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Rh almost illegible. Paul de Wit refers the instrument to the middle of the 18th century. It has all the appearance of being a reduced copy of a well-established type, differing very little from the later models, except that it has no dampers. It seems probable that this small instrument is a converted clavichord, and that the action may have been suggested by Schroeter's model, left in 1721 at the Electoral Court of Saxony. Burney tells us all about Zumpe; and his instruments still existing would fix the date of the first at about 1765. Fetis narrates, however, that he began the study of the piano on a square piano made by Zumpe in 1762. In his simple “ old man's head” action we have the nearest approach to a realization of Schroeter's simple idea. It will be observed that Schroeter's damper would stop all vibration at once. This defect is overcome by Zumpe's “mopstick ” damper. Another piano action had, however, come into use about that time or even earlier in Germany. The discovery of it in the Stem simplest form is to be attributed to V. C. Mahillon, who found it in a square piano belonging to Henri Gosselin, painter, of Brussels. The principle of this action is that which was later perfected by the addition of a good escapement by Stein of Augsburg, and was again later experimented

F10 18.-Schroeter's Model for an Action, 1721. upon by Sebastian Erard. Its origin is perhaps due to the contrivance of a piano action that should suit the shallow clavichord and permit of its transformation into a square piano; a. transformation, Schroeter tells us, had been going on when he

FIG. 19 -Zumpe's Square Piano Action, 1766. wrote his complaint. It will be observed that the hammer is, as compared with other actions, reversed, and the axis rises with the key, necessitating a fixed means for raising the hammer, in this action eliected by a rail against which the hammer FIG 20 -Old Piano Action on the German principle of Escapement. Square Piano belonging to M. Gosselin, Brussels. is jerked up. It was Stein's merit to graft the hopper principle upon this simple action, and Mozart's approbation of the invention, when he met with it at Augsburg in 1777, is expressed in a well-known letter addressed to his mother. No more “blocking ” of the hammer, destroying all vibration, was henceforth to vex his mind. He had found the instrument that for the rest of his short life replaced the harpsichord. V. C. Mahillon secured for his museum the only Johann Andreas Stein piano which is known to remain. It is from Augsburg, dated 1780, and has Stein's escapement action, two unisons, and the knee pedal, then and later common in Germany.

Mozart's own grand piano, preserved at Salzburg, and the two grand pianos (the latest dated 1790) by Huhn of Berlin, preserved at Berlin and Charlottenburg, because they had "7: ”=

FIG. 21.—Stein's Action (the earliest so-called Viennese), 1780. belonged to Queen Luise of Prussia, follow Stein in all particulars. These instruments have three unisons upwards, and the muting movement known as Celeste, which no doubt Stein had also. The wrest-plank is not inverted; nor is there any imitation of Cristofori. We may regard Stein, coming after the Seven Years' War which had devastated Saxony, as the German re inventor of the grand piano. Stein's instrument was accepted as a model, as we have seen, in Berlin as well as Vienna, to which city his business was transferred in 1794 by his daughter Nanette, known as an accomplished pianist and friend of Beethoven, who at that time used Stein's pianos. She had her brother in the business with her, and had already, in 1793, married ]. A. Streicher, a pianist from Stuttgart, and distinguished as a personal friend of Schiller. In 1802, the brother and sister dissolving partnership, Streicher began himself to take his full share of the work, and on Stein's lines improved the Viennese instrument, so popular for many years and famous for its lightness of touch, which contributed to the special character of the Viennese school of pianoforte playing. Since 186 2, when Steinway's example caused a complete revolution in German and Austrian piano-making, the old wooden cheap grand piano has died out. We will quit the early German piano with an illustration (fig. 22) of an early square piano

FIG. 22.-German Square Action, 1783. Piano by Wagner, Dresden.

action in an instrument made by ]ohann Gottlob Wagner of Dresden in 1783. This interesting discovery of Mahillon's introduces us to a rude imitation (in the principle) of Cristofori, and it appears to have no relatio11 whatever to the clock-hammer motion seen in Frederici's.

Burney, who lived through the period of the displacement of the harpsichord by the pianoforte, is the only authority to whom we can refer as to the introduction of the latter instrument into England. He tells us,1 in his gossiping way, 1;, ., that the first hammer harpsichord that came to forte in England was made by an English monk at Rome, E'"3'“"d° a Father Wood, for an English gentleman, Samuel Crisp of Chesington; the tone of this instrument was superior to that produced by quills, with the added power of the shades of piano and forte, so that, although the touch and mechanism were so imperfect that nothing quick could be executed upon it, yet in a slow movement like the “Dead March ” in Saul it excited wonder and delight. Fulke Greville afterwards bought this instrument for 100 guineas, and it remained unique in England for several years, until Plenius, the inventor of the lyrichord, made a pianoforte in imitation of it. In this instrument the touch was better, but the tone was inferior. We have no date for Father Wood. Plenius produced his lyrichord, asostenente

1 Rees's New Cyclopaedia, art. “ Harpsichord.”