(auslöser) g becoming a fixture at the back of the key. From this difference a radical change of touch took place; and an extreme lightness became the characteristic of the Viennese action as developed by Andreas Streicher, Stein's son-in-law, who, in 1794, improved and finally established the great renown of the Viennese pianofortes.[1] The following illustration of Streicher's Viennese action is from the 'Atlas zum Lehrbuch des Pianofortebaues' by Blüthner and Gretschel, Leipzig, and shows the damping as well as the escapement.
Fig. 10.
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Fig. 11.
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r is the damper. It must not be overlooked that Stein, who had not himself invented the knee pedal, did, in 1789, invent a shifting foot pedal, by means of which the keyboard moved, and the three unisons were reduced to a single string—spinettchen, little spinet, as he named this 'una corda.'[2]
Returning to Mozart, his Concert Grand in the Mozarteum at Salzburg, shown in Fig. 12, is a small 5-octave instrument, with black natural keys and white sharps, made by Anton Walter, who became in the end Mozart's favourite maker, as Schanz was Haydn's. According to Schönfeld (Jahrbuch der Tonkunst von Wien und Prag, 1796) the pianos of Schanz were weaker and sweeter than those of Walter; the touch also easier, and the keyfall still less. But both Walter and Schanz were mere copyists of Stein. They made square pianos also in the 'English' form, most likely imitations of the English instruments, which at that time had a very wide market.
Fig. 12.
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Paris was supplied chiefly with English pianos until Sebastien Erard made, in 1777, the first French one, a Square, copied, according to Fétis, from one of English make. [See Erard.] For some years he appears to have continued on these lines; indeed it was not till after he had been driven to London, by the French Revolution, and had gone back again—according to the same authority, in 1796—that he accomplished the making of a grand piano. Erard appears to have been early bent upon constructing a grand action for himself, but while the perfecting of the Double Action harp remained his chief problem, the century went out with the English and Viennese actions pre-eminent; the radical differences of which, and the effect of those differences on pianoforte playing, Hummel, in his Pianoforte School, from his point of view, subsequently explained. Extension of compass had now set in, and will be found recorded in detail in the article Keyboard.
We have referred to the difficulty which presented itself to Cristofori at the outset of the Pianoforte, owing to the necessity of stringing with thicker wire than before, to resist the blow of the hammers, and of strengthening the case to bear the greater tension of the thicker strings, which forced him to shift the hitchpins from the soundboard to a separate strong rail. The gap between the wrestplank and the soundboard, through which the hammers of the grand piano rose to strike the strings, was the first to be strengthened by metal, as a material at once stronger than wood and very economical of space. This was effected by steel arches, a contrivance that has remained in universal employment, but of the author of which there is no record. There are three in Stodart's Grand of 1788 previously referred to; no doubt earlier examples exist, and to know their date is desirable. Schroeter had suggested a transverse bar across the instrument; but it is not known if the experiment was made at that time. The first real use of metal longitudinal bracing was suggested in 1799 by Joseph Smith (Patent 2345, London); it was to be under the soundboard and to replace the wooden braces, and thus provide space for the introduction of a mechanically played tambourine! But for the patent office we might not have known of Joseph Smith's invention, as nothing came of it. The first to use iron or steel in the form of bracing or tension bars placed above the strings—a method now universally adopted—was
- ↑ Stein's son seems to have founded the Vienna business, as shown in the following extracts from a 'Musikalische Monatschrift,' edited by F. X. Glöggl (Linz, Oct. 1803, p. 99). 'The clavier instruments which have been made by Andreas Stein at Vienna are to be properly understood as Forti Piano, meaning such as respond to every possible degree of strength or softness of tone when played with more or less pressure, or rather stroke of the fingers on the keys'; and 'the action in all parts is as simple as possible and at the same time extraordinarily durable. It is original throughout, that is, entirely the invention of the deceased organ-builder and instrument-maker Stein of Augsburg (father of the present maker), who, with the rarest love of art, has devoted the greatest part of his active life to its completion.' This communication, from Herr C. F. Pohl, is an historical proof of the pedigree of the Viennese action.
- ↑ Walton, a London maker, had shifted the hammers, leaving the keyboard stationary, two years earlier, viz. 1787. (Patent No. 1607.)
