The Erard: The Beginning of the Performance Piano

Let’s go way back to the 18^th century to visit the beginnings of the Erard Piano-forte maker. Why? By the 19th century, Erard pianos were as popular then as the Steinway is today. Many of the foremost musicians of that time, such as Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Liszt to name just a few, preferred the Erard over any other pianoforte of that era. As reported in the "Music Critic and Trade Review" magazine of September 5, 1880, we read:

“Towards the latter part of last month (August 1880), says the London and Provincial Music Trades Review, the house of Erards’ celebrated the centenary of their foundation. Owing to the recent death of M. Blondel, the Paris manager of the firm, there were no festivities. But Madame Erard marked the event by an act of regal generosity, distributing 60,000 francs among her workmen and employees, in proportions varying according to the period each one had been in her employment. Sebastian Erhadt, the founder of the firm, was born at Strasburg, April 5, 1752, the eldest of four children of an upholsterer in that city. He was originally apprenticed to a draughtsman, and it is narrated that he ascribed much of the success which attended him in after life to his theoretical knowledge of drawing and of the principles of mechanics. His father died poor, and Sebastian, at the age of sixteen, was thrown upon his own resources. He tramped to Paris, and entered the employment of a harpsichord maker there. He was a persevering young man, but it is narrated of him that “he was too inquisitive, and wanted to know too much.” However, his employer having received an order for a harpsichord, and being unable to execute it himself, entrusted it to young Erhadt, and when it was finished he, after the fashion too often adopted by eminent and other pianoforte manufacturers of the present day, affixed his own name to it. Questions, however, arose as to the mechanism, which the bogus maker was unable to explain, and the fact that the real maker was Sebastian Erhadt was disclosed.

The celebrity of the mechanical harpsichord soon ran around the fashionable world of Paris, and young Sebastian, then 25 years of age, attracted the notice of the Duchess of Villeroi. The lady herself had some originality of invention, and she established for Erhadt, whose name was forthwith Gallicized to Erard, a factory in her chateau. It was here that Erard manufactured the first pianoforte ever made in France, it being, according to Fetis, a square, with two unisons and five octaves, upon the plan of the pianofortes which had been imported from England and Germany. This was in 1777, and from it the celebrity of Erard may lie said to date. His orders for pianos largely increasing, he sent to Strasburg for his brother Jean Baptiste, and the two, in July, 1780, established in the Rue de Bourbon, in the Faubourg St. Germain, the factory which soon became one of the most celebrated in Europe. It was the centenary of this establishment that was observed last month.

Sebastian Erard now busied himself with new inventions, and among other things he devised for the voice of the queen, which was of such limited compass that almost every piece was too high for her, a movable keyboard. Some writers aver that the movable keyboard was old even at that time (1787), but it is almost identical with other inventions of a similar sort which have been patented even during later years. The idea was simply to change the position of the keyboard so that the hammers might strike a higher or lower string, thus transposing “a semitone, a whole tone, or even a minor third.” For eleven years the factory of Erards flourished in Paris, until the revolution broke out. The Erards were forced to flee to England, and in 1793 they established their London factory. On October 17^th, 1794, Sebastian Erard took out his first English patent, entitled “Two methods for the escapement of the hammer and an arrangement for striking one two or three strings at pleasure by a side movement of the damper rail. Harmonic octave produced by mechanism which pressed on the string exactly in the centre.” At that time, although the pianoforte was known to have been used at a concert by Dibdin as far back as 1767 (the concert program now being framed, is in the office of Messrs. John Broadwood & Sons), it was really in its infancy. Backers, Broadwood, ans Stodart were then the great pioneers of pianoforte manufacture, for although the firm of Kirkman was in existence long prior, its industry was exclusively confined to the manufacture of harpsichords. In 1796, after the Reign of Terror, Erard returned to Paris, continuing, however, his London factory. In that year he made his first grand horizontal piano on the English model, which, according to Fetis, he continued using till 1808. He had in the meantime, in 1801, patented in London an invention “to render the touch either hard or soft to any degree, at the election of the player.”

In 1808 Sebastian Erard finally discarded the English action, and on September 14^th of that year he patented the first ideas of his famous repetition action. It is the fourth article of the patent (the previous articles relating to stopping the piano strings so as to give a semitone above, and to plate improvements), and it runs as follows: - “In the piano an improvement is introduced into the movement in connection with the hammer rail, which affords the power of giving repeated strokes without missing or failure by very small angular motions of the key itself.” The specification with drawings is printed, and it may also be found in the seventh of the Rolls Chapel Reports. In an article in the Dictionary of Musicians, Mr. A.J. Hipkins refers to a patent for the repetition grand piano action, taken out by Sebastian Erard in 1809, but no such patent is in the records of our patent office. Mr. Hipkins further states that a feature of this 1809 patent was the inverted bridge or upward bearing at the wrest plank bridge of the piano, since invariably adopted. But as we can find no record of the facts, we must leave the responsibility of the statement to Mr. Hipkins. It is very certain, however, that the invention of the repetition action had occupied Sebastian Erard from the time that Louis XVI conferred the brevet upon his firm to the date of the actual fruition of his ideas. Sebastian, however, well nigh seventy years of age, felt himself too old to carry his invention out, and he confided it to his nephew Pierre, the son of his brother, Jean Baptiste Erard. Pierre Erard was born in 1796, and at the age of 25, in 1821, he describing himself as of “Great Marlborough street, musical instrument maker,” took out the celebrated repetition action patent, dated December 22^nd of that year. The preamble of the patent declares that Pierre Erard, “in consequence of communications made to him by a certain foreigner residing abroad, is in possession of an invention of ‘Improvements in pianofortes and other keyed instruments’, namely, a new and improves application of mechanism to the escapement.” The patent is briefly described in the official abridgements as follows: -

“The present invention introduces four improvements, which require simply the depression of the key. (1) A spring so contrived that its strength is made to support the weight of the hammer after it has made its blow and has escaped from its support upon the sticker. (2) A contact is brought about between the hammer, near the centre upon which it moves, and the spring or lever connected and supported by such spring, in order to prepare the fall of the hammer when its escapement takes place. (3) A lever, by moving on its centre, effects the escapement of the sticker from under the hammer. (4) A piece so contrived with an adjusting screw as to catch the hammer in its fall, and to stop or hold it as long as the key is kept entirely down, so as to prevent the possibility of its rebounding to the wires again, while it releases it again with the smallest rise of the finger end of the key.”

This practically ended the connection of Sebastian Erard with the firm which he had founded. The labor of his early years told upon even a robust constitution, and after suffering many years from disease, he died at his chateau, La Muette, near Passy, August 5^th, 1831. His funeral was a grand one, attended by most of the leading artists of Paris.

M. Pierre Erard now took up the active direction of the business, and he proved himself as prolific in invention as his uncle before him. Following rapidly upon the invention of the repetition action in 1821, M. Pierre Erard, on January 5^th, 1825, patented the system of fixed metal bracing, which was widely adopted, and is even used in our days. This invention (emanating originally from Sebastian Erard) also included a new contrivance for the check. In February, 1827, a further patent, also the idea of Sebastian Erard, and improving the action and the check with a new method of hinging the hammer, was granted,  while in 1835 the repetition action patent of 1821 was extended for seven years, on the ground of the great utility of the patent and of the losses at first sustained in working it. In September, 1840, M. Pierre Erard took out his first original patent of a new action for oblique pianofortes, the patent also including a ball and socket centre of motion for the finger key and an X stand to obtain equal support for all the four feet of horizontal pianos. The last two points of the invention have, we believe, since been abandoned. Another patent was granted to M. Pierre Erard in September, 1850, the ideas including the application of wood to metal instead of metal to wood, a tuning screw for each wire, new pedal keys, and especially a wrest plank wholly of metal. Another patent was taken out in November, 1851, by which the strings were laid on or against the sound board instead of on the bridge of the sound board, the idea proposing to obviate the pressure which tends to press away the sound board.

M. Pierre Erard died at Passy in 1855, and the important business has since been carried on by his widow, Madame Erard, assisted by a competent London and Paris staff. In February, 1862, Mr. E.G. Bruzaud, the manager of the London house, patented a contrivance by which two dampers were used for each note.

It may be mentioned that the invention in 1838 of the harmonic bar is claimed for M. Pierre Erard by Dr. Oscar Paul in the Geschichte des Claviers, published in Leipzig in 1688. The house of Erard has also always been celebrated for its harps. . . Harp patents were also taken out by Sebastian Erard in 1802, 1808, (damping) 1810,. . . and by Pierre Erard in 1822 and 1835.

The Fate of the Dolge Mansion

Just this last Saturday (December 27th, 2014) the Dolge mansion (an earlier photo of it on the right, by the way) went up in flames. The cause is still under investigation as of now. Read about it here:
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Dolgeville-historic-mansion-destroyed-in-blaze-5941546.php#photo-7241975

The Steinway Accelerated Action

Steinway’s accelerated action was introduced in 1934 amid some fanfare. It was reported in the Nov.-Dec. Presto –Times publication of 1934 that Polish born concert pianist Josef Hofmann (1876-1957) once came to Steinway Hall in 1932 to ask if they could make their actions “more sensitive” and even “more responsive”.  Well that request was supposed to have given the impetus to the creation of what we know as the Accelerated Action. That little story may have been put together after the fact though, because the half-round key bearing, which is an integral part of the Accelerated Action was patented in 1931. The idea apparently had been worked on well before Hofmann’s request was received.

Be that as it may, the Accelerated Action was created by Frederick Vietor to improve the response of the piano action. Times were not good for the sale of pianos during the early thirties. Times were not good for the sale of much of anything during that time. Something that could create a renewed interest in the piano would be welcomed, however small it might be. Perhaps this was the impetus for the invention.

Here are the claims:

      1)      The new Accelerated Action is quicker by an average of .02 of a second at a fortissimo blow. This was measured from the time the finger begins to depress the key to the time the key and hammer returns at rest. The total time that they used from the beginning to the end of playing the key was approximately .15 of a second. The tests were done using high-speed photography and they determined that the return of the key was .02 of a second quicker.

      2)      Because the key and hammer return is that much quicker, the hammer drops completely away from the strings after contact by the same .02 of a second faster.

      3)      Less force is required to play pianissimo because the inertia is less in the key, due to the placements of the key leads closer to the key’s fulcrum. Placing the leads closer to the fulcrum requires more lead, but decreases inertia in the key by 15% on average.

      4)      Measurements of internal friction with the Accelerated system averages 11% less friction and friction is more uniform, which makes fortissimo playing slightly speedier (less friction) and more precise (more uniform friction).

Testimonials of the new Accelerated Action from some artists:

      1)      Vladimir Horowitz: “The new Steinway accelerated action is a marked improvement on the action of a Steinway piano. It makes a perfect action still more perfect.”

      2)      Josef Hofmann: “The seemingly impossible has been achieved. The Steinway piano has been improved upon. The new Steinway accelerated action has done it. The invention not only facilitates and enhances tone production but also permits greater precision and speed. I, therefore, take pleasure in recommending this new creation to all who are interested in the art of piano playing.”

      3)      Sergei Rachmaninoff: “This is to tell you that I consider the new Steinway accelerated action a great improvement, and that I have found your pianos more perfect during the past two seasons than ever before.”

      4)      Mischa Levitzki: “I consider your new Steinway accelerated action the greatest improvement achieved by the piano industry in many, many years. I venture to predict that it will have a far-reaching beneficial effect upon the whole of piano playing, both professional and amateur. For, with greater smoothness and responsiveness of your new action, the player will not only be able to carry out difficult passages with greater ease, but will also be able to produce a more beautiful tone, thereby getting even more inspiration from the matchless Steinway tone than ever before. I rejoice with you in your new achievement.”

What is the Accelerated Action that Vietor invented? It consists of two parts. One, the aforementioned half round key bearing found under each key’s fulcrum, slightly less than one-half inch in width and about one-quarter of an inch high (made by cutting a half-inch dowel in half length-wise, and then cutting the lengths into pieces which fit under each separate key), and the curved portion covered with fairly thin white wool cloth for noise reduction. These take the place of the traditional round flat felt punchings normally found under piano keys.

The other part of the Accelerated Action design is the placement of the key leads. The accelerated system called for a specific way of leading the keys. The first key lead was to be placed as close to the key’s fulcrum as possible and then as more leads were needed, they would be added as close to the previously placed key lead as possible, and so on until the desired touch weight was achieved, rather than the traditional method of adding the first lead as far away from the fulcrum as possible, and then adding leads (as needed) as close to the previously placed lead as possible, and so on until the desired touch weight was reached.  Either way, they would have to weigh off each key of the action to the same touch weight specifications. The Accelerated Action lead placement gave slightly less inertia for the player to overcome at the key because, as was mentioned, the weight was positioned closest to the fulcrum. This lead placement was scientifically deemed to have enough of an effect on lessening the inertia at the key to be included in the design. The hammer accounts for most of the inertia in the action, but decreasing the inertia at the key did have an overall advantage of a slightly lighter feel when playing fortissimo. 

As Steinway has recently abandoned that method of leading and has returned to the “traditional” leading method, they have tacitly admitted that the Accelerated Action didn't really need the special leading pattern, or at least the additional work of putting more lead in, did not a difference make. They continue to use the half-round key bearings however.

The Importance of the Finish on a Sound Board

Resin, a principle ingredient in varnish, is considered nature's "master stroke" in preserving the fiber in wood. Wood properly treated has wonderful durability, so a sound board properly treated with varnish helps preserve its integrity. But there are many types and qualities of varnish, each for its own purpose. What follows are a few vital hints in connection with the use of varnish on sound boards.
Keep unused portions of varnish away from the open air as much as possible. Keep brushes perfectly clean, and brush out the varnish rapidly from spare dipping as thinly as can be smoothly done in each coat to be used. Plenty of time must be allowed between coats. This will give the finished product an elasticity of surface it cannot have any other way, will help avoid cracking and consequently will prove almost impervious to moisture.

Sound Board Glue Used in Days Gone By

Hot hide glue is a gelatinous substance extracted from the hides, bones and connective tissues of animals. Its molecules are very fine and are able to link together in very long chains and has a great affinity for other certain types of materials. These types would include leather, cloth and wood. The stickiness of the glue is due, for the most part, to this molecular attraction to itself.
Too high a heat will destroy to a great extent this molecular attraction which destroys this stickiness so important a characteristic of this glue. What heat is too high? Any temperature higher than 145 degrees. A report by O. Linder and E.C. Frost before the 1914 meeting of the American Society for Testing of Materials showed that "overheating glue is found to be weakened by forty to fifty percent."
The Madgeburg hemisphere test, performed in 1650 before the German emperor by Otto von Guercke is illuminating. If we completely exclude the air from between a joint with glue, we are utilizing the force of atmospheric pressure to hold the parts together. It required sixteen large horses to pull apart these twenty-two inch "hemispheres" perfectly fitted together and then pumped free of internal air to create as near a vacuum as was then possible. (Practical Physics, Black and Davis, pp. 101-102.)
Hot hide glue will find its way into the pores of wood and make an absolutely air-tight joint. In the same report by Linder and Frost, it was brought out that blocks of wood glued and tested for the strength of glue required from 1,100 to 1,950 pounds of force to the square inch before the blocks would pull apart. The blocks were clamped together in the "usual manner" in what might be called a hair line joint.
In the successful gluing of a soundboard, namely the edge gluing of the boards to make the panel, the gluing of the ribs and bridges to the completed board and the gluing of the board to the frame or inner rim of the piano, every particle of glue that will squeeze out must be squeezed out so as to permit the actual touching of the molecules of the two parts to be glued together. Further, the greatest care must be taken to have the pressure uniform throughout the lengths of the parts being glued.

Felt and Hammer Making

Back before the Great Depression of 1930, felt and hammer making in the United States was arguably at its zenith.  I think most of us are familiar with, or at least seen and/or heard, that type of vintage hammer.  If you have serviced early twentieth century pianos, you no doubt have come across hammers that I speak of; ones that feel soft, yet have the power of a much harder feeling hammer, and we wonder how such a hammer could have that kind of power and dynamic range and yet feel so soft.  I don’t care who makes hammers presently, none of them, in my opinion, stack up to those vintage hammers of yore. 

One of those hammer makers from by-gone days was the piano hammer division of the American Felt Company which by the 1920’s had factories in NY, Chicago, and Boston.  As an aside, the old NY American Felt Co. building which was located on 114^th East 13^th Street, NY, has now been turned into condos!  They are selling the units starting at $900,000.  What a deal!  The building has 12 floors and 41 units (google AMERICAN FELT 114 EAST 13TH STREET NY - Demsker Realty to see for yourself!).

J.G. Childs, then foreman of the felt factory in Chicago, delivered an address on felt and hammer making at the Chicago chapter meeting (a.k.a. Divisional meeting) of the National Association of Piano Tuners in November, 1924.  The following is the account of that address as found in the Tuners Journal of January 1925:

“For a great many years prior to the latter part of the 19^th century practically all hammer felt used in this country was imported, although there was a certain amount of manufacturing done here with the idea of making entirely satisfactory merchandise.  This culminated in first prize being given at the Vienna Exposition in 1873 to American made felt and later, in 1878, felt from this country received the grand prize in Paris.  This naturally brought more attention to the felt made here, with the result that large orders were placed and felt became more generally known throughout our country.  As it became better known it was universally accepted, for the realization came to piano manufacturers that felt was being made in this country that was unsurpassed by any in the world.

“It is interesting to know of the care and the numerous details that are necessary in the selection of the wool, the making of the felt and all of the steps to the final covering of the hammers for the factory.

“First of all, wool for this purpose is selected from all sections of the world, coming from Australia, South America, Cape Colony, and parts of the United States.  But of all the wool from these various sources only from five to ten percent of it can be used for the making of hammer felt – the cream only – as hammer felt requires long staple, strong, healthy stock and no other will do.

“I have mentioned ‘healthy’.  This is a much more important item than one would think, but, after all, wool is an animal fiber and its quality depends not only upon breeding but upon the condition of the animal.  If a sheep is sick during the period of wool growth or if a heavy drought occurs, it will naturally interfere with the growth of the wool during that period of growth.  This wool, of course, will break in the section represented by that growth and cannot be used for the work required of it.  In addition to this, the wool must be resilient.  It must have a proper number of kinks to the inch. It must be of the proper diameter, as wool that is too coarse will not make the fine hammer felt required nor can we use wool that is too fine as it will be too readily cut through by the strings of the piano.  In order to insure these conditions being met, each batch of wool is thoroughly tested in the laboratory to see that it meets the specifications.

“This selected wool is next thoroughly scoured with warm water and the finest of soap.  It is run through several washings to eliminate all the grease, sand and dirt, and later it is subjected to hand-picking to remove the burrs and tar specks so the finished product will be white and clean.

“It then goes through the felt mill where it is first run through the ‘picker’.  This mixes the several varieties which go to make up a good blend and starts the process of combing out the fibers so they may be laid with the run of the sheet.  This process of combing and mixing is carried further by means of cards, which is in reality a multiple combing process.  As the wool emerges from the card it is in the form of a thin film, which is deposited upon a moving belt.  On this belt the wool is built up, starting at the bass side of the sheet and gradually increasing the width of the lay-out until the entire sheet, approximately sixty inches in width, has been deposited on the belt.  In doing this, it can readily be seen that the bass end has been made much thicker and has been tapered off to a thin treble.

“Right at this point is where we can make up the sheet with a heavier tenor or with any other special instructions that the customer may desire.  The lay-out made here will naturally be reflected in the finished hammer.  The batt, as it is then called, is run underneath hardener rollers – which, by means of vibrated motion helped by heat and moisture, interlock the wool fibers and harden this soft, downy batt into a firm piece of hammer felt.  However, this hardening process has really affected only one side, so this sheet is taken off and put onto a rehardener – which hardens the other side.

“The sheet, which has during this period been, approximately, thirty feet long, is then cut up into smaller sheets, approximately five feet square, and is put through the process known as fulling.  This is, in reality, a shrinking process – which locks the fibers more closely and shrinks the whole sheet.  It is accomplished by large hammers suspended from a crossbeam, which thump away at this felt until it has been reduced to a sheet approximately three feet square.

“This process is helped very materially by warm water and a clear soap solution – and is carried on for over half a day.  At the end of this time the sheets are taken out, washed free of the soap and the water extracted.  Then attention must be given to the treble end.  This generally must be very brilliant and to obtain this brilliance, the trebles must be re-fulled by hand in order that they may have the special touch which the customer may desire.  Following this, the sheets are pressed out to remove any heavy wrinkles, sanded, trimmed to an even size, inspected, and they are then ready for the hammer shop.

“The hammer shop, the Boston Piano Supply Company, on receipt of the hammer felt, again inspects it to see that it meets the specifications outlined by the customer.  The sheets are then laid aside and held for the respective customers, as they represent, as nearly as it is humanly possible to control felt, the touch requested.

“When an order is received the sheets are taken to the cutting bench, where they are stripped by hand in long cuts, running from the bass to the treble, and inspected again.  These strips go to the covering department, where the wooden moldings are first set into the press and covered with the under felt.  Upon this the strip of top felt is then stretched and held in place for the number of hours required for the glue to set properly.  It is desirable to leave the hammers in the molds no longer than is necessary, just long enough to complete properly this stretching process, to eliminate the outer skin which other processes would leave upon the completed hammer.  It is our ambition to deliver a hammer which requires very little tone regulation, and this is always in our thoughts, as we realize it is a great assistance to the manufacturer.

“The hammers are then taken from the molds and the rough edges of the hammer felt trimmed off.  The amount of felt trimmed off the edge is carefully gauged in the endeavor to leave the same amount of felt on each side of the hammer so that it will be properly balanced.  After this, the whole strip is sanded off and the hammers are cut apart.  The hammers then go in trays to the wiring machines and from that point are bored to the scale, pitch (angles), and size of boring the customer specifies.  There is one more inspection made before the hammers are finally packed, then the package is marked with the customer’s scale number and sent out.

“You will readily realize that through these many processes there are opportunities for variation; that the least thing in the start of the felt through the mill will have its effect upon the finished hammer in the hands of the tone regulator.  It is therefore our aim to watch the details of felt manufacturing with the utmost care, in order that a uniform product may be attained.

“The very nature of wool itself makes it difficult to hold to the absolute accuracy of touch that some people may demand and, for that reason, many questions have been asked about tone regulating.  I can only say to you that this is a subject on which I will not attempt to talk, but that you, as tone regulators, know that you cannot pick a hammer to pieces and produce a soft mushy hammer and still get satisfactory results.  You, of course, must needle hammers – but when you do so, for the good of the hammer do as little needling as you can.  Every time you stick a needle into that hammer you are bound to cut some of the fibers and that loosens the tension which prolongs the life of the hammer to quite an extent.”

<End of article>

Addendum: One of the detrimental effects the gluing process has on hammers made today, is the enormous amount of heat the glue requires to set up.  This is done in order to cut down on production time.  Instead of hours in the caul as the glue hardens, it now takes mere minutes. But now because of the amount of heat they use, it affects the felt negatively in that it loses resiliency.  The hammer maker gains in that it shortens production time, but quality suffers.

A Noble Art

"A Noble Art" is a book of a series of lectures available from Amazon, dealing with the development and construction of the piano.  In it the author, Miss Smith, leads up to the building of the Steinway piano which she eloquently holds forth as the epitome of piano making.  While this is an attempt to explain the "mysteries" of piano making, the work is here and there marked by observations laden with such views as to distort reality into something imaginary, or at least romanticizing the whole process of the manufacturing process.

It does, however, offer some interesting insights couched in heavenly prose.  Here's an example from the book of what I mean: "In the hour when I saw this (the piano factory), the walls of the factory wherein I stood stretched upward to the grandeur of God's temple; and the wrinkled face of the workman beside me, his eyes resting lovingly and proudly on the beauties of the action before us, became glorified in a priesthood whose majesty he knew not. It is the wonder and pathos of life that they who serve its deepest mysteries -- yes, even the holy of holies -- have no significant initiation, no outward badge.  Their badge is but toil's superscription in the lines of face and form; their initiation but the long discipline of faithful labor.  Theirs is but a matter of regulating a few springs and levers, but the levers are among those which lift humanity."

From her we learn that "the purity of a pianist's tone" depends on how the finger attacks the key.  There is no question that that is the case.  However the piano must be in excellent tune and voiced and regulated well for that to be true.

I applaud Miss Smith's remarkable and earnest study of the piano manufacturing process.  She is justified in holding up the Steinway as the pinnacle of piano design and construction.  Only a few other piano making firms could hold their own against a Steinway back in the late 19th century, which was when these lectures were written.