Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 137
Scan 137
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
16 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 115. See the scan on archive.org.
1International Exhibition, Sydney, New South Wales, 1879.
2Cork International Exhibition, Cork, Ireland, 1883.
3Crystal Palace Exposition, London, England, 1884.
4World's Fair, Chicago, Illinois, 1893.
5Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915.
7A unique contribution of this company was a revival of the making of early keyboard stringed instruments and viols as an aid to providing the best in music. Arnold Dolmetsch, the greatest living authority on musical instruments and music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, was brought over for this purpose in 1906. This Swiss-French expert had a department in the factory at [address hidden], Boston. There, with the assistance of a few Chickering craftsmen, he made in four years a total of about 100 instruments, 33 clavichords, 13 harpsichords, a few virginals and spinets, several lutes, octavinas and psalteries, and the balance "Chests of Viols." Each of these last consisted of six instruments of the violin family, 2 treble viols—the viola d'amore—2 tenor viols, and 2 bass viols—the viola da gamba and the violone tuned an octave lower. The harpsichords had two banks and strings of 16 foot pitch.
9Mr. Dolmetsch purchased all the necessary supplies, which included materials difficult to obtain, such as pearwood and quills from crows for plucking the harpsichord wires, and tested each instrument personally.
11As most instruments of these types still in existence were in poor condition, the making of these fine replicas brought about a renaissance of playing on the instruments for which the music of Bach, Scarlatti, Purcell, Rameau, and other early composers was written.
13Mr. Dolmetsch gave concerts and lectures demonstrating the instruments, both locally and in many other cities and various colleges. He played all these instruments well, but usually played the viola d'amore or harpsichord, and Mrs. Dolmetsch played the viola da gamba or harpsichord. Four series of concerts were given in Chickering Hall, Boston, in the years 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1909, Mr. Dolmetsch conducting, assisted by many members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and other talent such as C. W. Adams, G. Longy, C. Lenom, A. Maquarre, A. Brooke, A. Sautet,
157 From [address hidden] had a department in the Gaveau Factory, Paris. Since then he and his family have had a workshop and school at Haselmere, England, and conduct an annual "Festival of Chamber Music."
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