MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 4r72, 



Stilts are no longer in use as a practical means of locomotion. 

 In France the Landes of Gascony have been drained and reclaimed, 

 and are penetrated by roads and coursed by railways. The Lan- 

 dais tchangues are gradually disappearing, and soon, probably, 

 their memory will exist only among the octogenarians of the 

 province, or as preserved in the collections of popular traditions. 

 — Translated for the Popular Science Monthly froTn La Nature. 



MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 



By DANIEL SFILLANE. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMEEICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE 

 COLUMBUS. XIL 



THE place this country holds among modern nations in the 

 production and use of musical instruments is so significant 

 that the fact alone ought to be sufficient to disjjrove the charge 

 that Americans are too material to appreciate music or the arts. 

 In this and the following article we purpose to treat of the devel- 

 opment of musical instruments and their manufacture in America 

 from the historical, technical, and industrial stand] )oints, with 

 brief sketches of the various improvements and of the individuals 

 identified with them. The piano-forte, the " household orchestra " 

 of the people, is entitled to yjrecedence. Though less complicated 

 and expressive than that "king of musical instruments," the organ, 

 it fills such an important place in social and popular life, and its 

 ])roduction maintains such a prosperous art industry, employing 

 within its lines so many gifted men, that this prominence is fully 

 justified. 



In treating of the evolution of the piano-forte a little attention 

 must be claimed for the precursors of the instrument. The harp, 

 one of the most ancient, may be traced back in Egyptian history 

 to an indefinable period before Christ. Bruce, the celebrated Scot- 

 tish traveler and antiquarian, found two paintings, in fresco, of 

 harps on the wall of an ancient sepiilchre at Thebes, supposed to 

 be that of Rameses III, who reigned about 1250 B. c. In Thebes, 

 an Egyptian harp was found, in 1823, by Sir John Wilkinson, in 

 an ancient tomb, estimated to be three thousand years old, and 

 when the gut strings were touched they emitted musical sounds. 

 These instruments are illustrated in Fig. 1. 



The lyre, a relative form of harp, was also much used in Assy- 

 ria and Egypt. Ancient sculptures found in Konyunjik, Assyria, 

 now in the British Museum, show two lyres with figures, which 

 further demonstrate its remarkable antiquity. Both instruments 



