I recently found this book in my local public library and checked it out, more from curiousity than anything.  What I found is a book that should be required reading for aspiring piano teachers and highly recommended for parents considering either starting their children on the piano or resuming their own studies of the piano that might have fallen by the wayside at some point since their childhood.

Thad Carhart, the author, tells of his experience while living in Paris with an obscure piano shop in his neighborhood.  He had studied piano as a child, with mixed success, and was considering taking it up again.  Carhart was intrigued, and a bit mystified, by this shop, well away from the prominent music conservatories of Paris, and became even more so when he went in and learned that a reference from a previous customer was required for him to deal with them.  Once that was achieved he began a journey of learning and passion that most people cannot imagine.  Luc, the proprietor of the piano shop, began to educate him on the mechanics of what makes a piano good, and what makes a good piano great.  Part of this process, at first, is aimed at helping Carhart find and buy the piano that is right for him.  After that is accomplished, he progresses to learning about piano maintenance and all that that involves.  He also gets several lessons in piano history and a few on the current state of the piano industry, including a visit to the factory in Italy where Fazioli pianos are made and an interview with the company’s founder, Paolo Fazioli.

But along the way, one of the biggest lessons Carhart received was in passion.  Just a few examples here:

• Luc on wealthy people who buy fine pianos as symbols of wealth instead of sources of music:  “‘They might as well park a Mercedes at the end of their grands salons,’ he would rail, ‘for all they know of music!  Today I tuned a Steinway concert grand in an apartment that was at least four hundred square meters and I swear it hasn’t been played in years.  The owner told me it made him feel good to see it in the morning, and there it sits with the cover open as if Horowitz himself were about to enter and play.  He might as well look at his Swiss bank book or his stock certificates!’”
• Luc on the pianos that suffer the fate above: “‘It’s like a great conversationalist who is put in solitary confinement,’ he once told me, and I better understood how for him a piano could suffer a kind of death, even though it was wholly intact and well maintained.”
• Carhart on his ideal piano teacher: “Years later, when I rediscovered the importance of the piano in my life, I imagined some like her, an intuitive teacher who could draw out the music from within rather than drilling it into me. Instead of relying on a chance encounter, though, I saw that I would have to seek out such a person and make clear my needs and expectations if I were to enjoy playing as an adult.”

Although I have never been to Paris, don’t speak French, and have never totally quit playing, I saw several things in this book that were familiar to me.  The last shop I worked for reminds me somewhat of Luc’s.  I have met teachers that remind me of every teacher described in the book.  Most importantly,  although I have lost it several times, I have been able to regain, at some point, my passion for music.

Teachers- Strive to be the teacher described above by the author.  If the student, no matter the age, wants to make music and knows the excitement that can come from a good performance, nothing can stop them, in my opinion.  If, on the other hand, the student is so bound up by the regimentation of technique that even when they do a good performance they will still berate themselves because that “quarter-note D in the fifth measure” was a shade louder than the teacher had said it should be, and another student will be resigned to “I can never be good enough.”

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The 1800′s

• 1826 – England – Robert Wornum, of London, patented the “piccolo” upright action,which was to become the prototype for all modern upright actions.
• 1853 – Saxony – Julius Bluthner began his piano business in Leipzig. Although not well-educated outside the skills of the piano maker, Bluthner was able to make several major developments in stringing and action design. He published a major treatise on piano making and was appointed Privy Counselor of Commerce by the King of Saxony.
• 1853- Germany – Carl Bechstein, after about 10 years spent working for, and studying under, various piano makers in London and Paris, began his piano business in Berlin. One of his earliest clients was Franz Liszt.
• 1889- Japan – Torakusu Yamaha begins Nippon Gakki Siezo Kabushiki Kwaisha (Japanese Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company) with factories at Hamamatsu, Japan. Nippon Gakki later became Yamaha Corporation, one of the world’s largest piano manufacturers today.

Reference:

Dolge, Alfred. Pianos and their Makers: A Comprehensive History of the Development of the Piano. New York: Dover Publications, 1972. (First edition – Covina: Covina Publishing Co., 1911.)

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The Early Years

• 582 B.C. – Monochord – A single-stringed instrument used by Pythagoras for experiments pertaining to the mathematical relations of sounds. A string, probably catgut, was strung over a wooden box. On the box was a strip of paper with subdivisions marked according to the divisions of the scale. By pressing down on the string at a given mark, then plucking it, a tone would be produced, whether high or low depending on where the string was pressed down.
• 1300 – Clavicytherium invented in Italy (later copied and improved upon in Germany). Strings were of catgut, sounded by pricking of a quill plectra fastened to the end of the keys. Improvements to this instrument finally developed the clavichord.
• 1400s- Clavichords consisted of 20-22 strings of brass made to vibrate by being agitated through the pressure of a tangent ( a brass pin flattened on top) fastened to the clavis (key). The shape of the clavichord was similar to the later square piano.
• 1503- Giovanni Spinnetti, of Venice, constructed a new instrument which came to be called the spinet (after the inventor). It was oblong in form and had a range of four octaves, allowing for long strings and a larger soundboard. Because of the long strings it was necessary to activate the strings by a pricking or twanging method. This mechanism made it impossible to play with any degree of expression, but the instrument still became popular due to its size and louder tone. The same instrument became commonly known in England as the virginal.
• 1521- Geronimo of Bologna built the first harpsichord. This was essentially a spinet with longer strings in a case shaped like a modern baby grand.

And then came the piano…

Reference:

Dolge, Alfred. Pianos and their Makers: A Comprehensive History of the Development of the Piano. New York: Dover Publications, 1972. (First edition – Covina: Covina Publishing Co., 1911.)

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One of our major focuses with this blog is on the  subject of piano history.  Many people know about the piano enough to know that if they press the right keys in the right order and the piano is in tune, it will make a pleasant-sounding melody.  Some even know of Bartolomeo Cristofori, the Italian credited with building the first piano.  A few might even know something about the person whose name is on their piano, especially if that name is one of the more prominent ones like Steinway.  But how many know that, just because there is an American name on their piano, that piano may not have been manufactured in the United States?  Do you know what company actually made your piano?  We hope to address that question in the series “Who Made My Piano?”, a look at some of the old-line piano brands in the United States, what companies have made them through the years, and who makes them now.

Secondly, we are starting a series at least tentatively called “Highlights in Piano History”.  This series will be in a timeline format with such dates as “1935- First spinet piano marketed by Wurlitzer”.

As you can see there is a lot of work going on.  We appreciate our readers and want to provide you with plenty of quality content.  If you have any comments or questions on anything you read here, please feel free to leave a comment or click the “Leave Us A Message” tab to send us an email.

Until later- Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving a few days early,

David Miller

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Sounds like something out of “Twilight Zone”, right? Wrong – it really happened. According to an article in the New York Times dated May 25, 1904, a large group of delegates to the National Piano Dealers’ Convention gathered on Chelsea Heights in Atlantic City and ceremonially cremated 200 square grand pianos. (Some later accounts state that the fire took place on the ocean front,which was the original plan, but according to this contemporary account the mayor blocked this plan for safety reasons. These same accounts place the size of the fire at 1000 pianos.)

Why burn these pianos? Square pianos were already, at that time, obsolete. In production since around 1770, the square piano had developed from reconditioned clavichords, retaining the same form but strengthening the frame and adding a hammer action. Over the next century, builders added a cast iron plate, a larger scale (more notes), and heavier, more ornate, cabinetry. By around 1870, upright piano and grand piano technology had met and surpassed the technology behind the square grand piano. 1880 was the last year when square grand pianos were produced. Over the next 20 plus years, dealers kept running into problems trying to sell the newer and better pianos because potential buyers resisted the idea that the square grand that they owned was now an inferior instrument, a less-than-ideal piano and a virtually worthless trade-in on the “new and improved” model. Giving even minimal trade-in allowances for these pianos was causing extreme hardship on many dealers, especially since they couldn’t then turn around and sell the square piano for a profit margin any near what they were making on the new, and vastly superior, upright and grand pianos. It was suggested by a leading member of the music trades press to hold this bonfire as part of the 1904 convention, with pianos being brought in from several locations around the country, and newspaper reports going back across the country. Two goals were attached to this event: (1) Lower the existing inventory of square pianos, and (2) Educate the populace about the worthlessness of these instruments. The event was, on both points, a “blazing” success.

One hundred and four years have passed since that time. During my career as a piano technician I have nominated many pianos newer than the last square grands for recycling as “kindling wood and boat anchors”. If an instrument was already obsolete back then, why would you want one now? If you want a large piano, and have the room for it, get the most grand you can afford and have room for of those currently available on the market. If not, a quality vertical piano (studio or upright) is in order.

Sources:
1)“Great Piano Bonfire”, New York Times, May 25, 1904.
2)”The Great Piano Bonfire”, Charles Huether, Rhode Island PTG Newsletter, June 2008, pg 3.

(This has been the fifth, and final article in the series, “Run Away Now Pianos”. If you missed Part 1, you can find it here. You can find Part 2 here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. Each post has addressed one or more types of used piano that should be avoided by someone looking to buy a used piano. We hope this series has been helpful. If you have any questions or comments please leave them for us. We invite you to subscribe to receive future posts delivered to your inbox by email. Anyone who signs up for email delivery will receive an e-book compilation of this series with a little added information free of charge when it is ready in a few weeks. )

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About the Music Juke Box

A music juke box plays certain songs from self-contained media. They are usually operated by inserting a coin into the machine and then selecting a song from a music catalog that the machine displays.

Before the music juke box there were player pianos and music boxes. These were found most of the time at arcades, amusement parks, and fairgrounds. In Switzerland, train stations featured these devices. However, they ended up not being able to compete with music juke boxes, because they could not replicate the human voice, and they were limited to only certain instruments.

Just before music juke boxes were Coin-Slot Phonographs, which began to be mass-produced in 1889. These original machines could only play about 2 minutes of music at a time. In the 1910s, the gramophone and piano scales became popular as they were the first devices that allowed for choosing from a selection of records.

The music juke box as it is known today came into existence in the 1930s. From this time forward, they became an integral part of social life, often being featured in dance scenes in movies. While the earlier versions used records, starting in the 1980s CDs took the place of records, and by the end of the 20th century the devices were digital and not longer needed CDs.

These newest digital versions get the music through special protocol over phone lines, or by downloading songs from the internet. Because they are digital, these newest versions can include more songs than ever before. These versions can also send information out regarding where and how often the songs are being played.

The music juke box is an excellent example of something that has been around for a long time like piano notes and has evolved, but is still quite reminiscent of its earliest forms. They still can be found in many social places today, and there are some people that like to collect them. Whether they are being collected or just used as a source of amusement, music juke boxes are a true part of American culture.

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