H ouse and Garden 
PIANO CASE BY WILL BRADLEY, CLOSED 
the other of four octaves in a simple case like the 
usual Italian harpsichords is in the Crosby-Brown 
collection. Cristofori’s pianoforte although show¬ 
ing primitive technique was the forerunner of the 
present system, yet so unable was it to give desired 
results, that the inventor could never have dreamed 
that three hundred years later a monument would he 
erected to him in the Santa Croce of Florence. 
A pupil of Cristofori made a piano in 1730 for the 
Queen of Spain but the merit of introducing the 
invention into Germany is due to Silbermann, the 
great clavichord maker of Dresden who worked so 
hard at the perfecting of the pianoforte that from 
him the gradual displacement of the clavichord may 
be dated. He had a good master for this difficult 
work—Sebastian Bach. When he brought the first 
model to Bach the latter found it too weak in the 
treble. Silbermann, who was stimulated by this 
criticism, sold no more but continued to work until 
the “old Bach’’ gave unqualified commendation. 
Frederick the Great ordered five pianos for his 
royal palaces and there they remain at this present 
time undisturbed, as when the king left them. 
Heretofore only the grand piano had been made but 
to Frederici in Germany is accredited the invention 
of the square piano in 1768. The seven years’war 
temporarily put an end to Saxon pianoforte making 
and many of the workmen found their way to 
England. Bach, arriving in London in 1759, appears 
to have played on a piano 
of English make. So ener¬ 
getic, however, had Germany 
been that the great piano 
manufactories of the world 
can all be traced back to 
German origin. 
In the meanwhile various 
modifications were constantly 
introduced. Improvements 
were added by Backers and 
Johann Stein of Augsburg, 
whose daughter was an ac¬ 
complished pianoforte maker 
and a friend of Beethoven, who 
had expressed a preference for 
these pianos. Indeed fac¬ 
tories alone would never have 
brought out the final triumph 
of this instrument if there had 
not been virtuosos to play it. 
Clementi in England and 
Mozart in Germany really won 
the decisive victory, so that 
a piano hasbecome an essential 
part of life, and an active 
musical centre that gives the 
stamp to one’s whole concep¬ 
tion of music. It is interest¬ 
ing to note this interdependence of manufacturers 
and artists in all times. It was in Pleyel’s concert- 
room that Chopin loved to play; in America the 
Handel and Haydn Society of Boston has been 
assisted by the Chickerings; in New York, Stein¬ 
way Hall was the home of our most famous 
orchestras and these firms have brought a long 
list of artists, joseffy, Essipoff, Paderewski and 
others to this country, for without the assistance 
of the great piano manufacturers no artist can ex¬ 
pect to make a successful tour. The history of this 
noble instrument is woven into the lives of many men 
and reaches from ocean to ocean. To-day Bech- 
stein’s factory stands at the head of German manu¬ 
facturers but there are also Duesen, Bluthen and 
others; Bosendorfer in Vienna, Knabe in Baltimore 
and Steinway in New York have but added to the 
renown of Chickering in Boston. What a goodly 
array. In one hundred years the instrument has 
advanced to unexampled perfection and a network 
of factories is spread over the whole world. Al¬ 
though a large majority of the builders buy their 
actions ready made to save expense, the great houses 
make their own, and each possesses its own special 
features, usually the experience of generations. 
All pianos without distinction as to period, country 
or maker have from necessity certain structural 
features. The strings, wrest pins, sound-boards or 
belly, bridges, keys, intermediate mechanism, ham- 
262 
