Scan 5
Musical instruments in the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1851, 1851
8 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1variety of tone; but while this colossal instrument is calculated only for a permanent fixture in the church or the chorus hall, and requires, moreover, skill of no common order to play, the piano-forte is portable, is admirably adapted for the requirements of private life, and is, perhaps, more easily mastered, to a certain extent, than any other instrument known. Again, although the piano-forte lacks the exquisite delicacy of intonation and amazing power of expression of the violin tribe, and has but a limited capability of producing sustained tones, yet it possesses the advantage of being a miniature orchestra in itself, capable of executing music in every variety of style, and even of representing, with tolerable precision, all the effects producible by the complicated and expensive machinery of a full band.
3It will be our object, after giving a slight sketch of the early history of the piano-forte, to describe, as briefly as possible, its construction, in order to shew the peculiarities of the manufacture, as carried on in the present day; and we shall then proceed to enumerate the examples contained in the Exhibition, offering such remarks upon them as may naturally suggest themselves. It will be interesting to notice, as we proceed, the gradual improvement of the various parts of the instrument; and, in so doing, we may have occasion to allude to some few particular inventions; but it must be borne in mind that in this, as in many similar cases, the gradual advance has rather been due to the combined efforts of many intelligent minds, and to the results of combined experience, than to the isolated improvements of individuals.
5Historical notice.
7Musical instruments, in which the tones were produced by keys, acting upon stretched strings, are of considerable antiquity, but the piano-forte, properly so called, is an invention of the last century; and it is a curious fact, that many great compositions which now afford useful exercises for this instrument (such as the Suites of Handel, and the Clavecin bien tempéré of Bach) were written before it was in existence. The instrument that immediately preceded the piano-forte was the harpsichord, in which the wire was twitched by a small tongue of crow-quill, attached to an apparatus called a jack, moved by the key. The tone thus produced has been not inaptly described as a scratch with a sound at the end of it: the instrument, although great ingenuity was displayed in its manufacture, was very monotonous, and afforded the player no scope except for execution, and that of a most mechanical and
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