THE MODERN PIANO-FORTE. 693 



may at once be made fuller, rounder, sweeter, harder, more brilliant 

 and penetrating, or more sympathetic. It is vain to hope that they 

 will be mellowed or otherwise improved with age or use. 



For it is a common experience that piano-lortes differ greatly in 

 the ability to retain their good qualities, even though subjected to 

 the same conditions. It is also noteworthy that, although many in- 

 struments may be made precisely similar, and by the same workmen 

 at the same season of the year, all other known things being also equal, 

 they will differ in their charactei'istics, as children of the same family 

 mysteriously differ from one another, although retaining many marked 

 points of resemblance. It should, therefore, not cause surprise that 

 among the 30,000 piano-fortes annually produced in the States some 

 will be found so admirably balanced, so happily constituted, and 

 adapted to endure great " wear and tear," as to survive mutilation, 

 railway-accidents, extremes of heat and cold, dampness and dryness, 

 and yet remain surprisingly vigorous and strong. Engineers and 

 others acquainted with the conduct of iron in suspension-bridges, 

 for instance which does not uniformly granulate, will not be sur- 

 prised to learn that three strings struck uniformly with the same ham- 

 mer may break at widely different periods, after losing their tenacity 

 from the insidious nature of vibrations, and then from thermal changes 

 rather than blows. But hei-e we are not merely speaking of the 

 strings, but of the piano-forte in its entirety as consisting of a great 

 number of mutually-depending parts, cooperating to a common end 

 and the harmonious working of all. 



To trace the gradual development of the piano-forte, from all its 

 various archetypes, would occupy too much space. It is sufficient 

 here to point out that virginals, spinets, clavichords, hai'psichords, 

 and various new forms of old types of similar instruments, were found 

 incapable of further improvement. In the "struggle for existence" 

 they failed to compete with the piano-forte, which, although at first 

 far inferior, has finally survived them all. During the past fifty 

 years, modern science has materially aided in enlarging its powers, 

 especially in America ; and it now claims our attention as the ulti- 

 mate result of a long series of modifications superimposed on modifi- 

 cations which have led to what Mr, Herbert Spencer might designate 

 as " an immense increase in the harmony between the organism and 

 its environment." 



European piano-fortes introduced by the early settlers here soon 

 became useless. The dry land-winds of the interior, the moist sea- 

 breezes of the coasts, the violent and sudden thermal changes, could 

 not be endured. A new species had to be produced, for this one failed 

 to become acclimated. The problem to be solved in those days was 

 by no means an easy one. It was as difficult to improve upon the 

 then existing piano-forte as it is to increase the capabilities of those 

 we possess now. But the indomitable jjerseverance of sturdy souls 



