The Rise Of The Upright

Noticing of late that the square piano was fast being superseded by the upright a Register reporter started out last Saturday to learn the causes of thischange, with the ictention of presenting them to our readers. A prominent music teacher was first sought, and was found to be a very enthusiastic supporter of the uprigh's. On being asked if he had any objection to mentioning some of the principal reasons why he regarded the upright as a better piano-forte than the square, he replied : "Certainly not. In the first place, the upright is the only system of piano-forte building n which the hammer strikes the string against its bearing. In both grands and squares the hammer strikes the strin? from the under side, and a considerable proportion of the force of vibration is los', which in the upright is gained by the foroe of tije blow on the top of the string being directly commur.icated through the bridge to the sounding-board ; besides admitting of a more even, regular bearing. In addition, there are tbree unisons throughout the scale from the overstrung bass, and the necessary sounding-board surfaee to throw oLf the the vibrations without saorifice of quality of the tone to quantity. It isasurprise to many to learn that they are now manufacturing nprights which have a larger area of sounding-board urface than the smaller styles of grands; and in the upright every inch of sounding-board surface is equally available. In the upright the most beautiful pianissimo eöects can be ol tained by use of the graduating pedal, whilst the action repeats with the delicacy and precisión of a grand. Add to these features of its musical excellence its compactness, and its beauty as an article of furniture, and it surely is not strange that it should supersede the square." Lew H.Clement, agent for Haines Bros., New York, was next sought, and in reply to a question regarding the position assumed by that 6rm in the manufacture of pianos, he said : " They manufacture uprights exclusively, tbough until recently all manufacturera confined themselves for the most part to the production of the square pianos. As long aaro as 1873, Hainei Bros. having then had an experience of something over twenty years in the manufacture of square and grand pianos, believed that the upright, then very unpopular - was capable of such marked improvement8 as would bring it into general favor and open up an immense field for this Btyle of piano if the correct methods of construction could be arrived at. Acting upon this conviction, they imported several uprights from the leading manufacturers in Europe, dissected and examined them thoroughly, rejected many features of their construction, and turned out their first upright. Naturally it was crude and needed alterations; but it gave them a basis to start from, and since then they have spared neither labor, time nor expense in correcting faults and adding improvements, until now they manufacture an upright which has taken the country by storm. For a long time they stood alone in advocating the upright as preferable to the square; to-day, if you ask who recommend and push the upright pianoforte, it is safe to answer, the whole pianoforte manufacturing trade, and all of the enterprising, successful dealers throughout the United States, as well as the majority of our prominent solo artists - notably, Patti, Nilsson, Gerster, Abbott, Kellogg, Ole Buil and many others who use and advocate the use of the Haines upright in private and on the concert stage."