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 141
Scan 141
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
20 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 119. See the scan on archive.org.
1rights in the use of master recordings.15 These recordings had to be entirely re-edited for use on the Ampico.
3A second American invention producing the same effect by different mechanical means is the Duo-Art of the Aeolian Company.
5These reproducing pianofortes were all alike in general arrangement of pneumatics, in the division of the keyboard into halves for expression in playing, in possessing devices for automatic rerolling, recording and repeating, in elimination of the recorded expression and substitution of human control. The Ampico has the following special features:
7"Both a crescendo pneumatic system and an instantaneous accent pneumatic system, which it can use in combination, to control the air-tension behind the hammers. These systems may be operated independently for separate effects or concurrently for combined; thus producing an unusual smoothness in crescendo and diminuendo as well as a delicate shading. There is also an 'amplifier' for special effects of volume and the extended perforations in the music-sheet produce the greatly desired 'singing' quality of tone."16
9Mr. Stoddard maintains a fine laboratory where the minutest details of musical expression are studied so that the mechanical playing of the Ampico used in the various makes of the American Piano Company possesses a beauty formerly undreamt of.16
11Chickering pianofortes with the Ampico have been adopted by Harvard, Wellesley, Smith, Teachers' College Columbia University, Exeter Academy, New England Conservatory, and many other schools and colleges for teaching music appreciation. An extensive library of Artists' Record Music Rolls of classical, American and popular dance compositions has been developed. Recordings have been made by about fifty artists and include such names as Harold Bauer, Teresa Carreño, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Leopold Godowsky, Edvard Grieg, Josef Hofmann.
13Other Contributions of Jonas Chickering17
15Jonas Chickering entered heartily into the musical life of Boston, influencing the whole course of music in the United States. He had a fine tenor voice so he joined the Park Street Church choir and the Handel and Haydn Society almost as soon as he came to
1715 Statement of Mr. Spain of Chickering & Sons.
1816 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Supplement to Edition XIII Vol. 2, Musical Instruments, Mechanical p. 1008.
1917 Tercentenary Letter by Miss M. E. Connell pp. 3 & 4.
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