Scan 6
Musical instruments in the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1851, 1851
7 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1soulless kind. At length, in an auspicious hour for the interests of music, the idea arose that, by causing the key to strike the string, instead of pulling it, the tone might be considerably improved, and the general capabilities of the instrument otherwise extended. This contrivance opened an entirely new field to the player, by giving him the power of expression, in addition to that of execution; for, by varying the touch, a greater or less degree of force could be given to the blow on the string,—whereby the effects of piano and forte might be produced at pleasure. This was the great feature of the new invention, and gave to the improved instrument the name of piano-forte, which it has ever since retained. Who was the inventor, does not appear certain. The merit has been ascribed by turns to the Germans, the Italians, and the English; and the date of the invention is equally obscure. The first authentic notice of the instrument we have been able to discover is on the occasion of a visit of John Sebastian Bach to Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in 1747, three years before this immortal composer's death. The king had been so much pleased with certain "forte-pianos," manufactured by Silberman of Freyburg, that he bought them all up, to the number of fifteen, and placed them in different rooms of the palace. When Bach arrived, the king gave up a concert about to take place, and spent the evening in hearing the great man play on these forte-pianos; and it was on this occasion his Majesty gave Bach the subject of the well-known "Musicalisches Opfer." It is said that the instruments are, or were a short time ago, still existing on the premises; but it is probable they did not subsequently answer the king's expectations, for it is on record that a harpsichord of the best kind was made to his express order eighteen years afterwards, namely, in 1765, by Tschudi, the predecessor of the present firm of Broadwood and Sons, and at that time one of the principal harpsichord makers in London.*
3We have evidence that the piano-forte was first known in England about 1767, inasmuch as it was introduced on the stage of Covent Garden Theatre, as "a new instrument," in May of that year.† Its manufacture was soon commenced by the harpsichord makers, whose ingenuity wrought great improvements in its construction, and made manifest the great
5* An excellent portrait, by one of Hogarth's pupils, now on the premises in Great Pulteney-street, represents Tschudi in the act of tuning the royal harpsichord. The instrument is still in the palace at Potsdam.
6† This evidence is derived from an old play-bill, a copy of which is now in the possession of Messrs. Broadwood. It contains many well-known names, and as it is otherwise a very interesting document, we have been
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