A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Sostinente Pianoforte
SOSTINENTE PIANOFORTE. The term implies a pianoforte capable of producing a sustained sound, such as that of the organ, harmonium, or violin. It must however be borne in mind that by giving the pianoforte this power of sustaining sound, the special character of the instrument is transformed, and in point of fact the 'sostinente' pianoforte is a pianoforte in name only. It is the rapid diminution of the fugitive tone that raises the ordinary pianoforte to that ideal terrain wherein it finds one of its chief excellences, the prerogative of freedom from cloying; the emotion of the hearer entering actively into the appreciation of its unsubstantial tones, while it is rather taken captive by the more material tones of sostinente instruments. Under the head of Piano-Violin the Hurdy Gurdy is referred to as the germ of sostinente keyed-instruments; and allied to the harpsichord we next meet with it in the Gambenwerk of Hans Haydn of Nuremberg, dating about 1610. The Lyrichord, patented by Roger Plenius in London in 1741, demands notice as being a harpsichord strung with wire and catgut, made on the sostinente principle, and actuated by moving wheels instead of the usual quills, so that the bow of the violin and the organ were imitated. There is no specification to the patent, but a magazine article of 1755, in the possession of the writer, gives a drawing and complete description of the instrument, which was otherwise remarkable for sustaining power by screws, springs, and balanced tension weights for tuning; for silver covering to the bass strings, like the largest 'Bass-violins'; for the use of iron to counteract the greater pull of the octave-strings (in the drawing there are apparently four iron bars connecting the wrest-plank and soundboard, thus anticipating the later introduction of steel arches in grand pianofortes for similar service); and lastly for the Swell obtained by dividing the lid or cover into two parts, one of which is moveable up and down by means of a pedal governed by the foot of the player, a practice followed by Kirkman in his harpsichords, and perhaps by Shudi, until he introduced, about 1766, his important improvement of the Venetian Swell. Another patent of Plenius, in 1745, added the 'Welch harp,' or buff stop (in his patent by a pedal), to the instrument. We have thus dwelt upon the Lyrichord because as an ingenious combination of inventions its importance cannot be gainsaid.[1] Another 'Sostinente' harpsichord was the 'Celestina' of Adam Walker, patented in London in 1772. An important 'Sostinente' instrument was the 'Claviol' or 'Finger-keyed Viol,' the invention of Dr. John Isaac Hawkins of Bordertown, New Jersey, U. S. A., an Englishman by birth, who also invented the ever-pointed pencil, and, more to our purpose, the real upright pianoforte, which, in the article Pianoforte, we have erroneously attributed to his father, Isaac Hawkins, who we find merely patented the invention for his son in London in 1800.[2] This upright piano (called 'portable grand') and the 'Claviol,' which was in form like a cabinet piano, with ringbow mechanism for the sostinente, were introduced to the public in a concert at Philadelphia, by the inventor, June 21, 1802. There is a description of the Claviol in Rees's Cyclopaedia, 1819, and also in the Mechanic's Magazine for 1845, no. 1150, p. 123. About Hawkins himself there are interesting particulars in Scribner's Magazine (a.d. 1880), in an article on 'Bordertown and the Bonapartes.' Hawkins was in England in 1813 and 14, exhibiting his Claviol, and in the latter year complained of his idea being appropriated by others through the expiration of his patent. He afterwards lived here and was a prominent member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Isaac Mott's 'Sostinente Piano Forte,' patented by him in 1817, was a further development of the idea, and is fully described in the patent, no. 4098. Mott claimed the power to increase or diminish the tone at will; and by rollers acting on silken threads, set in action by a pedal, the 'sostinente' was brought into action or stopped. Mott's instrument had some success, he being at the time a fashionable pianoforte-maker. This article should be read with Piano-Violin, which it completes; also with Melo-Piano.[3]
[ A. J. H. ]