Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/484

 grandsons, becoming equally noted for pianos and reed-organs; and other houses were started in 1794 at Barmen by Johann Adolph Ibach (d. 1848) with whom various descendants were later associated, in 1814 at Breslau by Michael Schnabel (d. 1842), and in 1828 at Vienna by Ignaz Bösendorfer (d. 1859).

Wilhelm Leberecht Petzold, who was trained at Dresden in 1806 with J. Pfeiffer, opened a noted factory at Paris, winning a reputation for unusual solidity of workmanship, and devising peculiar varieties of uprights, etc.

The celebrated house of Pleyel & Cie. was started at Paris in 1807 by the pianist Ignaz Joseph Pleyel (d. 1831), who was joined in 1811 by Pape, in 1821 by his son Camille Pleyel (d. 1855) and in 1824 by the virtuoso Kalkbrenner. The fame of the Pleyel pianos was aided from 1831 by Chopin's interest in them.

Johann Heinrich Pape (d. 1875), a Hanoverian, for a time with Pleyel, from about 1815 for nearly fifty years not only pursued established lines of manufacture, but originated countless new forms, usually more ingenious than commercially available. He was the first to perfect the felting of the hammer-heads, and he contests with Böhm the honor of introducing overstringing.

Robert Wornum (d. 1852) had a factory in London from 1810, and from 1811 was specially successful in perfecting the action of uprights, particularly in the form known as the 'cottage piano.'

American piano-making began soon after 1800, the chief pioneers being Alpheus Babcock and John Osborne of Boston. The latter trained Jonas Chickering (d. 1853), who in 1823 founded the Boston firm which under him and his sons immediately became celebrated for original inventions and fine workmanship.

Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (d. 1871), from about 1820 an organ-builder at Seesen (Brunswick), before 1830 turned to piano-making, soon developing a successful factory. In 1848, with four of his sons, he removed to New York, leaving his eldest son, Theodor (d. 1889), to continue the business at Seesen. In 1853 the famous firm of Steinway & Sons was established in New York. (The German house since 1859 has been at Brunswick.)

American organ-building began before 1750, but the first extensive manufacturer was William M. Goodrich, who worked at Boston in 1805-33. The important Boston firm of E. & G. G. Hook was founded in 1827.

In violin-making specially noted was Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (d. 1875), who inherited his expertness from his father and from 1817 worked at Paris, at first with Chanot and Lété, from 1828 independently. He had great success in counterfeiting old Italian instruments, but was an original investigator and inventor as well, perfecting powerful violas and double-basses, and improving strings and bows.

The standard type of flute at the opening of the century was one in which the lower part of the tube was slightly conical. In 1832 Theobald Böhm (d. 1881), a Munich player of eminence, greatly improved the orchestral value of the instrument by making the bore cylindrical and radically altering the system of keys and fingering. Similar improvements were perhaps earlier achieved by William Gordon (d. after 1839), a Swiss army officer. The Bohm system was later extended to oboes, bassoons and clarinets. Its value lies in the equalization of quality and in ease of manipulation.