Category: Engineering & Technology
The development of the modern American pianoforte presents a most interesting study to the practical member of the musical industries as well as to the pianist. For it is possible to view the subject with equal facility from the standpoints of both. Descended through a clearly...
If the present treatise has convinced the reader that the making of pianofortes is a very serious matter, and one not to be attacked in a spirit of levity, then one of its immed...
15. CHAPTER XIV.The art of tuning the pianoforte is one of considerable complexity and obscurity. During all the time that has elapsed since the key-board instrument first came into being, cont...
9. CHAPTER IX.The grand pianoforte is distinguished conspicuously from the upright, as far as concerns the principles of its construction, by the different function which its exterior casing...
13. CHAPTER XII.As the hammer-idea evolved itself in the mind of Cristofori and the other experimenters who were contemporaneously bending their efforts towards the improvement of the dynamic p...
7. CHAPTER VII.The strings of a modern pianoforte are made of cast steel and possess a relatively great thickness and stiffness. That is to say, they enjoy these characteristics to a far great...
11. Chapter II as to the controversies that have raged over the questionof priority of invention. It is sufficient to refer the reader back to that portion of the present work where these questions have been treated in a sufficiently copious manner.
2. CHAPTER II.While the present work is by no means intended to serve as an elaborate analysis of pianoforte development, it seems that a proper comprehension of the various principles that a...
8. CHAPTER VIII.We have now made a somewhat lengthy and thorough investigation into the nature and behavior of the various materials and substances that are employed in the construction of pian...
14. CHAPTER XIII.We may presume that the reader is by this time quite familiar with the appearance and use of the various parts of the grand and upright pianoforte action, both as assembled and...
4. CHAPTER IV.Sound is an impression produced upon the brain through the ear by the motion of air particles excited by an external body. In the transmission of sound from the vibrating or “so...
5. CHAPTER V.We have now considered as much of the phenomena of musical sounds as may be considered to have a bearing upon the purpose of our investigations. We may then devote some space to...
3. CHAPTER III.The pianoforte of to-day is the most complex and ingenious of musical instruments. With the possible exception of the pipe-organ, there is no existing tone apparatus that combin...
12. CHAPTER XI.The pianoforte hammer is perhaps the most striking of the many and various features of that instrument. Although it is a comparatively simple device, its historical and musical...
1. CHAPTER I.The development of the modern American pianoforte presents a most interesting study to the practical member of the musical industries as well as to the pianist. For it is possib...
16. CHAPTER XV.Although, for obvious reasons, we speak of it thus late, yet it is true that the first and most important step in the designing of a pianoforte is the draughting of the scale. T...
6. CHAPTER VI.As was suggested in the last chapter, it becomes necessary to effect a compromise between the demands of true musical intonation and the limitations of musical instruments, in o...
10. CHAPTER X.In the historical portion of the present work, ample reference has been made to the genesis and early development of metallic framing in the construction of pianofortes. We took...