Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/83

Rh P I A N F O R T E 73 .approbation of the invention, when he met with it at Augs burg in 1777, is expressed in a well-known letter addressed to his mother. No more &quot; blocking &quot; of the hammer, destroying all vibration, was henceforth to vex his mind. FIG. 21. Stein s Action (the earliest so-called Viennese), 1780. He had found the instrument that for the rest of his short life replaced the harpsichord. M. Mahillon has 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 belonged to the Prussian Queen Louise, 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 reinventor 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 J. 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. The firm of Streicher still exists in Vienna; but since 1862, when Steinway s example caused a complete revolution in German and Austrian piano- making, the old wooden cheap grand piano has died out. AVe will quit the early German piano with an illustration {tig. 22) of an early square piano action in an instrument Fio. 22. German Square Action, 17S3. Piano by Wagner, Dresden. made by Johann Gottlob Wagner of Dresden in 1783. This interesting discovery of M. Mahillon s introduces us to a rude imitation (in the principle) of Cristofori, and it appears to have no relation whatever to the clock hammer notion seen in Frederici s. Burney, who lived through the period of the displace ment of the harpsichord by the pianoforte, is the only authority we can refer to as to the introduction of the latter instrument into England. He tells us, 1 in his gossiping way, that the first hammer harpsichord that came to England was made by an English monk at Rome, a 1 Ree.s s Neiv Cydopasdia, article &quot; Harpsichord.&quot; 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 furte, 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, a sostinente harpsichord, in 1745. When Mason imported a pianoforte in 1755, Fulke Greville s could have been no longer unique. The Italian origin of Father Wood s piano points to a copy of Cristofori, but the description of its capabilities in no way supports this supposition, unless we adopt the very possible theory that the instrument had arrived out of order and there was no one in London who could put it right, or would perhaps divine that it was wrong. Burney further tells us that the arrival in London of J. C. Bach in 1759 was the motive for several of the second-rate harpsichord makers trying to make pianofortes, but with no particular success. Of these Americus Backers, said to be a Dutchman, appears to have gained the first place. He was afterwards the inventor of the so-called English action, and, as this action is based upon Cristo- fori s, we may suppose he at first followed Silbermann in copying the original inventor. There is an old play-bill of Covent Garden in Messrs Broadwood s possession, dated the 16th May 1767, which has the following announce ment : &quot; End of Act 1. Miss BIUCKI.KU will sing a favourite song from JUDITH, accompanied by Mr DIUDIX, on a new instrument call d PIANO FORTE. The mind at once reverts to Backers as the probable maker of this novelty. Be that as it may, between 1772 and 1776, the year of his death, he produced the action continued in the direct principle to this day by the firm of Broadwood, or with a reversed lever and hammer-butt introduced by the firm of Collard in 1835. FIG. 23. Grand Piano Action, 1776. The&quot; English &quot; action of Americus Backers. The escapement lever is suggested by Cristofori s first action, to which Backers has added a contrivance for regulating it by means of a button and screw. The check is from Cristofori s second action. No more durable action has been constructed, and it has always been found equal, whether made in England or abroad, to the demands of the most advanced virtuosi. John Broadwood and Robert Stodart were friends, Stodart having been Broadwood s pupil ; and they were the assistants of Backers in the XIX. 10