Historical question

[S. Brady]

On Wed, 17 Jan 1996, Keith A. McGavern wrote:

> >From Steve Brady:
> >The overstrung bass was first used in 1828 by Jean-Henri Pape in
> >an upright piano only 1 meter tall.

> What is the reference source and page # for these statements please?

      Oh, all right, Keith. Here's the documentation. I have no primary
sources, but find roughly the same information in a number of secondary
sources, to wit:
      David S. Grover, The Piano: Its Story From Zither to Grand.
Scribner's, 1978, p. 138. Grover credits Pape with "introducing
cross-stringing" in a "console-piano 1 meter (39 inches) high."
      Ernest Closson, History of the Piano. Paul Elek, 1947, p. 105.
Closson credits Pape with the "piano-console...the case coming no highre
than the keyboard" in 1828, but strangely enough does not credit him with
introducing cross-stringing to Paris until 1839. Perhaps 1939 was a
patent date.
      Arthur Loesser, Men, Women and Pianos. Simon & Schuster, 1954,
pp. 401-2. Loesser states that Pape used cross-stringing on a vertical
piano in 1828.

      There are two or three other sources I could quote, but you get
the idea.



Steve Brady, RPT        "Chaos is the law of nature; order is the
University of Washington      dream of man."    --Henry Adams
sbrady@u.washington.edu