If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Picture if you will, a May evening in the year 1904. The place is Atlantic City, New Jersey. You are walking down a street when you see a crowd up ahead. Curious, you move close enough to see a group of what appears to be fairly successful middle-aged businessmen gathered around a pile of several hundred keyboard instruments that you realize, on closer examination are all “square grand” pianos, a type of instrument that played a major role in American piano history for much of the century preceding this night. As you watch, some of these businessmen apply torches to the mound of pianos, which you quickly realize has been soaked in fuel, and the pianos begin to go up in flames. As the flames do their work, the businessmen cheer and dance as though this is some pagan ceremonial burnt offering.
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. )
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
