Birdcage Reply, Part I,

[Les Smith]

In a message dated 10/13/98 Billrpt@aol.com wrote:

<< on 10/13/98 lessmith@buffnet.net wrote>>
<< "birdcages are for the birds">>
 <This answer belongs on Ralph's Loser List for the Baloney Bunch to read.>

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Les Smith's reply:         
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My interest has always been the American piano as a musical instrument--
specifically those built during the latter part of the 19th and early part
of the 20th centuries; the men who made them; and those who played them.
I have absolutely no interest in the countless commercial-quality pianos
mass-marketed to the hordes of technically-inept, musically-clueless,
non-pianists out there who spend their lives playing the first measures
of "Fur Elise", the "Minute Waltz in fifteen", or the first movement of
the "Moonlight" transposed to Dm (one flat) because they can't find B#
on the keyboard. A piano-technician defines himself by the quality of
the instruments upon which he works. In essence, he becomes what he
does. I was not a junkman.
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The piano is not a piece of furniture, it is a musical instrument and, as
such, its quality is evaluated in terms of how well it fulfills its func-
tion--i.e. how well it plays and sounds. Only an utter fool of a tech-
nician would try to defend the birdcage piano on the basis of how it looks
and totally ignore the fact that its manifold inadequacies, deficiencies,
faults and short-comings as a musical instrument, led to its design being
rejected by the US piano industry back in the days of the Civil War, the
Transcontinental Railway, the invention of the telephone and that of the
electric light. Enough chit-chat. Let's get to it, pal.
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The year is 1876. The place, Philadelphia. The occasion, a monumental
piano exhibition which is part of our country's Centennial Celebration.
More than five hundred pianos are on display, representing manufacturers
from all over the world. At stake is the title of The World's Finest
Piano. The American contingency--represented by such makers as Stein-
way, Knabe, Chickering and Steck--exhibit grands with full-cast plates,
as introduced by Chickering and overstrung basses, as introduced by
Steinway. In the end, these pianos blow the competition away. Ul-
timately, the Steinway concert grand is judged to be the finest piano
in the world, but the entire US piano industry emerges as the undisputed
world leader.
 
Steinway does not exhibit just its grand; it also exhibits its 56" up-
right. It has an overstrung bass, a full 88 key compass, and Steinway's
superb TMAC-based action, complete with "signature" flanges. The dam-
per mechanism is located behind the hammer mechanism--the dampers them-
selves, below the hammers. The year is 1876, AND THIS AIN'T NO STINKIN'
BIRDCAGE! The point of all this? Easy, pal. Because of their rejection
of the inherently flawed design of the birdcage, Steinway is a charter
member of the Baloney Bunch!  
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To continue. The year is 1899. A young German-born and trained technician
comes to the US to take over the piano operations of what started as an
organ company. The company's name is Mason & Hamlin. The young German's
name is Richard Gertz. A superb technician, having "cut his teeth" on
pianos like the Bechsteins, Bluthners and Bosendorfers his father sup-
plied to the concert trade, Richard is determined to build high-quality
instruments that will satisfy the demands of the most exacting pianists.
He does.
 
By 1899, with the exception of Steinway, the glory days of the great
American pianos were drawing to a close. As the century changed, the
piano-world changed, too, and would never again be the same. Richard
Gertz is one of the great names in the history of the American piano.
In fact, his superbly-built instruments would provide the only real
competition to Steinway in the 20th century for the title of America's
Finest Piano and the issue remains unresolved to this day. Richard
built far fewer pianos than Steinway, of course, but those he did 
build were so good that one can't help but wonder what he might have
accomplished had he appeared on the American piano scene 20 years
earlier. It's a fascinating "What if?"
 
While at M&H, he built both grands and uprights, but even in 1899 
RICHARD GERTZ DIDN'T BUILD NO STINKIN' BIRDCAGES! Richard Gertz is a
highly-respected member of the Baloney Bunch!
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And what of Richard's contemporaries? How many of them were building
birdcage uprights? Not a single damn one! Pick up a copy of the piano
atlas and leaf through its pages. All those hundreds upon hundreds of
domestic piano companies one sees listed there are all charter members 
of the Baloney Bunch because they were universal in their recognition
and rejection of the inherently flawed design of the birdcage piano. 

Well. If the piano atlas is essentially a membership list and a "Who's
Who" of the Baloney Bunch, what's left?

--Easy. A birdcage and the founder and president-for-life of-- 

                      BILL'S BULL-ONLY BUNCH
 

Disrespectfully,

Les Smith,  Ambassador-At-Large,  The Baloney Bunch








Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com