THE MODERN PIANO-FORTE. 699 



ness of a certain dullness, which detracts so much Irom the good effect 

 of the instrument as to lead some persons to suppose it to he one of 

 inferior quality. The expedient, therefore, of slightly raising the pitch 

 of about seventeen of the highest notes (when the piano-forte is ex- 

 tended to high C) is adopted, by which the instruments gain greatly 

 in brilliancy, briskness, sprightliness, or whatever term may fitly de- 

 note the reverse of flatness and insipidity. Octaves tuned in the 

 middle of the key-board are frequently deemed perfect when too 

 small, and some few students of tuning are prone to accept as true, 

 octaves that are too large in this region of the scale. 



But by far the most extraordinary fact, with reference to the final 

 adjustment of the piano-forte, is the general acceptation of its particu- 

 lar " temperament " for all instruments having twelve notes to each 

 octave. Whatever other temperament may be chosen for such in- 

 struments, only one simple, natural diatonic scale can be properly 

 rendered. With this arrangement, called the " equal temperament," 

 not a single chord is correctly tuned. No intervals are made abso- 

 lutely perfect, but the ear has gradually been led to be content with 

 them, when they approximate the truth in conformity with this par- 

 ticular system. By the equal distribution of the many kinds of 

 apotomes, found on calculating intei'vals from the scale given by 

 Nature's super-harmonics, they are subsequently practically disre- 

 garded treated as non-existent and thus elaborate modulatory har- 

 monies ai-e rendered comparatively easy to construct ; and the hu- 

 man ear being less able to detect imperfections in dissonances than 

 in consonances, composers have gradually employed, with increasing 

 freedom, dissonances of the most unusual and startling kind. It 

 would not be strictly true to say that modern writers have neglected 

 the sweet, cloying style abounding in pleasant-sounding phrases 

 because the absolute perfection of these ready-made, dissonant har- 

 monies is more readily overlooked. The influences that have deter- 

 mined the course of modern art can only be perceived from a psycho- 

 logic point of view. We may, however, safely say that modern com- 

 posers have not been deterred, but rather assisted, if not actually 

 emboldened, by their enharmonic intervals being made freely inter- 

 changeable, their far-fetched harmonies easily found and little scru- 

 tinized; and point out that the dynamic power of discords increases 

 their present value as artistic materials, now that fugal and similar 

 forms, compelling progress, are more rarely used. 



The temperament of the piano-forte led directly to the entire re- 

 modeling of the "king of instruments," the church-organ; but yet, 

 not without considerable strife. During the first three-quarters of 

 the present century this particular form of temperament was a mat- 

 ter that greatly exercised mathematicians, organ-builders, musical 

 purists, clergymen, and organists, in England, and has only now be- 

 come generally adopted in that country. The solid and highly-com- 



