Upright Cabinet Styles in American Piano Manufacturing, 1880–1930

Transcription

Acoustic
& Digital
PIANO
BUYER
Upright Cabinet Styles in American
Piano Manufacturing, 1880–1930
MARTHA TAYLOR
rom about 1880 to 1930, when piano manufacturing was one of the
nation’s most important industries, pianos were produced in a staggering
array of cabinet styles, many of them highly intricate, embellished, and
decorated, others dull and pedestrian. The cabinet styles were closely related to the
social and economic climates of that period—to changes in values in an emerging
consumer culture, and to economic cycles that affected the quantity, styles, and
quality of the pianos made during that time. This article is an overview of those
styles, and their historical context, as they pertain to upright pianos.
This 1892
Henry F. Miller
is an example
of the supreme
achievement
of the cabinet
maker’s art.
Excerpted from the Spring 2012 Edition of Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer
Copyright © 2012 by Brookside Press LLC. All rights reserved. www.pianobuyer.com
1
1884 Decker Bros.
An 1880s piano is
immediately identifiable
by the three-paneled jigsaw
scrollwork of its front
board. This open filigree
scrollwork always has
repeated patterns, and is
backed with rich, brilliantly
colored silk. The elaborate
legs feature a large top
and large base. Victorian
pianos have minuscule folddown music desks, and the
cheeks and fallboard are
always curved.
The Piano’s Various Forms
The original harpsichord shape of the piano gradually
evolved into today’s grand piano shape in order to meet
the acoustical needs of concert halls and the musical demands of professionals and dedicated amateur players.
In the process, the piano became a status symbol for the upper classes. With the rise of a middle class during the Industrial Revolution, the opportunity to learn to play the piano,
and to appreciate and own the finer things in life, became
available to large numbers of people for the first time.
In the mid-19th century, the square piano, also known
as the square grand, constituted the largest share of
the American piano market. Although often a beautiful piece of furniture, the square’s oblong, rectangular
shape was a manufacturing and design nightmare due to
its limited ability to withstand the tension of the strings.
This and other faults, including its large size, contributed
to the beginning of its demise, in favor of the upright,
soon after the Civil War. Uprights were cheaper to manufacture, which made them more affordable; and, being smaller, they fit better in the narrower dwellings of
the middle class, who constituted the new generation of
piano owners. By 1890, square pianos had all but disappeared from piano showrooms.
Although not a piano, the reed organ, also known as
the pump organ, reigned as the most popular keyboard
instrument for the home from 1850 to 1894. It was inexpensive, easy to manufacture, and durable. However,
as improved manufacturing methods led to lower piano
prices, the public turned away from the reed organ in
favor of the piano. Many notable piano manufacturers,
including Mason & Hamlin, Baldwin, and Kimball, got
their start making reed organs.
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Since 1880, the most historically significant form of
the piano has been the upright. Eminently affordable, uprights were made by the millions, and countless specimens
made between 1880 and 1930 still exist to be admired and
studied. The upright, like the grand, reached its current
technical design around 1880. Because of this, although
the furniture of an 1880s upright may be considered antique, such a piano is considered mechanically modern.
The Industrial Revolution in America
The Industrial Revolution took root in America in the
late 1860s, following the Civil War. The biggest technological advancement was the displacement of water
power by steam power, which allowed industry to move
away from the banks of fast-moving rivers in the Northeast and spread across the nation. Coal was increasingly
used to fuel the new steam engines and to heat the factories. These factories were generally located in cities,
which were crowded with foreign immigrants and rural
Americans seeking the jobs made possible by the Industrial Revolution, and which thus had an abundant supply
of cheap labor.
Early in this period, most piano manufacturers were
located in Eastern cities such as New York, Boston, and Baltimore. As railroads opened up the West, Chicago retailers
supplied the emerging frontier towns with pianos from the
East. Eventually, these towns grew large enough to bypass the Chicago merchants and deal directly with Eastern manufacturers. In response, a number of Chicago
retail firms, such as Lyon & Healy and W.W. Kimball,
began to make their own pianos and thus challenge the
dominance of the Eastern makers. Because labor unions
had yet to organize there, pianos made in Chicago were
cheaper, though many were also of mediocre quality.
By the 1880s, the adoption of mass production and assembly-line techniques led to extraordinary price reductions in goods of all kinds, including pianos. To expand
the market, retailers adopted installment sales, a practice pioneered by the Singer Sewing Machine Company;
by the 1890s, the vast majority of pianos were sold on
installment credit.
During this later period, some piano makers made
most of their own parts and kept their quality standards
high. Some of the better-known names included Steinway, Chickering, Henry F. Miller, Vose, and Weber. But
most of the several hundred piano manufacturers active
in this period merely assembled parts supplied by other
firms that specialized in making soundboards, plates,
actions, hardware, and cabinet components. Some of
these assembly shops produced nice pianos, and proudly
had their names cast into the plates. Others sold their
pianos on a “stencil basis”; that is, the pianos bore no
brand name or manufacturer identification. Typically,
the dealer would place on the instrument a decal with
the name of his store. Sometimes, however, an unscrupulous dealer would use a name nearly identical to that
of a high-end piano, in order to dupe customers into believing that, say, a “Stienway” was actually a Steinway.
Stenciled pianos were generally of low quality, and were
a constant source of aggravation for the makers of highquality instruments.
The Victorian Period
The term Victorian generally describes British society
from 1837 to 1901, the years of the reign of Queen Victoria; or, in America, the late 19th century. However, the
term defines a collection of interrelated attitudes more
than an actual time span, and conjures up images of
prudery, domesticity, sentimentality, social conservatism, romanticism, fussy and overfurnished parlors, middle-class stuffiness, and the opulence of an upper class of
super-rich industrialists.
Recall the world that had come before. In America,
many had lived on the frontier, with only the objects necessary for daily subsistence. The new, urban-based industrial age created an abundance of work for the newly
1881 B. Shoninger. The kneeboards of many Victorian pianos mirror the top front-panel design.
3
have its daughters play the instrument (whether or not
they wanted to or had any musical talent), became an
emblem of prosperity. It was a fashionable and convenient way to introduce a young lady to society and, if she
was lucky, attract a wealthy husband. This glorification
of the piano was no mere fad; the instrument became a
moral institution. By 1886, seven out of ten pupils in the
U.S. public schools were being taught to read music, and
it is estimated that there were a half million piano students in the country.
Although Queen Victoria had little to do with the
American furniture style named for her, the association
persists, and conveys a meaning. Victorian furniture designers drew inspiration for their work from a variety of
other eras; most noteworthy among these were the gothic
(12th to early 16th centuries) and the rococo (18th century). The style was eclectic, ornate in design, and, some
would say, cluttered. Homes were filled to the brim with
big furniture and excessive amounts of ornamentation.
Victorian pianos are instantly recognizable: they had
lots of curves, glossy finishes with rounded corners, and
flamboyant ornamentation—the more the better. American Victorian-era piano design was split into two main
phases: the styles of the 1880s and those of the 1890s.*
Styles of the 1880s
Victorian Legs. Elaborately turned legs dripping with ornamentation are a dominant design feature of the 1880s pianos.
The details of this leg are derived from nature: The sun casts
its rays on the acanthus leaf. The column, on closer examination, is actually a flower: petals curl around the top of the leg,
and the column is a stem sprouting from a cluster of leaves.
arrived immigrants. There was a significant increase in
wages for laborers and clerical workers alike, which in
turn led to the formation of a growing class of individuals who were comfortable but not rich. The industrial age
produced a new materialistic view of the world that encouraged people to consume as much as they could, and
people began to collect things.
One of the most coveted objects was a piano, which
symbolized the middle-class values of the Victorian
age—not only the virtues attributed to music, but also
of home and family life, respectability, and a woman’s
place and duty. Music making and music appreciation
became feminized. For a family to own a piano, and to
An 1880s piano is immediately identifiable by the threepaneled jigsaw scrollwork of its front board. This open
filigree scrollwork always has repeated patterns, and is
backed with rich, brilliantly colored silk. The fabric’s purpose is twofold: it displays the design of the scrollwork,
and permits the music to radiate out from the piano’s interior toward the player, for a much more present sound.
The elaborately turned legs feature a large top and large
base dripping with ostentatious ornamentation. Also,
Victorian pianos had minuscule fold-down music desks,
either attached to the curved fallboard, or located on the
bottom edge of the front board’s center panel.
The woods were highly figured veneers, predominately of mahogany and rosewood. Repeating patterns
of rococo involute carving extend from the pilaster onto
the cheek, appearing as if squeezed from a tube of cake
frosting. The sides of these early pianos were also often
curved or paneled.
*Although it’s often possible to estimate a piano’s date of manufacture
within a few years by its cabinet style, the years in which different styles
were introduced to or withdrawn from the market varied both regionally and among manufacturers. The dates cited here are approximate,
and provided only to highlight general trends in cabinet styling.
4
1892 Geo. Steck. 1890s pianos can be identified by the
stenciled designs carved or pressed into their varnish. These
etchings are found in the recessed alcoves of a three-paneled
front board. The border of this Geo. Steck piano’s etching
has a repeating geometrical design of regularly placed
points joined by mixed lines. The oblong pressed design in
the alcove interiors is one of vines and stylized leaves. These
1890s pianos were characterized by an infinite complexity of
form that pulled together design features from many different places and eras. In this instrument’s pilaster, a “strung
coin” motif is topped by an acanthus leaf.
1893 Mehlin. Besides geometrical elements, the ornamental art of the 1890s is composed of groupings of flowers,
leaves, and musical instruments. The instruments symbolize
the various arts. Singing, for example, is represented by a
lyre, with or without sheets of music; dancing, by the tambourine; and music, by violins, horns, pan’s pipes, etc. This
Mehlin shows these designs very distinctly because of the
unusual treatment of gold rubbed into these etchings.
5
1892 Henry F. Miller.
The more expensive
instruments from the
1890s continue the
elaborate ornamentation
of the 1880s. The surface
enrichments on this
instrument are borrowed
from many fields of
classical design. The olive
branch, a symbol of peace,
is entwined with ribbons
and foliage around a lyre,
the symbol for singing. The
pilaster is terminated in an
Ionic capital. The curved
side, a standard element of
Victorian pianos, is
painstakingly veneered
with a grain pattern that
flows onto the adjacent
flat surfaces.
Styles of the 1890s
The decade of the 1890s was, economically, a generally depressed period that included two monetary panics; growth did not resume until about 1898. The 1893
panic, a global collapse of the value of U.S. currency
caused by a partial abandonment of the gold standard,
was short-lived, but in some ways hit the nation harder
than did the Great Depression of the 1930s. Manufacturing came to a near standstill—in 1894, in response to a
precipitous drop in demand for pianos, piano production
plummeted by more than 50 percent, and manufacturers slashed salaries. The panic also fostered protectionist
and anti-immigrant sentiment.
To reduce costs, some of the more labor-intensive furniture designs were simplified. Intricate jigsawn front
panels were replaced by stenciled etchings, usually of
other musical instruments, carved into the varnish. The
decorative motifs ranged widely, from classical designs
to floral patterns to repetitive geometric forms. The ebonized finish first appears in this decade, as it was less
expensive to finish a piano in black than in a wood finish.
However, legs were still heavily ornamented, though not
as lavishly as in the 1880s, with a large base and top (long,
columnar legs didn’t appear until the 1900s). The music
desk is still tiny, the fallboard and cheeks are curved, and
the cheeks are sometimes carved. Higher-end models of
the 1890s still have the lavish carvings and highly figured
veneers of the 1880s.
Changing Mores
The Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, dedicated
to displays of technological advancement and a precursor of the World’s Fairs of the 20th century, was visited
by 12.5 million people, or about 20 percent of the U.S.
population at that time. The piano manufacturers’ displays there stimulated piano sales and amateur musicianship, and hastened the demise of the reed organ.
The Columbian Exposition came at a time of strict
social mores and sexual restraint. The new music introduced there consisted of gayer, more vulgar tunes than
any previously played in American parlors. These syncopated melodies soon became ragtime, a forerunner of
jazz. With advances in the printing of sheet music, formerly oriented mostly toward professional musicians, the
family piano became the center of an enormous business
in sheet music, eventually known as Tin Pan Alley, that
sold these peppy tunes. The popularity of ragtime, and
its greater availability through sheet music, contributed
to the breakdown of Victorian attitudes and the ushering
in of a new social era as the 19th century came to a close.
6
Player Pianos
Beginning in 1889, scores of inventions for an automated
piano began appearing. Sales of player pianos really took
off in 1905, when a standardized piano song roll was designed that could be used in instruments made by different companies. Player pianos were amazing machines
that altered the nation’s musical and social landscapes.
For one thing, through rolls of punched paper, ragtime
music, originally composed and played only by black
musicians, could now be played in the homes of white
middle-class Americans. For another, unprecedented
numbers of nonmusicians were now being exposed to
music. The player-piano industry was big business. It is
estimated that, by 1918, 800,000 player pianos were in
operation east of the Mississippi River.
Most player pianos were “standard” models—that
is, they played at a single volume and a single speed.
One would sit at the piano, pumping the foot-operated
bellows. To add expression to the music, one could
manipulate the loud/soft and fast/slow levers. There was
also a phenomenal device called a reproducing piano,
which could reproduce an artist’s full range of virtuosity—the nuances, the phrasing, the dynamics. For 30
years, practically all of the great artists recorded rolls
for these pianos, including Johann Strauss, Béla Bartók,
Gustav Mahler, and Ignace Paderewski. Reproducingpiano mechanisms were placed in high-end pianos, such
as grand and upright models from Steinway and Mason
& Hamlin, and were considered the advanced recording
technology of their day.
Upright player pianos are easily identified by a sliding
two-door panel in the front board. The hinged keyslip
pivots open to expose the control levers. Standard
players have a door above the pedals. The case designs
follow the characteristics of the era in which they were
made, though usually with less ornamentation than their
nonplayer counterparts.
1915 Kurtzmann. Player pianos were
usually made with less
ornamentation than their
nonplayer counterparts.
Player models are distinguished by two sliding
doors in the middle of the
top front panel that open
to reveal the roll box.
Standard players have a
sliding door in the knee
board where the pumping
pedals fold out. The
player mechanisms of
most player pianos still
in existence have been
removed because they
no longer function.
7
carved in wood just once, and a mold was then formed
over the carving to create a negative of the original. A
paste of animal glue, linseed oil, resin, and sawdust was
then poured into this mold to make a precise replica of
the original carving. Apply a faux finish, and voilà—it
looks like a hand carving.
Two types of raised-design moldings are found on pianos of the early 20th century. One type consists of a panel
that has been molded in its entirety, with all of its raised
designs already part of the mold. The entire panel then
needed to be faux finished. More commonly, individual
design elements were cast from molds, then applied with
nails or glue to the piano’s front board and/or its columns and legs. The most convincing applied moldings
are those that are interspersed with genuine carvings.
Styles of 1900–1909
Elements of the Victorian era are still prevalent in this transitional piano from 1901: curved and paneled sides, and legs
with a very large cap. The new 20th-century style, however,
is seen in the legs, which are now freestanding, cylindrical,
full-length columns. Applied moldings are the norm in pianos of this era; the incorporation of hand carving alongside
easily reproduced faux carving gives this piano the feel of an
expensive, one-of-a-kind, instrument.
A New Century
At the dawn of the 20th century, the piano was found at
all levels of American society. It had become a significant
piece of middle-class furniture—a necessary accessory
to domesticity, and as familiar as the armchair. Before the
bathroom became the shrine of the American home, there
were more pianos and organs in this country than bathtubs.
Molds
A major change affecting case styles of the early 1900s
came with the application to piano manufacturing of the
composition mold. These molds allowed what looked
like painstakingly intricate hand carvings to be inexpensively and easily reproduced. A design pattern was
There were several major design changes in the pianos
of the early 20th century. Instruments made in this decade are easily identifiable by the applied moldings on
the front board.
Gone are the top-heavy legs; the pianos now had fulllength columns for legs. Turn-of-the-century legs could
be round, tapered, reeded, and/or fluted. Early turn-ofthe-century pianos usually have turned columns with
more elaborate capitals. There is still a rounded quality
to the overall appearance of these early-20th-century
models, most notably in the cheeks and fallboard, but the
side panels were nearly always straight. The revolving,
claw-foot piano stool was phased out, and a bench with
legs that matched those of the piano was now provided
for each instrument.
Sheet music, now in plentiful supply, has made the little fold-out music desk obsolete. A wide music-desk shelf
now runs the length of the piano, and the front board
pivots out at an angle to support the music, which can be
spread out across the entire front board.
The fallboards of this era are in two pieces, joined by
a hinge, and are usually rounded to correspond to the
rounded cheeks. When opened, the fallboard tucks all
the way under the music desk.
Rosewood has all but disappeared. The predominant
woods are now mahogany and walnut, with a smattering
of oak pianos being produced.
There is a great difference in the look of applied moldings from 1900 to 1909. At the beginning of this period,
the imitation wood carvings were usually very small and
delicate. As time went by, they grew larger and more
crude-looking until, about 1909, they were about the size
of cow patties. By 1912, virtually all piano cases lacked
such ornamentation.
8
1902 A. B. Chase, The new leg style is one of full-length,
cylindrical columns. The applied molding on the front board
is delicate and skillfully executed.
1908 Bush and Lane. The recurring influence of the
Greek Corinthian order is ever
present in pianos of the turn of
the last century. The acanthus leaf
became a consistent design motif.
1903 Haddorff. Wreaths are a common molded
design applied to the front board.
The exceptionally small music
desk of the Victorian era has been
replaced by one that runs the
length of the front board.
9
Styles of 1909–1929
With the expansion of the middle class, the demand for
pianos skyrocketed, which caused piano manufacturers
to modernize and simplify the time-consuming detailing of the piano cases. Removing the ornate carvings
allowed them to produce fine instruments at a faster
rate and more profitably. Although many fantastic pianos were made during this time, these two decades saw
a steady progress toward less expensive, lower-quality
instruments.
Pianos of the 1910s and 1920s generally have straightsided cases with square legs. The early models from this
era of change have a front-board design of three inset panels, with architectural molding around the edges. Later,
the three-panel design was discarded in favor of a single
Marshall & Wendell. By 1909, most applied moldings
have evolved into larger, clumsier designs.
1908 Bush and Lane. Bush and Lane pianos are known for
their immensity and strength. This Pompeian model’s front
board is adorned with a highly recognizable design patented
by the manufacturer, and used on its pianos over a period of
a decade or more. A poor refinishing job has stripped the
faux finish from the acanthus leaves, revealing a perfect example of what appears to be carving, but is actually a
molded form comprising hide glue and sawdust.
10
1909 Bush and Lane. Around 1909, raised applied moldings
give way to recessed panels, and here is a beautiful specimen of veneering applied to that style. The continuity of
the oak grain from surface to surface illustrates the high
level of precision craftsmanship still being employed in the
first decade of the 20th century, but which diminished in
the teens.
flat panel. The columns on the sides of the front boards
are straight; the cheeks and fallboards are squared.
As choice woods became more scarce, there was a
subtle but notable change in the veneers of the teen years:
Mahogany became less figured, mostly ribbon striped,
without the intense flame pattern. Oak, better suited to
middle-class homes due to its less-formal look, became
more popular. Lower-end pianos were now finished with
cheaper varnishes that didn’t hold up well over time.
Heading into the 1920s, the quality of ivory used for
keytops significantly declined, becoming more translucent, and apt to have a straight grain that looks like milk
running down a glass rather than one resembling fingerprints, as in earlier pianos. The presence of celluloid
keytops, distinguishable by squiggly lines in imitation
of ivory grain running down the key, indicates a lowerpriced piano of the late teens and twenties.
This 1909 Cable has
handsome bee’s-wing
mahogany veneer whose
grain pattern is artfully
installed in the three
recessed panels.
11
1924 Ludwig. By the mid-1910s, front boards comprising
three recessed panels have given way to a single, flat,
unadorned board. By the 1920s, round legs have become square.
As choice woods become scarcer, there is a subtle but notable
change in the veneers of the late teens and beyond: grain
patterns are less figured and rather boring. With the popularity of
the radio, piano sales plummet in the mid-1920s; to stay in
business, piano manufacturers begin to offer shorter, lessexpensive models. This instrument’s relatively small size is a
clue that it was made in the mid- to late 1920s.
12
The Arts and Crafts Movement
World War I and the Roaring ’20s
In England in the late 19th century, and in America from
about 1910 to 1920, the Arts and Crafts movement arose
in reaction to the Industrial Revolution, mass production, shoddy consumer goods, and the poor treatment of
workers. This movement emphasized pride in craftsmanship, and the idea that it was possible to provide both
well-made consumer goods for the public and decent employment for workers, without the craftsman becoming a
mere cog in the wheel of massive factory production. In
England, the movement tended to result in high-priced
goods that only the wealthy could afford. But in America, prices were kept affordable by combining the use of
factory methods for basic components with handcraftsmanship for assembly and finishing.
There were a number of furniture styles associated
with the American Arts and Crafts movement. The one
most often used with pianos, known as the Mission style,
incorporated elements of the traditional furnishings
of the Spanish and Native Americans of the American
Southwest, as exemplified by the basic, solid furniture
of the Spanish missions of California. Piano cabinets,
usually of oak, were produced with exposed mortiseand-tenon joinery, and included hardware of handhammered brass.
The growth of the piano industry was interrupted briefly
by World War I, due to severe material shortages and a
tax on luxury goods, but rebounded quickly after war’s
end, and reached its peak in the early 1920s. The market was glutted with old non-player upright pianos, and
dealers took this opportunity to sell into every home a
new player piano that anyone and everyone could play,
without tedious lessons, time-consuming practice, or
even having to pump the pedals—the pumping systems
of many models were now electrified.
The world was changing at a fast pace, especially the
role of women in society. They no longer stayed home
being good little girls, doing needlepoint and spending
hundreds of tortuous hours in front of the piano. They
now had bicycles and automobiles in which to fly about
town. There were motion pictures, the “talking machine”
(phonograph), and—due to Prohibition—speakeasies. It
was an exciting new time in which the piano played an
important role, though now less as a symbol of femininity and family values, and more as a passive home-entertainment device.
But the dominance of the piano was about to end. By
1925, the newly developed radio had begun to replace the
player piano as a source of home entertainment. A radio
One branch of Arts and Crafts furniture was a successful composite of many
different antique architectural motifs. Heavy and substantial, this 1909 Price &
Teeple piano has a medieval flair: Gothic ornamentation marked by latticework
and pagoda-like pediments.
The starkly elegant Arts and Crafts
ideal of native materials worked with
honest handcraftsmanship is portrayed
in this 1910 E. Gabler & Bro. piano.
The workmanship must be precise and
the wood of the best quality, as any
imperfections will be obvious in furniture of such simple lines. The metalwork
is hammered brass.
13
After 1930
The few piano manufacturers to survive the Great Depression rescued themselves by introducing smaller, less
expensive pianos, especially spinets, and consoles in
various period-revival decorator styles, to which the
public responded enthusiastically. This trend toward
smaller instruments lasted for a generation, but was
reversed when, beginning in the 1960s and continuing
through the 1980s, Japanese and Korean manufacturers offered larger verticals with simple, unadorned
lines. The success of these Asian pianos over smaller,
fancier American models reflected, in part, a gradual
turn toward simplicity, even starkness, in furniture design after World War II, a change to which most American makers did not adapt—and therefore went out of
business.
Today’s vertical pianos are made in a potpourri of
styles: consoles (but no longer spinets) in period styles;
bland but functional, studio-size verticals for school
use; taller uprights with sleek, straight lines; and hybrid styles. The highly ornamented styles of the past
are no longer common, in part because today’s massproduction processes make them too costly, and in part
because tastes in furniture design continue to trend
toward simpler lines; still, some high-end brands offer
them in custom-made cabinets. And for those who seek
original examples of piano styles past, a few specialist
rebuilders continue to restore and make available older
instruments.
25 years ago, Martha Taylor came across an abandoned
warehouse of 500 upright pianos. She has been very busy
ever since. Her company, the Immortal Piano Company, in
Portland, Oregon, specializes in the reconditioning and
rebuilding of upright pianos. See her work at www.immortalpiano.com.
Selected Bibliography
Ehrlich, Cyril. The Piano: A History. King’s Lynn, Norfolk, UK: Biddles Ltd., 1979.
Good, Edwin M. Giraffes, Black Dragons, and other
Pianos: A Technological History from Cristofori to the
Modern Concert Grand. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001.
Loesser, Arthur. Men, Women, & Pianos: A Social History. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954.
Majeski, Brian T., editor. The Music Trades 100th Anniversary Issue: A History of the U.S. Music Industry.
1990.
Roell, Craig H. The Piano in America, 1890–1940. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1989.
American Heritage Dictionary, Vol. 17, No 1. New York:
American Heritage Publishing Co., 1965.
Correspondence
Dr. William E. Hettrick, Professor of Music, Coordinator
of Music History, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.
Acoustic
& Digital
was far less expensive than a piano, smaller, and more
versatile in the sounds it could reproduce. The decline of
the player piano accelerated when, in 1927, the radio was
adapted for use with alternating electrical current (AC).
Sales of player pianos peaked in 1923, at 200,000 units,
but only six years later had fallen to little more than
2,000. As most player pianos had been sold on installment plans, there were massive defaults and repossessions, and warehouses were soon stuffed with unpaid-for,
unsellable instruments. In an attempt to stay afloat, from
the mid-1920s on, manufacturers began building smaller,
less-expensive, studio-size upright pianos.
PIANO
BUYER
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at your Fingertips
W W W. PIANOBUYE R .COM
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Upright Cabinet Styles in American Piano Manufacturing, 1880–1930

Transcription

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