piano making. After the
death of her father she herself assumed the management of his factory, and
after her marriage with Streicher, the friend of the youth of Schiller, she
directed in Vienna the newly erected piano factory without neglecting the
duties of a good housewife and mother. It is also known that this
talented woman proved herself a faithful supporter and friend of Beet-
hoven at a time when he in most reduced circumstances did not possess
one decent coat, but not even a whole shirt, and when friend Schindler
found occasion to depict Beethoven's condition in its true state, Mrs.
Streicher (this happened in the summer of 1813) repaired Beethoven's
clothes, brought order into his household, bought the most necessary
articles, exhorted him to be saving, and, most wonderful to relate,
Beethoven obeyed in everything.

Iu No. 25 we admire a rarity, an upright Stein grand, which bears,
being built in 1779, the celebrated name Stein. With a glance towards a
modern curiosity, a streich (bow) piano, which imitates the tone of bowed
instruments, we bid adieu to the instructive collection of Mr. Steinert.

This collection delights us as the achievement of an unselfish desire dedicated
to art and the knowledge of art, as the result of a zeal of collection directed
by perfect knowledge of art during a period of thirty years. It furnishes in-
struction through the mouth of its communicative experienced owner and
through its arrangement, such as we cannot gain by means of the thickest
books. It furnishes enjoyment through Master Steinert's beautiful im-
provisations, which he knows so well to adapt to the times and the style of
the instruments of those days. Mr. Steinert has exhibited, at great expense
to himself, his collection to a number of American universities ; he has also
brought his valuable instruments, which he himself has skillfully repaired,
and which he keeps in first-class condition, to Vienna. He finds his reward
for his labors in the fields of art, in the great interest in the recognition of
experienced, learned, knowledge-seeking visitors.

ARTICLE

FROM THE

"AUSTRIAN NEWS OF MUSIC AND DRAMA.'

(MUSIC-ZEITUNG,) VIENNA.

THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

OF THE

PIANO-FORTE.

FROM THE " AUSTRIAN NEWS OF Music AND DRAMA," VIENNA, AUGUST, 1892.

"If a professional musician strolls through the magnificent exhibition
he beholds with astonishment the great collection of musical instruments
that have been sent here from the art museums of all countries. It almost
appears like as if a pilgrimage of instruments had taken place to the Mekka,
to this temple of art, under the majestic canopy of the rotunda pointing
heavenward. Here, for the first time in the history of music, we find united
in peaceful harmony the most hidden treasures that for centuries rested in
deep solitude instruments of all nations that all at once as by the touch
of the magician's wand have been transported to a new world. All these
wonderful treasures were resting in quiet concealment in museums and cells
of monasteries, their faces were covered with the black veil of silent stillness
of the grave, although an ideal soul life slumbered in them. Where are the
sweet sounds their maker in days gone by could breathe in them; what has
become of the mechanism that formerly lent life to the work ?

The keys that once served the player to entice living tones from the life-
less instrument have grown yellow, and the strings once full of melody are
eaten away by modern rust.

Suddenly there appeared like a superterrestrial fairy the art-loving
Princess Pauline von Metternich, and her magic call awoke them all from
far and near to one great union, to a magnificent ascension. And thus we
find now here in this exhibition the art historical collections of instruments
of the imperial House of Hapsburg, of the princely family Esterhazy, known
for its devotion to art ; also those of many archdukes and notabilities of the
Austro-Hungarian empire; also the wonderful collection of the house of
Rothschild, the precious treasures of art of the German empire, the private
collections of the Queen of England and the Prince of Wales, etc., and the

124

extensive collection from Great Britian. Also France, Russia, Spain, etc.,
are represented here. Also the treasures of the musical and singing societies
of Vienna, especially valuable in a historical sense, amongst them the
original instruments of composers and musicians such as Bach, Handel,
Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann,
and such composers as Donizetti, Meyerbeer and others. Worthy of con-
sideration are the private collections of the active Mr. De Witt from Leipsic.
Full of wonder we stroll from one collection to the other and our eye feasts on
the instruments that are beautifully decorated with pictures, whose outer
appearance has been enhanced by the painter's skillful hand, until we
suddenly arrive at a point which we may consider as the terminus of our
journey. What does this place contain? Is it ancient Rome, or Greek
Athens, which as the celebrated homes of ancient art sent us treasures?
Is it the repository of a monarch or the collection of a European museum ?
No, it is none of these: it is the contribution of a new country; it is young
America that sends us treasures, namely the property of the art patron,
M. Steinert from New Haven.

When the call of the Princess Pauline von Metternich was first issued
to all people of the earth to send their exhibits to the International exhi-
bition of music and drama it was also heard in America. Mr. Director
Heinrich Conried in New York, whose labors in America in behalf of the
German dramatic art are well known, was nominated as a commissioner and
displayed great zeal in this matter, and he succeeded in obtaining Mr. M.
Steinert's consent to send a part of his celebrated collection of old-keyed
instruments from there to Vienna.

The collection of M. Steinert contains in its present completeness 100
exhibits of all kinds of keyed instruments, dating from the I3th century to
the year 1825. Only the paedagogical part of the collection is now at Vienna,
and with it is its owner, Mr. M. Steinert, who understands how to explain
these old constructions scientifically, and also knows how to play on them in
masterly style, which latter fact is of the utmost importance in the field of
former Polyphony and the works of Bach for the clavier, as they were
written, as every one knows, exclusively for the clavichord.

(Here follows a description of the instruments of Mr. Steinert's col-
lection with illustrations which is not published for want of space.)

Now it might be of interest to our honored readers to find a few bio-
graphical sketches of Morris Steinert in the following:

Morris Steinert, born March gth, 1831, at Scheinfeld, near Wiirzburg,
in Bavaria, left his home as a. young man of 23 years, and emigrated to

I2 5

America, where he officiated for some time as a violoncellist in the New
York opera and also in public concerts. Afterwards he went to the Southern
States as organist and piano teacher and married there; and at the breaking
out of the war between the North and South, he gave up his position in
order to officiate again as a musician in New York.

This work as a musician, however, was detrimental to his bodily health
and following the advice of his physician, he assumed a new occupation,
which consisted in this; that Mr. Steinert accepted the agency of the cele-
brated piano factory of Steinway & Sons of New York and other great firms
for the New England and Western States. His energetic zeal was quickly
crowned with great success, so that he was soon enabled to open branch
stores in seven different cities in America, for each one of his seven grown
up sons, under the firm name of the M. Steinert & Sons Company.

This piano business is at present one of the greatest and most celebrated
in the world.

During his leisure hours the founder of this world reputed firm occupies
himself with his beloved art; and as his state of health does not permit
him the continuous practice of music, he has given his attention more
particularly to the collection of old musical instruments and it can be well
said of him, that at present, he possesses the largest collection of old-keyed
instruments. Mr. Steinert sacrificed much time and labor and thus, through
many journeys through America and Europe, he gained possession of all
these precious treasures. But he was not satisfied like the average collectors
and museums to obtain these old broken instruments merely for inspection.
No! His aim was higher, more ideal. He inspired new life into these
old instruments, by means of thorough repairs, and he then carefully pro-
ceeded to study gradually their character of tone, in order to be able to play
them in the spirit of former times, in which effort he was materially assisted
by his wonderful talent of improvisation, so that at present he stands un-
surpassed in this highly interesting field. As has been stated before, Mr.
Steinert is now a guest within our walls, as a disinterested interpreter of
an epoch of art, which was almost believed to be lost. Musicians and friends
of art can surely expect an artistic treat while inspecting the incomparable

collection of Mr. M. Steinert.

G. KUEHLK.
Vienna, July, 1892.

ARTICLE, "WIENER ABENDBLATTV

HE following article, translated from the German, was
published in the Wiener Abendblatt, October 21, 1892,
some weeks after Mr. Steinert had left Vienna. It depicts
the fruits of Mr. Steinert's labors while at the art exposition.

FROM THE ROTUNDA.

The deserted Prater grounds, now rest in the humid dew of the fall
morning. Everything appears in fast changing contours, the fields and
leaves in the variegated and elegiac colors of withering and decay. The
gigantic building of the Rotunda becomes visible through the surrounding
fog in shadowy outlines. From the interior of the Rotunda there sounds
forth a noise hollow and weird. From time to time it increases to loud
hammering and din, until suddenly there can be heard a terrible crash like
that of falling walls. After that comes again the noise of drilling, that
terrifying music of the work of destruction which is now being carried on in
the building of the exhibition. Hut to view this destruction is still more
touching. Over night in a few hours there have been completely de-
stroyed all these wonderful creations of reconstruction and system which
learned study and science in conjunction with the architect of the exhibition
formed from thousands of single subjects in true historic sense and thought,
also all these corners, recesses and fronts which represented the knowledge
of art of former centuries ; in fact, which reproduced the history of art of
entire celebrated epochs. It is indeed a field of battle covered with ruins,
but at the same time a field of victory. Xo matter how high may be con-
jectured the idealistic ends and purposes of this exhibition, of this united
contest and strife, they were obtained even more gloriously; the vast num-
bers of scientific and artistic treasures, which have been collected here have
been made subservient in a still higher degree to a mass of fruitful effects
and will be a source of generating activity in these fields hereafter. This
applies as well to the whole exhibition as to its individual branches. Es-
pecially in the part relating to instrumental music and the exhibition of
musical instruments there was offered such a richness of objects and forms,
as probably have never been beheld before in such abundance, it may be
safely stated that such a large number will not be again brought together in
the near future

130

For example, what power of attraction did the now well known special
exhibition of old-keyed instruments for which the celebrated collector and
learned musician, Morris Steinert, from New Haven, had united about 40
of his most costly and rare objects exert on the untold thousands of visitors?
In contrast to the disposition and arrangement of instruments in mostly all
other sections in which other causes rather than system, historic under-
standing of genetic development determined their disposition, the collection
of Mr. Steinert exhibited in the limited field of keyed instruments in the
most instructive manner their development from the clavichord to the modern
gigantic grand piano. It adds to Mr. Steinert's merit that he himself ar-
ranged his collection and his worth may be still higher appreciated when it
is considered that his collection is that of a private individual, and that he,
without receiving any subsidy, at a great sacrifice responded to the call
which was sent to him from Vienna. His collection possesses a most
prominent advantage, namely, that all his instruments have been recon-
structed and have been put in a playable condition by scientific hands in the
spirit and intent of their old builders. Furthermore in his whole collection
every single instrument has been discovered and so to speak has been ex-
humed by its possessor. Mr. Steinert seems to possess in this field a
peculiar scent, even in Vienna, where he hardly went beyond the exhibition
grounds, he succeeded in discovering in some old attics several valuable old
harpsichords, which naturally now are his property. In his special exhi-
bition, however, he did not merely follow the inclinations of an antiquarian.
His aims were vastly deeper or to speak more correctly extended to a much
higher sphere.

The method of playing on these old-keyed instruments belongs to an
earlier period of time. It corresponds especially with the earliest polyphony
of playing and reaches its climax, there were Bach's playing attained its
first successes. The study of the compositions of Johann Seb. Bach, also
of those of the Italian school of Domenica Scarlatti, the fugues of Handel
and Ph. Em. Bach, the manners even of Haydn, Mozart and of Beethoven
require instruments that produce their tone by essentially different methods
than those possessed by the pianos of later periods of a Chopin, Mendels-
sohn, Thalberg and Liszt.

The romantic of piano playing with all its brilliant variations and the
powerful effects of these masters succeeded apparently for a time to push to
the background the school of Johann Seb. Bach and his contemporaries.
Kven if Johann Seb. Bach has been resuscitated during the last fifty years
and the works of this great master spirit have gradually resumed prominence,
there has not been placed a limit to the thorough study of this divine musi-

cal world of idea, this wonderful art of counterpoint. Mr. Stcinert has
made the study of liach his chief task. He was not contented to produce
Bach by means of the hammers of the modern piano, whose mechanism and
method of playing are intrinsically just as foreign to the method of playing
the compositions of Bach as Johann Seb. Bach himself was totally averse to
the hammer clavier. With all the fulness of tone of the modern grand it
lacks those tender, soft, clinging tone qualities of the clavichord, the instru-
ment for which he exclusively created his mighty works. Therefore .Mr.
Steinert undertook the task to play Bach's works upon the clavichord, and
it was his mission in Vienna during the exhibition chiefly to represent the
clavichord as a historical and classical instrument par excellence to the dis-
tinguished musical circles and to the numerous visitors of a musical
exhibition.

It can be safely said that Mr. Steinert has remodernized the clavichord,
not, however, in the sense that it stands in its tone capacity of the ijth and
18 century on a complete level with our modern splendid instruments. He-
only struggled to regain for the clavichord its just historical rights in this
particular that he maintained the art-historical principle, that the com-
positions of the past, in order to be perfectly understood must lie rendered
on the instrument belonging to their respective period. Through this only
can the player produce hidden effects, which in spite of all modern art of
interpretation are simply impossible on modern instruments, if any one has
not previously conceived its historical sound. Tn this respect the study of
old instruments for the rendition of music of those days on our modern
pianos assumes the same significance as etymology in the stndv of our

I O J Z3 ~ *

mother tongue. The efforts of Mr. Steinert to reintroduce the study and
the playing of the clavichord will doubtless bear manifold fruits. Prominent
musicians and patrons of music have become enthusiastic adherents of this
modest and at the same time soulful sounding instrument whose tone color
permits such a rich shading. The efforts of Mr. Steinert belong to those
rare impulses of the land of the dollar that come to us to serve only artistic
interests in opposition to all material strife.

A LOST ART.

NEW HAVEN EVENING REGISTER, November ijth, 1892.

A LOST ART IN EUROPE.

V-t^- STE INERT, of this city, arrived home last evening
'' from Europe. Mr. Steinert has been at the great
musical exhibition at Vienna with his collection of
rare old instruments, of which New Haveners have already
heard. The collection aroused much interest among the musical
authorities of Europe, and Mr. Steinert has returned home
feeling more than rewarded for the great amount of time and
money that he has spent upon his collection. The story of his
work and success at the exhibition was told by Mr. Steinert this
morning as follows:

" For five years I have been investigating and studying the art of playing
the compositions of Sebastian Bach. At the time when Bach wrote, which
was- at the beginning of the i8th century, such an instrument as the piano-
forte was not known. The pianoforte was invented in 1711 in Italy, but
the invention was also made in 1716 in Germany and France. The various
inventors in France and Germany were not aware of the fact that a piano-
forte had been invented in Italy. The instruments were hardly accepted as
a success by such composers as Bach and Scarlatti. The instruments used
by these composers were the clavichord and harpsichord. After the death
of Bach his compositions were more or less forgotten, and it was Mendels-
sohn who, about 50 years ago, brought Bach to notice again. The grandeur
of the compositions of Bach were soon acknowledged by the musical profes-
sion all over the world, and societies were formed with the aim of collecting
and publishing the compositions of Bach. They were, however, played
upon the modern pianoforte as the old instruments were lost sight of.

i 3 6

I have been engaged in collecting in Europe and also in this country
the instruments used during Bach's period. I was successful, and
although the instruments were found in a deplorable state, being with-
out strings and their resonant parts being almost destroyed, I went to
work to repair them and put them into condition again. Then I went
to work to study the manner of playing them. In this way the com-
positions of Bach were found to be of a nature entirely different from
that when produced on the modern pianoforte. In order to accpuaint the
modern musical profession with the knowledge thus gained, I exhibited
these instruments at different colleges and institutions of learning, and
musical schools throughout the country, showing them at Yale, Harvard,
Brown, Vassar and other institutions, and also in various theaters in the
large cities of the east.

My work was, however, known in Europe, and when the great musical
exhibition was opened in Vienna, I received a personal letter from the
Princess Pauline von Metternich, the patroness of the exhibition, to take
part in the exhibition and to bring part of my collection, that was at that time
on loan at the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. As my interest was
centered in playing the Bach compositions in the very manner practised
by Bach himself, I went there to show the result of my work. In this
I was very successful, although I was the only one there who could per-
form that peculiar style upon these peculiar instruments, and this art,
being a lost art even in liurope, created a sensation among the scholars
representing the musical art of Europe, such as Dr. Hans von Richter,
Rubinstein, Sir George Grove of London, the royal family of Austria, the
two brothers of the emperor taking special interest in my work. The
Princess von Metternich spent an hour and a half listening to my playing.
Prince Esterhazy and other nobilities of the German empire and other
countries also honored me.

On invitation I delivered a lecture before the faculty of the Vienna con-
servatory of music, which is considered the highest musical school in the
world to-day.

The fruit of my labors is shown by the fact that in that institution, for
the first time in over a century, the clavichord and harpsichord are to be
played, and the method of playing these instruments taught to the students.
Other musical institutions in Europe, such as in Berlin, Leipsic, London,
Paris, St. Petersburgh and Moscow, have also begun to interest themselves
in this old art. Thus a renaissance of the Bach school of playing the clavier
has been begun."

137

Mr. Steinert has been honored by all those who heard him play,
and has received the most flattering letters from the nobility and musical
authoirties of Europe. Many musical journals and publications are now
investigating Mr. Steinert's theories of the lost art of the Bach school
and are agitating the subject, and America, not to be behind, recently
sent to Vienna a commissioner of the World's fair to ask Mr. Steinert
to send his collection to Chicago. The secretary of the department of
liberal arts of the exhibition is now on his way east, and will arrive here
in a few days to make arrangements for the exhibit of Mr. Steinert's
collection.

HISTORY OF THE VIOLIN.

THE HISTORY OF THE VIOLIN

AND

OTHER STRINGED INSTRUMENTS.

HE crwth, retaining the shape of the small Roman lyre ;
forms an obvious link between the instruments of
antiquity and modern times. The time of the use of the
bow in connection with musical instruments, is unknown. Before
the 1 3th century there existed various modifications of stringed
instruments which were either plucked with the fingers or set in
vibration by means of the bow and were called ''fiddle, crwth,
Rotte-Geige (Gigue Jig) and Rebec." In the beginning of the
1 3th century in connection with the advent of the Troubadours and
their remarkable influence on literature and music a new instru-
ment appeared in the south of Europe. It was called " Viole" or
"Vielle" and also Guitar fiddle. The Guitar fiddle was used to
accompany the voice, it was larger than its predecessors, its in-
creased size being due to the addition of a waist whereby the bow
was enabled to reach the strings. In fact it was a combination
of the guitar, hurdy-gurdy and viole in one; being either plucked
with the fingers, the guitar; played with the bow, viole; or set in
motion by a wheel, the hurdy-gurdy. The viole was also em-
ployed to accompany the voice and through the development of
choral singing violes of different pitches and sizes were introduced.
In the 1 5th century instruments were made to correspond in
size to the pitch of the human voice. In order to give these

142

instruments greater strength to resist the increased tension of the
strings corner blocks were used. This innovation was contemporary
with the great development of polyphonic choral music in Ger-
many and the Netherlands during the i5th century and by the
beginning of the i6th century the treble or discant viole, the
tenor, the bass viol and double bass or violone were well estab-
lished in both these countries and north Italy. The violin model,
which differs from the viole in having shallower sides, with an
arched instead of a flat back and square shoulders and in being
constructed in all its parts of curved or arched pieces of wood glued
together in a state of tension on the blocks, first appeared in Italy
during the middle of the i6th century. This instrument com-
pletely revolutionized the 'art of fiddle making, driving out of use
first the Discant Viol, then the Tenor and last of all the Bass
Viol. The Double Bass, which is a Viol pure and simple, alone
has resisted the inroads of the Violin model and has only been
changed in relation to the sound holes. The substitution of the
violin for the viol, except as hereinbefore mentioned, is due to its
louder tone and conforms with the history of musical instruments,
which may be stated in the words "the survival of the loudest."
As the vibrations of the viols were insufficient to meet the
growing demand for power, in order to increase their power they
were constructed with double strings tuned in fifths and octaves
and also with sympathetic metal strings, and thus constituting the
family of the Viola d'Amore and Barytone. The viol family
had four, five and sometimes six strings, which were tuned by
fourths, a single major third being interpolated in the five and six
stringed instruments in order to preserve the same tonality in the
upper notes, being the same system of stringing as practised on
the lute. This system of tuning has been proved to have been in
vogue as early as 1542 by a treatise published that year'in Venice,
and agreed with the parts of contemporary vocal music, especially
as the music written for viols is always within the compass of the
human voice. There are compositions dating back to 1539 which

'43

may be either sung or played on the viol. For this reason also
very little is heard at that time about the double bass. This
instrument merely served as a sub-bass in octaves to the voice or
bass viol. This trio of viols, tuned as prescribed by the " Regola
Rubertina" of 1542, remained unaltered in use for a century and
a half as the basis of chamber music.

The viols with sympathetic metal strings received the name
d'Amore, not in order to express their special aptitute for expres-
sing amorous accents, but on account of the sympathetic vibrations
of the open metal strings stretched over the belly in unison with
those on the finger-board. They were in use in Italy and Ger-
many in the iyth and i8th centuries. These instruments are
invariably made with flaming sword sound holes, and often have
a rose under the finger-board. The sympathetic strings of fine
brass or steel wire are attached by loops at the bottom block
above the tail pin, are then carried through small holes drilled in
the lower part of the bridge under the finger-board, which is
hollowed for that purpose over an ivory nut immediately below
the upper nut into the peg. The sympathetic apparatus was of
two species, the diatonic consisting of 6 or 7 strings, and the
chromatic consisting of 12 or more strings. In the former the
strings were tuned to the diatonic scale, the lowest note being
generally D,the intervals being adapted to flattening or sharpening
to the key of the piece being performed. This, however, was not
necessary for the chromatic species, .there being twelve strings,
one for each semitone in the scale and thus furnishing a sympa-
thetic augmentation to every note played. In the time of Bach
and Vivaldi it was tuned by fourths and a third like the tenor viol.
In imitation of the Viola de Gamba a seventh string was added in
the beginning of the last century, and ultimately the so-called
" Harp way " tuning of the Lute and Viola de Gamba was gener-
ally adopted. The latter tuning is used in the well-known obligate
part in Meyerbeer's "Huguenots." The Viola d'Amore is a singularly
beautiful instrument, but the inherent d faculties of execution are

144

not easily overcome, and as every forte note produces a perfect
shower of concords and harmonics, all notes which will not bear
a major third must be very lightly touched. The A^iola de Gamba
with sympathetic strings was first called the Viola Bastarda, but
after undergoing many mechanical improvements in its sympa-
thetic apparatus, it became the well-known Barytone, the favorite
instrument of the musical epicures of the last century. Leopold
Mo/art, father of the great Mozart, considered it one of the love-
liest of instruments. Haydn made it his favorite instrument and
composed not less than 175 pieces for it.

It may be well to repeat here that the Viol family consists of
the following instruments: the Treble or discant, Tenor Viola de
Braccio, Bass called the Viola de Gamba, and Double Bass called
the Violone. The viola has a flat back sloping off at the top, and
is strengthened internally by cross bars and a broad centre piece
on which the sound post rests. The shoulders curve upwards,
joining the neck at a tangent instead of at right angles as in the
violin. The neck is broad and thin and the number of strings five,
six or even seven. The peg is usually surmounted by a curved
head. The sound holes are usually of the C pattern. Unlike the
Violin it was tuned by fourths and thirds. Its tone is rather pene-
trating than powerful.

The Viola de Gamba, or Knee Violin, as distinguished from the
Viola de Braccio, to be played on the arm, is held between the
knees, is the predecessor of the violoncello. It is about the same
si/e as the latter, but has a flat back like the double bass. The
openings in the belly are not S shaped, but are variously cut,
generally representing a thin crescent. Originally the finger-board
was provided with frets, but this was afterwards discontinued.
The Viola de Gamba was for a long time the most popular of all
bowed instruments in Holland and Germany, and especially in
England. Shakespeare, in his "Twelfth Night," mentions as a
special accomplishment of Sir Andrew Aguecheck "he plays o'
the viol de gamboys." In the pictures of Gerard Dow Terburg

J 45

and other great Dutch masters of the iyth century, we repeatedly
behold richly dressed ladies and gentlemen playing the Gamba.
In fact at one time there were only few noblemen's or gentlemen's
houses without a "chest" containing a set of four or more gambas
of different sizes, of rich make, carved and inlaid with ivory or
tortoise shell. This popularity of the Gamba extended to the
middle of the i8th century, when the Violoncello gradually began
to supersede it. The Gamba was played very much like the
'Cello. Sebastian Bach was the last great composer who wrote
for the Gamba, and he seems to have had a special predilection
for it. There are still extant three of his sonatas for Clavier and
Gamba, and a number of obligate accompaniments for airs in his
cantatas and the Passion music. He also composed a Concerto
grosso for two viols de Braccio, two viols de Gamba, Violoncello.
Violone and Harpsichord, and on other occasions he used that
instrument for attaining special orchestral effects. In the beauti-
ful introduction to the cantata " Gottes Zeit" we find three differ-
ent gamba parts combined with violins and flute, which must
have produced a very peculiar effect. In vain, however, we look
for the gamba in Handel's scores. C. F. Abel, (who died in
1787) a pupil of Bach, and Lidi, an Englishman, (who died in
1789) were the last well-known virtuosi on the Gamba.

The Viola de Spalla, or shoulder Viol, was a small bass, which
could be fastened with a ribbon round the neck, and after playing
could be thrown back upon the shoulder. This instrument was
probably a 'cello used by wandering musicians and was carried by
them by means of a leather strap over the shoulder. The English
Violet resembled in construction and tone the Viola d'Amore.

The Pochette, or Pocket Violin, was carried by dancing masters
in their pockets, hence its French name; it was also termed the
"Kit" and was usually 16 inches long. The Viola Pomposa, a
small violoncello with an additional treble string, was invented
by Sebastian Bach and is probably identical with the " Violoncello
piccolo" of his scores. The sixth of his solos for the violoncello

146

was written for this instrument. This family of viols has become
extinct at the present time, and their place has been usurped by
our favorite string quartett, the violin, the viola, the violoncello
and the contrabass. The violin, whose difference of construction
from the viol family has been hereinbefore described, first
appeared in Italy in the middle of the i6th century. It com-
pletely revolutionized the art of fiddle making, first causing the
disappearance of the Discant Viol, then the Tenore, and last of all
the Bass Viol. The Double Bass alone survives. The substitu-
tion of the violin for the viol is due, as formerly stated, to its
louder tone. The violin model was finally adopted for the tenor
and bass during the last century. Since Stradivari, (1680-1730)
the models for bowed instruments have scarcely changed at all to
the present date.

The violin is now about 300 years in existence. It is the only
musical instrument that has remained unchanged throughout the
modern musical history. The lute, the universal companion of
bowed instruments up to a century and a half ago, has disappeared
as completely as the spinet and harpsichord. Wind instruments
have been completely revolutionized, but the violin has remained
the same for three hundred years, and will probably remain so
while music exists. Numberless attempts have been made to
improve it, but they all have been abandoned. Almost every
structural alteration that could be thought of has been tried at
some time and dismissed. The whole design of the fiddle has
been gradually settled in strict accordance with the requirements
of tone and execution. The development of this instrument at
once so simple and complex can be easily traced. Its primitive
forms can be beheld in early monuments. Old stringed instru-
ments have gradually died hard, and very primitive .ones have
maintained their place alongside of improved ones founded on
their principle. Thus the Marine Trumpet, one of the oldest
bowed instruments, and representing the earliest development of
the monochord, continued in use for a long time concurrently

with more advanced instruments, and even to-day is not quite
obsolete.

The Guitar shaped violin, which is a direct descendant of the
Fiddle of the Troubadours, has been made and used in all ages.
Likewise, the Rebec for a long time continued in use side by side
with the violin. The Viola de Gamba has never been completely
forced out of existence by the Violoncello. But the most singular
survival of all is the Welsch crwth, which is simply the small lyre
as introduced by the Romans into Celtic Britain, adopted with
some slight modifications for use as a bowed instrument. The
adoption of four strings tuned by fifths for the violin in its three
si/es, marks the emancipation of. bowed instruments from the
domination of the lute. Thereby such impediments to progress
as complicated and various tunings, frets and tablature music
were removed. This change in very many respects facilitated
musical progress. Naturally the diminished number of strings
increased the resonance of the instrument, as with six strings
there is an excessive pressure on the bridge, which checks vibra-
tion and increases the resistance to the bow. By the change the
fingering was simplified, although in the larger instruments it was
rendered more laborious to the player.

It cannot be maintained, however, that music lost nothing by
the abandonment of the viol. The violin offers fewer facilities
for harmonic combinations and suspensions in the form of chords
and arpeggios. Bowed instruments tended more and more to
become merely melodic, like wind instruments. By increasing the
length of the scale, effect was sought to be produced, and the
higher and less agreeable notes, which would have shocked the
ears of our fore-fathers, were more frequently employed. In fact,
it is often supposed that the earlier violinists were not sufficiently
masters of the instrument to command the higher positions.
Nothing can be more absurd. Many compositions for the Viola
de Gamba prove that very complicated music was played on that
instrument across the strings in the higher positions, and the

148

transferring of this method of execution to the violin obviously
rested with individual players and composers. Bach's violin
solos are written for a performer of transcendent genius, although
Bach with unfailing good taste without exception confines the
player to the lower registers of the instrument.

At first no sufficient cause is obvious for the concentration of
fiddle-making at Cremona. It may have started from the reason
that in the i6th century Cremona was a famous musical centre.
The district surrounding it was one of the richest in agriculture in
all Lombardy, and was chiefly under the control of the monasteries
of the city and neighborhood. These wealthy institutions vied
with each other in the splendor of their churches and daily ser-
vices, and thereby furnished constant employment to painters,
composers and instrument makers. The renown of Cremona as a
school of music and painting was equal to that of Bologna, but
its chief rival in fiddle-making was Brescia, where Caspar di Salo,
the two Zanettos, Giovita Rodiani and Maggini made instruments
from about 1580 to 1640. The characteristics of these makers,
who compose the so-called Brescian School, can be found in the
instruments of Andreas Amati, the earliest known violin maker of
Cremona. The expression "the Brescian School" is somewhat
misleading, it would be more correct to term their instruments as
"Early Italian." The reputation of the Cremona A T iolins is mainly
due to the sons of Andreas Amati, namely Antonio and Girolamo
Amati, contemporaries of Maggini. Previous to this time, the
violin had been treated as a work of art and as a tone-producing
instrument, but artistic impulses had produced only superficial
decorations in the shape of painting or inlaying with wood, etc.
The brothers Amati, however, closely obeying the fundamental
law of art manufacture, to wit, that deviation should be founded
on construction, reduced the outlines and surfaces of the instru-
ment to regular and harmonious curves, and by applying a certain
varnish developed and deepened the natural beauty of the
material. But while beautifying the exterior, they did not neglect

149

the mechanical conditions of sonority, which is in reality the soul
of the work. Their wood is of prime quality, and the disposition
of the thicknesses, blocks and linings leaves little room for im-
provement. Their successors, Nicholas Amati, Stradivari and
Joseph Gtiarnieri augmented the tone of the instrument. Nicholas
Amati, the son of Hieronymus, (1596-1684) was the most cele-
brated maker of the family. During his long life he perhaps varied
least from his own standard than any other maker. After his
death his pupil, Antonio Stradivari, raised the Cremona Violin to
its utmost perfection, (1699-1737.) He was succeeded by Albani
Amati, Gagliano Grancino Guadaguini, Guarnieri, Laudolfi, Sera-
fin. The pupils and imitators of Stradivari maintained the repu-
tation of the Italian violins during the first half of the last century;
after 1760, however, a great decline can be perceived in Italian
violin making, although good instruments were made by various
second rate makers of the latter part of the century. The violin
makers of South Germany form a distinct school, Klotz and
Stainer may be named as the most celebrated of them; Munich,
Vienna, Salzburg and Nuremberg have produced many fine violin
makers. In France, the following makers deserve special mention:
Lupot and Vuillaume, Aldric, G. Chanot the elder, Silvestre,
Marrcotel, Minnegand, Henry and Rambaux. In England, the
oldest school contains the names of Urguhart and Pamphilon.
While at the beginning of the century we find in all parts of
Europe distinguished violin makers imitating the old Italian
School, the United States of America cannot point to a single
eminent maker. The reason for this can be found in its state of
musical culture. While the study of the piano attracted universal
attention, orchestral music was still dormant, orchestral instruments
were sadly neglected, and consequently little attention was given
to the study of the violin. Through the concert tours of such
eminent violinists as Sivori, Ole Bull and Vieuxtemps, a great
interest in violin playing was awakened, and although many
instruments of inferior make were thus imported to this country,

soon a demand arose for instruments of sterling merit. By the
advise of Ole Bull, George Gemuender, a skillful violin maker
employed by the celebrated Yuillaume at Paris, came to this
country in 1847. He established himself in business at New York,
and by strictly adhering to the old Italian School he has attained
a national reputation. His instruments not only in form and var-
nish and general workmanship closely resemble the Cremona
violins, but in quality and intonation fairly equal them, and it can
be safely said that to-day George Gemuender cannot be surpassed
by any violin maker in Europe.

CATALOGUE OF

STRINGED INSTRUMENTS

HE viol is the typical representative of a very large,

varied and widelv distributed class of instruments, of
which in modern music the violin is the chief member.
The viol of the fifteenth century was characterized by a flat
back, in having generally crescent-shaped sound-holes in the
belly, and a broad, thin neck, forming a close amalgamation
of the neck with the body. It had from five to seven strings,
tuned in fourths and one-third. The viol was made in several
sizes. The smallest, called the treble or discant viol, passed
over later into the modern violin; the next larger, the tenor,
into the viola da braccio and viola d'amore and the modern
viola; the next, bass, into the viola da gamba and the violon-
cello; and the largest, double-bass, into the violone and the
modern double-bass. The viola da braccio, or arm-viol, is so
called to distinguish it from the bass viol or viola da gamba, the
leg-viola. The viola da braccio had six strings, and was tuned
thus: G, D, A, F, C and G (the second below middle C). The
viola da gamba had properly six strings, tuned thus: I), A, K, C,
G and D. The viola d'amore used in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, having usually seven ordinary gut strings
with from seven to fourteen supplementary strings of metal under
the fingerboard which sound sympathetically. The gut strings
were usually tuned thus: D, A, F sharp, D, A, F sharp, D (next
below middle C). The sympathetic strings, if few, were tuned
diatonically in the scale of 1), or if many, chromatically. The
viola d'amore was an arm-viola. The viola pomposa, a species ot
viola da gamba invented by Joh. Seb. Bach, having five strings

tuned thus: E, A, I), G, C (the second below middle C); some
had also six strings. The viola da spalla was the same as the
viola da gamba. Arpeggione or guitar violoncello, a stringed
instrument played with a bow, which was invented by G. Staufer
of Vienna in 1823. It is of the size of the viola da gamba, the
shape of the body something like that of the guitar. The finger
board has frets, and it has six strings. Schubert's interesting
Sonata in A, for piano and arpeggione, written in 1824, was com-
posed for this instrument.

J 57

No. 48. Discant Viola da Gamba, five strings, ivory inlaid
fingerboard and tailpiece, carved head. (Now strung with only
four strings.)

153

No. 49. A r iola da Gamba, six strings, carved head, made by
Barak Xorman, an English maker, 1688 1740.

;

No. 50. Viola da Gamba, six strings,, carved head, of
German make.

i6o

No. 51. Viola da Gamba, carved head, of Italian make.

No. 52. Viola da Gamba, of Italian make.

162

No. 53. Viola da Gamba.

,6 3

No. 54. A'iola da Spalla, carved head, of Italian make.

164

No. 55. Viola Pomposa, six strings, French make.

No. 56. Violoncello Piccolo, carved head.

i66

No. 57. Arpeggione or Guitar Violoncello, six strings,
Bohemian make.

i6 7

No. 58. Viola d'Amore, carved head, fourteen strings, Ger-
man make.

i68

No. 59

man make.

. 59. Viola d'Amore, carved head, fourteen strings, Ger-
lake.

k 7 iola d'Amore, carved head, fourteen strings,

No. 60. A

Bohemian make

No. 61. Viola da Braccio, German make.

169

No. 62. Viola da Braccio, German make.

iyo

No. 63. Viola, Stainer.

No. 64. Violo, Italian make.

No. 65. Viola, with carved head, Italian make.

No. 66. Viola, Amati.

No. 67. Violoncello, with carved head, old German make.

No. 68. Violoncello, William Forster.

No. 69; Violoncello, Amati.

No. 70. Violoncello, Italian make.

No. 71. Violin, Maggini.

No. 72. Violin, Serafin.

No. 73. Violin, German make.

No. 74. Violin, German make.

No. 75. Violin, Scheinlein.

No. 76. Violin, Mathias Thirr.

No. 77. Violin, German make.

No. 78, 79, 80, 81. String quartet, consisting of two Vio-
lins, Viola and Violoncello, made by George Gemiinder, New
York.

No. 82. Spanish Guitar (Vihuela), with double metal
strings, built during the i6th century.

462

N44M67

1893

c.l

MUSIC

Steinert, Morris

The M. Steinhert collection
of keyed and stringed
instruments

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

c. 3 jv A .1 D j e : i :-j SON

L.'DF-JARY