A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Square Piano

by Alfred James Hipkins

SQUARE PIANO (Fr. Piano carré; Ital. Pianoforte a tavola; Germ. Tafel (tafelformiges) Pianoforte). The rectangular or oblong piano, much in vogue for domestic use until superseded, especially in England and France, about the middle of this century by the upright or cottage piano. Inventors were fortunate in having keyed instruments ready to their hands, such as the harpsichord and clavichord, in which the problem of resonance had long been successfully resolved; leaving touch as dominated by power, and resistance to the inevitably increased tension, as distinct aims to pursue. The clavichord became the square piano by the addition of a second bridge, and the substitution of a simple hammer-and-damper mechanism for the tangents and string-cloth; but the keys were at first left crooked, as in the clavichord. [See Clavichord.]

The wing-shaped Grand piano, the 'Gravicembalo col piano e forte' of Cristofori, had been in existence 50 years when the organ-builder Friederici of Gera (1712–1779), the builder of the Chemnitz organ, is said to have made the first Square piano. He named it 'Fort Bien,' a pun on Forte Piano. No writer has described one of these, or appears to have seen one. He may have contrived the action as an improvement on the idea which Schroeter first published in Marpurg in 1764, and Zumpe introduced here in 1765–6. From comparison of dates and other circumstances, we are however inclined to conclude that Zumpe did not imitate Friederici, but that the latter may rather have used that rudimentary German action which Stein in the next decade improved for grand pianos by the addition of a mechanical escapement. [See Pianoforte,^[1] p. 718a.] This action of a centred hammer with moveable axis, the blow caused by contact of the hammer-tail with a back-touch, and without escapement, exists in a drawing of a patent of Sebastien Erard's dating as late as 1801,^[2] which shows how general this action had been. M. Mahillon has kindly communicated to the writer that there is still a square piano existing with this action, belonging to M. Gosselin, of Brussels. The style of the furniture of the case and the fragments of painting remaining would make this instrument French, and place the date, according to these authorities, without doubt in the reign of Louis Quinze. It has five stops, to raise the dampers (now unfortunately gone) in two sections, to bring on a 'Pianozug' in two sections, or, apparently, as a whole. [See Sordini.] The natural keys are black. Now J. Andreas Stein worked in Paris about 1758, and later J. Heinrich Silbermann of Strassburg made pianos which were sent to Paris and highly thought of. We regret that we have no further historical evidence to offer about this action, so interesting as the foundation of the celebrated 'Deutsche Mechanik' of the Viennese grand pianos. The introduction of the Square piano into London by Zumpe, and its rapid popularity, are adverted to under Pianoforte, where John Broadwood's great improvement in changing the position of the wrestplank is also duly recognised.

The next important step in the enlargement and improvement of the Square piano appears to have been made in France by Petzold,^[3] who in 1806, in the Paris Exhibition of the products of National Industry, exhibited a Square piano with an extended soundboard, an improvement at first not much noticed, though afterwards developed with great success, and probably independently, by the Collards and Broadwoods of that time. Pape introduced the lever and notch principle of the English Grand action into the Square piano action in 1817. Further improvement of the Square piano, in the application of metal to resist tension, etc., followed closely upon, that of the Grand; and in America the Square outstripped the Grand by being first experimented on for the iron framing, the cross stringing, etc., which, through the talent and energy of the Meyers, Chickerings, and Steinways, have given a distinctive character to the American manufacture. The Americans brought their Squares almost to the size and power of their Grands, and make them still; and with the same tendency as in Europe, to their being superseded entirely by the smaller Grands and Uprights.

[ A. J. H. ]

1. It must be remarked that Welcker von Gontershausen. whose technical works (published 1856 and 1870, the earlier much the better) on the construction of the Pianoforte are worthy of praise, is not always to be depended upon when the question is historical. He attributes this rudimentary action, of which he gives drawings, to Schroeter and the Silbermanns apparently without foundation.
2. Erard's claim to improvement was that the travelling distance of the hammer could be regulated by a springing back-touch, by which the depth of front-touch was made to depend upon the strength expended by the player.
3. Guillaume Lebrecht Petzold, born, according to Fétis, in 1784, at Lichtenhayn, Saxony, was apprenticed to Wenzky, Dresden, in 1798, and worked for Walther, Vienna, from 1803 to 1805. In 1806 he joined Pfeiffer in Paris, a connection which lasted till 1814. According to Welcker, Petzold invented the crank lever action since much used by different makers.