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IIF

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 574 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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IIF ,r 1 1" Il l~~~i'~ IIIIIIaitiaJ anal `•; . !Ii~ yt N4T~ ] !,;':~~ mlll~l 1i5:\7.1YL ~. ~m ' I• ilff ~~JJ((jjjj llJJll-1l11JJLL111lttjJljJ~ jlJ(jJljlJl llJJ~~llllJJ((11JJ((jjjjJJ<.,.~ 11~11111~~1111IIIIfl1~111111111111111111111111111111 in his famous " See also:

double escapement " See also:action. The principle of this See also:grand action, like that of Wornum patented for upright pianos in 1826, has become See also:general. But See also:Joseph See also:Henry See also:Cary in 1853 (patent No. 2283) invented a See also:simple contrivance for repetition in all pianos, neglected at the See also:time, and subsequently repatented and disputed over by others, which has only been preserved in the records of the patent See also:office, while the inventor has See also:left no other See also:mark. But the utility of the invention has come to See also:light. It is increasingly used in the actions of upright pianos, and, in See also:combination with the old See also:English grand action, is successfully competing with the See also:Erard action proper and the simplified Herz-Erard, of See also:late years so very generally employed. There has been a See also:great See also:change in the freer technique of piano-playing, partly favoured by the development of piano-making, but reacting and obliging the piano-makers to keep Technique. their See also:attention incessantly alive to the aim and requirements of the players. It is true that the See also:genius of See also:Beethoven dominates a technique that has become obsolete, and so completely that the adequate performance of his piano See also:works still gives to the sense as well as the See also:intellect the highest See also:pleasure, but his annotations to See also:Cramer's Studies, as preserved by Schindler, betray the See also:close See also:touch of the See also:clavichord-player and the student of C. P. E.

See also:

Bach's See also:Essay on Clavichord-Playing, as well as the Fic. 36.-See also:Modern Pianola. A, Blowing pedals operated by feet of player connected by See also:metal See also:crank to feeder B, which exhausts See also:air from See also:bellows C, which in turn exhausts air from all working valves and bellows in Pianola. D, is perforated See also:roll passing over tracker See also:bar E winding on to spool F operated by a pneumatic motor and controlled by See also:lever G, which is connected to' metrostyle pointer H. This is used in See also:conjunction with a specially marked roll, giving correct See also:interpretation of tempo. I, is channel leading to See also:primary pneumatic J operating secondary pneumatic K, which exhausts striking motor L, connected to See also:key lever M to depress piano key. The themodist See also:device consists of two small holes, one at each end of tracker bar E, connecting with pneumatic See also:valve, which increases See also:power of suction instantaneously when See also:melody notes are being played, by means of an extra perforation at each outside edge of See also:music roll D; one hole for See also:bass melody at left, and one at right edge for See also:treble melody. N, is metal See also:arm or See also:bracket connected to lever in front for purpose of depressing sustaining pedal of piano. 0, is the governing bellows of motor for operating music-roll and prevents See also:pace of roll being accelerated or retarded by hard or soft pedalling, thus allowing great change of expression to be made without interfering with See also:speed of roll.weakness as a musical See also:instrument of the See also:early piano. The inventor of a technique so See also:original, and at the time (c. 1830) so extraordinary, as See also:Chopin's, sat at the piano with his elbows immovable, using, for flexibility, neither See also:wrist nor arm. With Chopin, to See also:play loudly was See also:anathema.

The modern See also:

free See also:style of playing comes from See also:Czerny—whom Beethoven despised as having no legato (Bindung)—through See also:Liszt to the Rubinsteins and to the splendidly equipped performers of our time, to whom the pedal has become indispensable for cantabile Ind effect. The most See also:expert performers are now rivalled technically by the See also:recent extraordinary invasion of the See also:American automatic piano-players--the See also:Angelus, Pianola, See also:Apollo, Ceci- lian, and other varieties of the same See also:idea. The use p ey; g" of the perforated roll acts by means of the ingenious and indeed faultless application of pneumatic leverage to the See also:ordinary piano, doing See also:duty for the pianist's fingers; and it is made possible to play louder or softer, faster or slower, by See also:mechanical arrangement. Such an instrument lacks the player's touch, which is as See also:personal and indispensable for sympathy as the See also:singer's See also:voice or violinist's See also:bow. Still, to a violinist, it is a benefit to have a correct coadjutor in a Beethoven or See also:Brahms See also:sonata with one of these handy companions, just as it is to a singer to have always at command the accompaniments to his or her repertory. The Apollo has the addition of a useful transposing apparatus—an aid, however, that, though often tried, has never yet been adopted; it is possibly too disturbing to the musician's See also:ear. The mechanical tuning-See also:pin is an analogous experiment which comes regularly under See also:notice as the years go by, to be as persistently rejected. The most See also:practical of these tuning inventions was the Alibert, shown in the Inventions See also:Exhibition, 1885. Here, pressure upon the strings above the wrest-See also:plank See also:bridge modified their tension after a first rough See also:adjustment to See also:pitch had been effected. The perforated music-See also:sheet, a mechanism See also:common to piano-playing attachments as well as self-playing pianos, first appears in a See also:French patent, 1842. A See also:United States patent for a See also:keyboard piano-player was issued to E. D.

Bootman (Dec. 18, 1860), and the first pneumatic keyboard piano-player was patented in See also:

France in 1863 by M. Fourneaux. Between 1879 and 1902 a See also:total of 55 See also:patents had been issued in the States. The first See also:complete automatic piano-player ready for performance was the Angeius (No. 24799, 1897). The See also:specification is from a communication to the See also:British patent office by See also:Edward Hollingworth See also:White, of See also:Meriden, New Haven See also:county, See also:Conn., U.S.A. There is a pneumatic See also:chest, fulcrum bar, See also:finger levers, bellows and pedals. The whole apparatus is contained in a portable See also:cabinet mounted upon castors, so as to be conveniently moved about a See also:room. The finger levers or key strikers correspond with a considerable portion of the See also:manual keys or clavier of a piano. Thus the automatic piano-player comprises a portable cabinet provided with bellows and operating pedals, a pneumatic actuating mechanism, a tracker adjusted for the use of a perforated music-sheet, a pneumatic motor and winding-roll mechanism to propel the music-sheet, and a See also:series of finger levers operated by the pneumatic mechanism, so projecting as to overhang the piano keyboard and play upon it, with rockers or levers for depressing the piano pedals. Subsequently the apparatus was made capable of accelerating or retarding the tempo at the will of the operator.

A roll of music, 12 in. wide and varying in length according to the See also:

composition, can be placed in position promptly, and when exhausted can be returned upon its original roll by a simple stop, altogether a See also:triumph of mechanical adjustment. The Pianola followed in 1898, the Apollo 1900. The difference of all these See also:clever contrivances is not conspicuous to the See also:amateur. While these allied inventions have had to do with a substitute for touch and the See also:necessity for the persevering acquirement of a difficult technique, another, the See also:Virgil Practice Clavier, so called after the inventor, Mr See also:Almon Kincaid Virgil, an American music teacher, is intended to shorten the See also:period of study by doing away with See also:tone, so that the finger technique is acquired mechanically and unmusically, while value of tone, See also:reading, expression, what-ever we understand by musical See also:production exciting our receptivity through the ear, is delayed until the player's See also:hand is formed and considerably See also:developed. The See also:opinion of some of the very greatest pianists is brought forward as approving of the See also:system; in the See also:work, for instance, of See also:Vladimir de See also:Pachmann, whose technique was formed See also:long before the Virgil Clavier came to See also:Europe. Bearing in mind that the minimum See also:weight of the touch of a See also:concert piano is not likely to exceed three and a See also:half ounces it is hardly likely that these skilled performers use this dumb keyboard with the graduated weight advised for advancing pupils, namely, from five to eight ounces. It is allowed that the lightest possible touch may be used at first. One high recommen-The Dumb dation certainly remains after all that may be said regard-Keyboard. See also:ing Mr Virgil's invention: that it is practically silent, almost noiseless, the up and down clicks that mark the duration of finger See also:attachment being alone audible, a boon to the unwilling hearers of ordinary piano practice, scales and five-finger exercises. Mr Virgil's invention was _produced in its elementary See also:form in 1872, the more satisfactory Practice Clavier See also:dates from the completion of the invention, about 1890. It was brought to See also:England in 1895 by Mr Virgil.

End of Article: IIF

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