874 M U S 
powers at piano-fortes; but the firft attempts were al¬ 
ways on the large fize, till, about the year 1766, Zumpe, a 
German, who had long worked under Shudi, conftrufted 
final 1 piano-fortes of the fhape and fize of the virginal, ot 
which the tone was very fweet, and the touch, with a lit¬ 
tle ufe, equal to any degree of rapidity. Thefe, from 
their low price, and the convenience of their form, as 
well as power of expreflion, fuddenly grew into fuch fa¬ 
vour, that there was fcarcely a houfe in the kingdom, 
where a keyed inftrument had ever had admiflion, but 
was fupplied with one of Zumpe’s piano-fortes, for which 
there was nearly as great a call in France as in England. 
In fhort, he could not make them fall enough to gratify 
the craving of the public. Pohlman, whole inftruments 
were very inferior in tone, fabricated an almoft infinite- 
number for fuch as Zumpe was unable to fupply. Large 
piano-fortes afterwards receiving great improvement in 
the mechanilm by Merlin, and in the tone by Broadwood 
and Stoddard, the harfh fcratching of the quills of a harp- 
fichord can now no longer be borne. 
We are informed by a correfpondent in the Monthly 
Magazine for Dec. i3io, that a very ingenious mufical- 
inftrument maker, a native of Saxony, claims the inven¬ 
tion for a member of the academy of Drefden. In cor¬ 
roboration of which, he has furnifhed an extraft from a 
recent German publication, entitled MvfikaiiJ’ches Lexikon, 
von H. C. Koch. The following is a tranilation : “ The 
piano-forte was invented by J. C. Schroder, of Drefden in 
Saxony, in the year 1717. He had a model made of this 
invention, and prefented it to the court of Drefden for 
infpefilion. The hammers recoiled, and were covered 
with leather. Some time after, Mr. G. Silvermann, amu- 
fical-inftrument maker, began to manufadture fome, and 
fucceeded in bringing them to a tolerable degree of per- 
feftion. It has been queftioned, however, whether Schro¬ 
der, or B. Caftofali, an inftrument-maker of Florence, 
had the firft idea of it; but the moft authentic accounts 
eftablilh indifputably the claim of Schroder to this inge¬ 
nious invention.” For a particular defcription of its 
mechanifm, fee Mizler’s Mufikalifche Bibliothek, vol. iii. 
“ The fortlrien, called here the l’quare piano-forte, was 
invented by > Freiderici, an organ-builder, of Gera in 
Saxony, about the year 1758.” 
Thefe extracts would feem to eftablilh the fa£l, that 
we owe the invention of the piano-forte to Germany. 
Mr. Capel Loft't, however, is of a different opinion ; and 
gives the invention, as well as the introduflion of it into 
this country, to Zumpe. “ The introduction of this ele¬ 
gant and expreffive inftrument, which feems to me, and 
to many, to have fo much improved on the harpfichord, 
took place in this country probably, and almoft certainly, 
in 1766, and was completed in 1768. Its improvement 
in two years, feems to make it probable that it was even 
invented here. And this appears the more likely, as I 
find no indication that Rouffeau was acquainted with it. 
If he had, I prefume he would have been too greatly 
interefted in it to have palled it in filence. During his 
ftay in England, he fpent fo much of his time at a diftance 
from the metropolis, and I believe in fociety not parti¬ 
cularly mufical, that it was very likely that he fhould not 
hear of it. But, if it had been introduced firft in Germany, 
and before 1766, it is almoft impoflible that Rouffeau, who 
died July 4, 1778, fhould not have heard of it. It could 
hardly have failed to have been known in Paris, through 
France, and even in Swifferland, many years before his 
death, if it had been fo long previoufly to that event in 
ufe in Germany.” 
By whomfoever invented, however, the piano-forte 
was fo much improved by our celebrated poet Mafon, 
that, added to the probability of its having been invented 
here, it has been called a “ national inftrument.” Mr. 
Mafon had oblerved, that the piano-fortes which had 
been made here by Zumpe and other Germans, were all 
conftruCled on one principle, and required a particular 
touch of the finger, which was of difficult acquifition, 
1 c. 
and which fpoiled it for harpfichord-practice; as they 
were alfo deficient in delicacy and juftnefs, and as the 
performer was.by no means certain of producing the very 
ftrength of found intended, Mr. Mafon removed all thofe 
imperfections, by detaching the mallet entirely from the 
key, and giving them only a momentary connexion. It 
is by this improvement that the Englijh piano-forte is dif- 
tinguifhed from all others. Mr. Mafon’s general princi¬ 
ple may be fully underftood by the following defcription. 
In the annexed figure, the parts are reprefented in theix 
ftate of inadtion. The key ABK turns, as ufual, on the 
round edge of the bar B ; and a pin b, driven into the 
bar, keeps it in its place. The dot F reprefents a fedtion 
of the firing. ED is the mallet, having a hinge of vel¬ 
lum, by which it is attached to the upper furfaceof the 
bar E. At the other end is the head D, of wood, covered 
with fome folds of prepared leather. The mallet lies in 
the pofition reprefented in the figure, its lower end refting 
on a cufhion-bar K, which lies horizontally under the 
whole row of mallets. The key A R has a pin C, tipt 
with a bit of the fofteft cork or bucklkin. This reaches 
to within ^th of an inch of the fhank of the mallet, but 
muft not touch it. The diftance E C is about ^d or |th of 
the length of the fhank. When the end A of the key is 
preffed down on the fluffing (two or three thickneffes of 
the moft elaftic woollen lift), it raifes the mallet, by means 
of the pin C, to the horizontal pofition Ed, within |th 
or -j^th of an inch of the wire F; but it cannot be fo much 
preffed down as to make the mallet touch the wire. At 
the fame time that the key raifes the mallet by means of 
the pin C, it alfo lifts off the damper G (a bit of l'punge) 
from the wire. This damper is fixed on the end of a lit¬ 
tle wooden pin Gg, connedted with the levergTI, which 
has a vellum hinge at II. This motion of the damper is 
caufed by the pin I, which is fixed into the key near to R. 
Thefe pieces are fo adjulted, that the firft touch of the 
key lifts the damper, and, immediately after, the pin C 
adts on the fhank of the mallet. As it adts fo near to its 
centre of motion, it caufes the head D to move briikiy 
through a confiderable arch Dd. Being made extremely 
movable, and very light, it is thus tojjed beyond the ho¬ 
rizontal pofition Erf, and it ftrikes the wire F, which is 
now at liberty to vibrate up and down, by the previous 
removal of the damper G. Having made its ftroke, the 
mallet falls down again, and refts on the foft fubftance 
on the pin C. It is of effential importance that this 
mallet be extremely light. Were it heavy, it would have 
fo much force, after rebounding from the wire, that it 
would rebound from the pin C, and again ltrike the wire. 
For it will be recollected, that the key is, at this time, 
down, and the pin C railed as high as poffible, fo that 
there is very little room for this rebound. Leffening the 
momentum of the mallet by making it very light, making 
the culhion on the top of the pin C very foft, and great 
precifion in the fhape and figure of all the parts, are the 
only fecurities againft the difagreeable rattling which 
thefe rebounds would occafion. In refpedt to the folidity 
and precifion of workmunfhip, the Britifh inftruments 
are unrivalled, and vail numbers of them have been fent 
to all parts of the continent. 
The compafs of the grand piano-fortes, with additional 
keys, is equal to the general fcale of notes at Ex. 3. 
Plate I. including, of courfe, all the half-tones. 
The Claviol, or Finger-keyed Viol.—The firft notice 
of this inftrument is in the American newfpaper True 
Briton for Aug. 9, 1802, where it is announced as the 
invention of a Mr. Hawkins of New York. By the de¬ 
fcription 
