1ié 
tion, that Mr. Maxwell, in his “ Essay on 
“Tune,” -printed at Edinburgh 1781, has 
demonstrated, page 194, that forty-four 
&trings Or pipes are required, in each oc- 
thve of a piano-forte or organ, that shall 
be capable of performing in all the twen- 
ty-four keys, in which modern composi- 
tions, are wrote, or into which they fre- 
quently modulate, without temperaments ; 
that is, without introducing concords 
that are imperfect or tempered, and 
which consequently are somewhat out of 
tune, and would be sensibly noticed as 
such, if these imperfect intervals were 
held out, or occurred in the long notes of 
a piece of full music. 
The organs to which Mr. Lofft alludes, 
as I suppose, are those made by Mr. Tho- 
mas Elliot, No. 12, Tottenham-court, un- 
der the Rev. William Hawke’s patent, 
which instruments I have not yet seen ; 
but I hastily examined last spring, some 
of the piano-fortes constructed under the 
same patent, by Mr. Robert Bill, No. 49, 
Rathbone-place, which, as far as I recol- 
lect, had forty-eight strings in each oc- 
tave, viz. four unison strings to each of 
the seven long finger keys, two unisons 
for each of the five short finger keys, con- 
sidered as sharps, and two other unisons 
for each of the same keys, considered as 
flats ; or without the double strings to 
each note, merely for giving strength of 
tone, twenty-four strings in each octave 
are necessary in these patent instruments, 
for obtaining only seventeen intervals in 
the octave; the unison on the natural 
notes or long keys, adimitting of the whole 
clavier or range of finger-keys being 
shifted to the nght or left, by means of 
a pedal, without altering the pitch of 
any but the short or half-notes. 
The expedient proposed by Mr. Lofft, 
of dividing each of the short finger-keys, 
has in part been adopted long ago, in the 
Temple Church and Foundling Hospital 
organs, in London, as [ believe with per- 
fect convenience to the performer: and 
were the same extended to every short 
key, seventeen sirings or pipes in an oc- 
tave, or such an instrument, would an- 
swerall the ends of Mr. Hawke’s twenty- 
four, besides avoiding the danger of either 
straining the instrument by accidentally 
moving the pedals and keys at the same 
time, crof striking beth the fat and sharp 
notes at the same time, in rapid mo- 
dulations. The accidental sharp or flat 
notes, which occur 1n some music, might 
also be readier introduced on such an in- 
strument as Mr. Lofft alludes to, than 
on Mr, Hawke’s instrument, 
Large Crops of Fiortn Grass. . 
{March 1, 
In the tuning of the twelve notes in 
each octave, that are in common use€, 
some authors and tuners advise, the ma- 
king. certain chords or intervals perfect, 
and others very nearly so; throwing the 
imperfection or temperament, wholly or 
in great part, on certain other intervals, 
called the bearing-notes, wolves, &c. 
So in like manner, when seventeen notes 
as ahove, twenty-one which the late Dr. 
Robert Smith used, or any other humber 
of notes, are introduced m the octave 
(short of the whole number which Mr. 
Maxwell has shown to be necessary for 
perfect use) bearing notes or wolves must 
unavoidably be introduced, somewhere 
in the scale. ‘ 
I have not yet been able to learn the 
exact mode adopted for tuning each note 
on Mr. Hawke’s patent instruments, cr 
to obtain a table of his seventeen inter- 
vals, expressed by the major-tone &, the 
minor-tone 3%, and the hemitone 44 (or 
by any other musical notation), other- 
wise, [ would point out the. particular 
chords which are imperfect or tempered, 
in the use of these patent instruments, 
and the exact quantity or degree of tem- 
‘perament in each case. 
Mr. Hawkes, 
the patentee, or some other person ac- 
guainted with his mode of tuning, will, I 
hope, oblige me and others of your read- 
ers, by giving an account thereof, and 
such a table as I have mentioned, ina 
future Number of the Monthly Magazine, 
P.S.<-Since writing the above, a musical 
friend has put into my handea printed quarto 
copper-plate page, describing the use of the 
grand patent harmonic piano-forte, lately in- 
vented by D, Loeschman, of No. 28, New- 
man-street, Oxford-road, which, by the help 
of six pedals, produces seven scales of twelve 
notes each (two only of them being changed 
for others, by the use of the pedal belonging. 
to each respective scale), making. twenty-four 
notes or intonations in each octave of these 
instruments, which are pretended to produce 
eighteen major and fifteen minor keys in tune. 
Should these be the instruments to which 
Mr. Lofft has alluded, I beg to inform him, 
that the calculations necessary for showing 
how well their pretentions to perfect tune 
are formed, would be far too technical and 
intricate for the Monthly Magazine; and 
would best appear in Mr. Tilloch’s Philosos 
phical Magazine, where.a series of similar dee 
tails have of Jate been inserted, and to whom J 
shall probably, ere long, makea communicas 
tion on these patent instruments. 
ON FIORIN GRass. 
Your correspondent, at page 462 of 
vol. 28. who enquires about Fiorin Grass, 
wil find that Dr. William fee 
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a ies 
