Scan 4
Musical instruments in the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1851, 1851
14 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
3IN
5THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION OF 1851.
7Music, although possessing many features in common with the sister arts, has this remarkable peculiarity, that it is in great part dependent on a branch of manufacture, requiring in a high degree the exercise of technical knowledge and mechanical skill. It is due to this circumstance alone, that while poetry, painting, and sculpture attained high excellence at an early period, music is still progressing. The contemporaneous improvement of musical art and of musical instruments has never, we think, been sufficiently noticed; but when we consider that musical instruments are the medium through which the composer makes known his ideas, we find at once a reason for the gradual development of this most enchanting art, as well as a stimulus for increasing the capabilities of the means on which it mainly depends for its expression.
9To trace the manner in which the progress of music, and the growth of mechanical ingenuity, have gone on, hand in hand, would be indeed a pleasing and instructive task; but it is out of our province to undertake it here. Our business is with musical instruments, and with the Exhibition of 1851. Let us, therefore—having thus briefly alluded to the intimate connection of this branch of manufacture with the art itself—proceed to examine what is its state of advancement in the present day, noticing what progress has already been made, and what glimpses the World's Fair gives us of improvement to come.
11THE PIANO-FORTE
13is by far the most valuable musical instrument we possess. It is indeed inferior in particular points to many others, but has on the whole important advantages over all. For example, it is not equal to the organ in power, grandeur, or
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