Scan 27
Musical Courier 1894-08-29: Vol 29 Iss 755, 1894
65 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 28. See the scan on archive.org.
1RUD. IBACH SOHN.
2Barmen-Germany.
3OFFICE OF THE MUSICAL COURIER,
4BERLIN, August 10, 1894.
6TO one who has a personal and scientific interest in the problem of piano manufacture, in the future of the industry, in the development of the instrument and the broadening of its artistic and educational spheres there can be no greater pleasure than a visit to and inspection of piano factories conducted by far-seeing, progressive and intelligent minds who are able to discern what the future has in store for this, the most potent of all modern instruments. Such inspections are comparable to the voyages of geologists and paleontologists who visited distant mountains and deserts to verify hypotheses and to the voyages of the Arctic seamen to lead to new evidences required to confirm theories based upon earlier discoveries.
8This very motive was at the bottom of my trip to Europe. I did not consider my many years of experience among the American piano factories as sufficient to entitle me, for my own sake, to claim an unprejudiced judgment upon piano manufacturing as it exists at the end of this, the first complete century of the art. My experiences, while they have been varied and based upon a scrupulous investigation of the methods applied in America and the completed instruments of all countries, were yet lacking in that finish necessary to round them off and enable me to speak ex cathedra on the subject as a whole. To make my scheme complete I had to denationalize it, and to do this I was compelled to visit the European factories.
10France and England both gave me many new and curious ideas, and in some instances dethroned from their rather elevated perches many favorite prejudices which, I now own, are an evidence of a rather bigoted influence. I can lose nothing by being candid; I can gain nothing by refusing to be candid. I learned a great deal in studying the French and the English systems of piano manufacturing, but a perfect fund of liberal instruction was gratuitously offered to me by the privilege granted by the old and renowned firm of Rud. Ibach Sohn, of Barmen, in Germany, when that house enabled me last week to inspect its factories at Barmen and Schwelm.
12Rud. Ibach Sohn will celebrated its centennial this year and in its history is crystallized the history and the evolution of the piano of to-day, its early products representing the first escape of the piano from the thraldom of the clavichord and harpsichord and its latest instruments, as I saw them and played them last week at the establishments in this country, representing the perfected type of the piano it will pass the barrier of the century into 1900. To represent both ends of such a vast economy, the scope of which can only be appreciated provided one can grasp the tremendous influence of the piano as a factor both in art and in the social life—to represent the era of the birth of the piano and properly and consistently to represent its highest form of development one century later keeping artistic and intellectual pace with the whole subject, has seldom been accomplished; nay, the instance of Rud. Ibach Sohn is the only one on record in Germany sufficiently pronounced to make it emphatic and national.
14In saying this much I have already conveyed the impression that the pianos of Rud. Ibach Sohn are typical representatives of the modernized art of piano making, and when I say this it conveys the parallel meaning that the factories of the house must necessarily be model institutions of the kind that can produce such instruments. As I have already stated in previous letters from Europe, I must disclaim any purpose or intention to go into elaborate details of construction, for I shall probably utilize these for certain comparative purposes to be embraced in showing at a later day the contrasts between the German, English, French and American methods of piano construction.
16Suffice it to say of the establishments of Rud. Ibach Sohn that they are great industrial units that utilize, under scientific sway, the complex and heterogeneous natural and artificial material necessary to construct an artistic body and convert it into the homogeneous piano of to-day. This is done under the control of a system that is as free from friction as the mechanical genius of the age can operate it. The conservation of the energy, the application of new forces, which is employed in the first, the valuable lessons of one hundred years of experience, the sympathy with the time and the age in which we are active, the spirit of adaptation and a desire to anticipate approaching tendencies—these are the elemental and vital forces that produce the remarkable Wagner grand, as the most beautiful style made by Rud. Ibach Sohn is called.
18Naturally, and most obviously, the piano industry as an effective industry must necessarily thrive in Germany if this nation can, as it does, generate such a house as this Ibach firm, which is symbolical of the tremendous strides made by Germany as a piano making country. The future of such a house is assured, for its product is the living expression of the art that nourishes upon it.
20M. A. B.
22BEWARE OF FRAUD.
24THE visit paid by our Mr. Blumenberg to Europe this year has disclosed to him the fact that a regular traffic exists in the production of fraudulent and illegitimate musical instruments supposed to be old and prepared especially for American collectors, who become the victims of systematized robbery and fraud.
26Clavichords, harpsichords, spinets, violins, 'cellos and curious instruments in imitation of mediæval types are manufactured or doctored to give them the appearance of old specimens, and they are placed in the track of American buyers, who are apparently misled chiefly because of their confidence in the parties engaged in this line of business in Europe and their agents in the United States.
28It is therefore our duty to advise all persons who propose to spend any money on such objects to investigate the party or parties offering them for sale. Europe has been scoured of nearly all perfect specimens and the pedigree of nearly every legitimate instrument is known. If this cannot be produced together with the instrument no one should be tempted to purchase, for it is almost certain that a "fake" or fraud is about to be foisted upon him, especially if he is an American—for the stuff is made particularly with an eye upon the American market.
30LAST Saturday completed the season of Saturday half day closing for 1894, and this week piano purchasers can select pianos from the warerooms all day. This season of rest ends in all large cities at the same time.
32THE warerooms of Sohmer & Co., on Fourteenth street, have been redecorated and present a beautiful appearance. Not only has paint been used on the warerooms, but the outside appearance of the building has been made handsome as well. Two new and elegant signs are also on the front.
34A USUALLY careful contemporary says that "Wm. Tonk & Brother appear to be elated over the reduction in the tariff on piano actions. "But there isn't any reduction in the tariff on piano actions—don't-cher-know—and there won't be whether the President signs the bill to-night or does not sign it, and besides, even if there were a reduction it wouldn't elate the Tonk Brothers very highly because when the McKinley bill went into effect they made all their plans accordingly and they now put together the Herrburger-Schwanders in their own factory here. And besides, do you suppose that Mr. Wessell would have been away enjoying himself in the country had there been any possibility of a reduction?
36THERE is a distinctly better feeling in the retail trade in New York and it is not a sensation produced by prospects, but by an actual revival of business. People are returning to the city much earlier than usual this year for some reasons probably best known to themselves, though much written about by others, and there is an inclination to buy, and (what is most gratifying) an inclination to buy on terms much more favorable to the vendors as regards cash payments. By the end of the next fortnight there will be a general refurbishing of the warerooms and a general air of briskness and of activity, which will make it more pleasant for a salesman to come to work than has been the case for months past, when each day was a repetition of the preceding one—a long, listless, customerless stretch that tried men's patience and wore out piano stools and palm leaf fans.
38ONE of the amusing errors made in the tariff bill is the classification of musical instruments under "Explosives." They fall in the bill as it is printed between friction matches and percussion caps.
40WE regret very much to learn that Mr. W. H. Jewett, who in 1860 commenced the manufacture of the piano that bears his name, is seriously ill at the Burbank Hospital at Fitchburg, Mass., and that he is not expected to recover.
42MR. HENRY STEINERT, formerly of the M. Steinert & Sons Company, has decided to reside hereafter in New York City. His plans for the future are not yet formulated. Any notice of them which has been published is premature and unreliable.
44MR. RUDOLF DOLGE returned on the New York last week on her record breaking trip, and went at once to Dolgeville to superintend the filling of the many and large orders for autoharps that he secured while abroad. He is in the best of health and in excellent spirits as the result of his successes. Mr. Dolge, besides his work for the autoharp, also booked large orders for the Dolge Blue Felt, which is as favorably known in Europe as it is in America.
46THE alteration of the Weber Building is progressing rapidly, and all things point to a speedy completion, barring the usual delays that are a part of the program when one has to depend upon the sweet will of carpenters and painters and plumbers.
48We shall shortly publish a most excellent view of the exterior of the building as it will appear when finished, together with several sketches of the interior, which, by the way, promises to form one of the best arranged and handsomest groups of piano exhibition rooms in the East.
50To Rebuild.
52SINCE the burning of Messrs. J. P. Simmons & Co.'s, repair shop, at 630 Fourth avenue, Mr. Fonda, owner of the building occupied by that firm, together with Mr. Simmons, has been in consultation with an architect, with a view to erecting a large and commodious piano and organ repair shop in the rear of the Fonda building. It will be built with the ultimate view of being suitable for the manufacture of musical instruments. Louisville has a large Southern trade, and there is no reason why a factory of this kind cannot be made a success.—Louisville "Commercial."
54Sterling Annual Meeting.
56The Old Officers Elected—Business Prospects Brighter.
58THE annual meeting of the Sterling Company was held in the president's office on August 21. President R. W. Blake presided, and Secretary J. R. Mason was clerk. Charles H. Hubbell and the above named are the directors of the concern. W. C. Atwater, who is a stockholder, was also present at the meeting. The officers and the directors were re-elected, C. H. Hubbell being again chosen superintendent. The business outlook for the coming year was discussed. The prospects, from present indications are much more favorable than last year. The year past was the slowest for a long time. They are enjoying a good increase in their Australian trade. At present the concern is making 60 organs and 50 pianos a week, which is about the output of last August.—Ansonia "Sentinel."
60Important
61Actions that are thoroughly reliable in construction.
62An imperfect Action is a source of great dissatisfaction to dealer and customer.
63Buy pianos that have in them the Roth & Engelhardt Actions.
64FACTORY AT St. Johnsville, New York.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.