{"id":1700,"date":"2014-05-02T22:54:40","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T14:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/?p=1700"},"modified":"2021-09-19T19:02:56","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T11:02:56","slug":"history-of-piano-tuning-a-need-for-tuners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700","title":{"rendered":"History of Piano Tuning \u2013 A NEED FOR TUNERS"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FPiano.Technician.HK%2Fphotos%2Fa.770794476272210%2F771312449553746%2F%3Ftype%3D3%26av%3D188148231203507%26eav%3DAfacv9joEk9edQaG4Byk6dHyUNgwYLBioCpALSjrXdBji1Unup37ptMzzIGseHz4B-Y&amp;show_text=false&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"284\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/h5>\n<h5>Prior to the advent of the piano, most musicians tuned their own instruments. \u00a0 This was a necessary part of owning one; to call someone in to tune a harpsichord would have been as preposterous an idea as calling someone in to tune a violin for a professional violinist. \u00a0 A combination of factors made the harpsichord far easier to tune than the piano: there was generally only one string per note, and where there were more they were easily isolated by use of the stops, while the strings were at a far lower tension than those of the piano.\u00a0 At first ownership of the instruments was limited to richer families who employed musicians, or to musicians themselves &#8211; either way, the musicians ended up tuning the instruments.\u00a0 However, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">the setting of temperaments proved more difficult, particularly Equal Temperament<\/span>: the Pythagorean comma meaning that pure intervals alone being used would result in a &#8216;wolf&#8217; interval, wherein the beats &#8216;left over&#8217; from tuning the pure intervals accumulated in one very discordant interval &#8211; generally that between F<sup>#<\/sup>\u00a0and B.\u00a0 Equal temperament took over from mean tone tuning, making all keys pleasant to play in rather than a restricted number, but was more difficult for the amateur to tune, and as more and more amateurs were beginning to own instruments, tuning was becoming a task carried out by professionals.<\/h5>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h5><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FPiano.Technician.HK%2Fphotos%2Fa.770794476272210%2F771312429553748%2F%3Ftype%3D3%26av%3D188148231203507%26eav%3DAfby1o9dJH1UP2BOgDN_b02LCfKL6OzrFvS9VUC3uf5TZJ261oX9VZkaXneHBzGZKH0&amp;show_text=false&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"335\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/h5>\n<h5>Rimbault mentions the tuning of equal temperament in the chapter &#8216;On Tuning&#8217; in his\u00a0<i>1860 History of the Pianoforte<\/i>:<\/h5>\n[Equal temperament] is now universally adopted throughout Europe.\u00a0 Its inestimable advantage is that it enables us to employ all the 12 major and minor scales with equal freedom, and without a fear of offending the ear in any of them more than in another; thus giving unlimited room of play to all the wonders of modern harmony.\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.piano-tuners.org\/history\/piano-tuner-history.html#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<h5>Loesser wrote of claviers that:<\/h5>\n[They] do not present the perpetually acute problem of the stringed or wind instruments &#8211; namely, that of making the true pitch.\u00a0 A key marks it ready-made, and any infant can press down a light lever.\u00a0 It is true that a clavier must be tuned in advance, but the spread of the instrument among the minimally musical led to the curious consequence that the tuner and the player were more and more rarely the same person.\u00a0 It is hard to imagine the most primitive player of a fiddle or guitar who did not know how to pull up his own strings to their proper pitch, but among clavier tinklers this incompetence became the rule.\u00a0 The complication of the tempered tuning may have added to the difficulty.\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.piano-tuners.org\/history\/piano-tuner-history.html#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref6\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<h5>Loesser was referring to the late 18th century, when ownership of the clavier (a generic term for a harpsichord) was becoming far more widespread in families for the furthering of a daughter&#8217;s education and, more importantly, eligibility for marriage.<\/h5>\n<h5>By the time of Queen Victoria&#8217;s accession to the throne, Britain was consumed by piano fever.\u00a0 As early as 1800, the piano&#8217;s battle with the harpsichord seems to be nearing its end: Rosamond Harding notes that &#8220;for pianoforte&#8221; in large print on sheet music precedes the worlds &#8220;or harpsichord&#8221; in smaller letters by this time, implying the piano&#8217;s burgeoning supremacy.<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.piano-tuners.org\/history\/piano-tuner-history.html#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref7\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/h5>\n<h5>Even the Broadwoods themselves are known to have been involved in tuning: Broadwoods have in their possession a painting from around 1744 which portrays Burkat Shudi tuning a harpsichord said to have been made by the firm for Frederick the Great.\u00a0Rimbault mentions that &#8216;The Mess<sup>rs<\/sup>\u00a0Broadwood possess an interesting portrait of the Founder of their firm in the act of tuning the King of Prussia&#8217;s harpsichord&#8217;.<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.piano-tuners.org\/history\/piano-tuner-history.html#_ftn9\" name=\"_ftnref9\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/h5>\n<h5><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Piano tuning was a recognised job in the piano factories by the beginning of the 19th century<\/span>, and two of Broadwood&#8217;s journeymen fought a duel on Primrose Hill in 1809 over the tuning of a piano &#8211; with no result.\u00a0By 1834 Henry Fowler Broadwood was running the business, having taken &#8216;instruction in tuning, in which branch of the pianoforte industry his father, James Broadwood, excelled&#8217;.\u00a0In 1838 Henry&#8217;s uncle, Thomas Broadwood, wrote to him about a wealthy client&#8217;s complaints regarding a Victoria grand piano which &#8216;does not and will not stand in tune played or not played on, although he has got an experienced Tuner to Tune it &#8230;&#8217;.\u00a0 Thomas sent Merison, &#8216;not being able to spare Murray or Wilkins as well.&#8217;\u00a0This would imply that Broadwoods had a relatively large tuning department of at least three men by this time.<\/h5>\n<h5>The square pianos of the mid 19th century could reasonably be expected to remain in tune for around a month to six weeks in the British climate, but extremes of humidity and temperature could lead to even more frequent calls from the piano tuner.\u00a0 These later square pianos were no longer the delicate instrument they had been &#8211; they had six octaves now rather than the original five, and were 5&#8242; 7\u02dd&#8221; wide, five inches wider than the earliest Broadwood square of 1770.\u00a0 The metal hitch-pin plate had become standard, allowing higher tension on the strings and giving rise to a bigger, brighter sound.\u00a0 However, this instrument could never equal the tone of the new grand pianos and was gradually eclipsed: Broadwoods ceased production of square pianos in 1866.<\/h5>\n<h5>John Broadwood had been working on the grand piano as long as 1783, and his friend, Robert Stodart, had used the word &#8216;Grand&#8217; for the first time on a patent application in 1777.<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.piano-tuners.org\/history\/piano-tuner-history.html#_ftn13\" name=\"_ftnref13\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/h5>\n<h5>The job of the piano tuner had been created by a gap in the market, a demand caused by the number of amateurs owning instruments requiring maintenance, and leading to a need for visits from a tuner. \u00a0 Early pianos were of a light construction yet battling with ever-increasing demands of tension from piano players who wanted ever louder and brighter-sounding instruments. \u00a0 Whilst the up-to-date pianos fared better, with stronger frames and heavier hammers being introduced, then, as now, tuners were having to deal with older pianos.\u00a0 Piano music itself was changing and making new demands on the instrument, yet people with old instruments were buying new music and requiring performances of which their pianos were not really capable: and then, as now, the client was expecting the tuner to work miracles and transform their dated instrument into the latest one.<\/h5>\n<h5>The advent of the bigger square pianos and of the grand pianos definitely discouraged all but the bravest piano owner from tuning their own instruments and the career of piano tuner was born.<\/h5>\n<h5>The growth in private ownership of pianos had created the need for tuners: when only a few people owned pianos, typically the major makers such as Broadwood and Longman and Broderip would have sent out tuners from their own services and tuning department.\u00a0 But once ownership became more widespread, demand for tuners grew faster than the piano firms could supply them.\u00a0 Loesser cites remarks from a German writer, Bartold Fritz, in his book<i>Anweisung wie man Claviere Clavecins and Orgeln in allen zw\u00f6lf Tonen gleich rein stimmen k\u00f6nne<\/i>\u00a0&#8230; which he published in 1757 in Leipzig:<\/h5>\n<p>&#8230; there are persons who live in the country and cannot always get hold of a tuning master.\u00a0 There are music lovers in cities who would like to undertake this exercise &#8230; there are a lot of teachers &#8230; who have never had instruction in proper tuning &#8230;<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.piano-tuners.org\/history\/piano-tuner-history.html#_ftn14\" name=\"_ftnref14\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<h5>He goes on to say that:<\/h5>\n<div>\n<h5>&#8216;the art of tuning never did catch up with the sale of instruments, especially not after the pianoforte developed its tensions and complications. \u00a0 Normally, tuning became a special skill after the middle of the 18th century and a separate occupation in the 19th.<\/h5>\n<p>By Gill Green MA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-1700\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700?share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-1700\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700?share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-jetpack-whatsapp\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700?share=jetpack-whatsapp\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on WhatsApp\"><span>WhatsApp<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-1700\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700?share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700?share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email this to a friend\"><span>Email<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span>Print<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prior to the advent of the piano, most musicians tuned their own instruments. \u00a0 This was a necessary part of &hellip; <a class=\"kt-excerpt-readmore\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700\" aria-label=\"History of Piano Tuning \u2013 A NEED FOR TUNERS\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-1700\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700?share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-1700\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700?share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-jetpack-whatsapp\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700?share=jetpack-whatsapp\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on WhatsApp\"><span>WhatsApp<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-1700\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700?share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700?share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email this to a friend\"><span>Email<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1700\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span>Print<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"categories":[88,58],"tags":[1756,947,91,781,404,167,1945,10,216,11,181,1944,13,943],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ik8h-rq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1786,"url":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1786","url_meta":{"origin":1700,"position":0},"title":"History of Piano Tuning \u2013 THE PIANO TUNER&#8217;S JOB","date":"May 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Although the term 'piano tuner' has been used almost exclusively heretofore, the job entailed far more than simply tuning pianos.\u00a0 Some clavichords and harpsichords were still in existence in 1838, although the Victorian obsession with invention and innovation almost rendered both instruments extinct: they were saved only by the efforts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;English Articles&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1814,"url":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1814","url_meta":{"origin":1700,"position":1},"title":"History of Piano Tuning \u2013 WOMEN TUNERS","date":"May 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It will be noticed that no mention has thus far been made of women who tuned pianos - either professionally or just for themselves: and it is probable that the reader has thought nothing of the fact.\u00a0 After all, one would not expect to hear of women piano tuners in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;English Articles&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1758,"url":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1758","url_meta":{"origin":1700,"position":2},"title":"History of Piano Tuning \u2013 THE TRAINED TUNER&#8217;S WORK","date":"May 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The larger London piano houses produced many pianos, all of which needed to be strung, chipped up and then fine-tuned, and at the height of the 1850s and 60s boom there were between 60,000 and 100,000\u00a0pianos made in London alone, so a huge number of tunings was required in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;English Articles&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1803,"url":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1803","url_meta":{"origin":1700,"position":3},"title":"History of Piano Tuning \u2013 TUNING MONOPOLIES AND REGULATION","date":"May 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"By 1887 Broadwoods were in trouble for excluding tuners who were not employed by them or their agents; Messrs Broadwood admit that they send out men through the country to tune their own pianos ...\u00a0 Messrs Broadwood believe that in certain country districts their pianos have been improperly tuned to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;English Articles&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1708,"url":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1708","url_meta":{"origin":1700,"position":4},"title":"History of Piano Tuning \u2013 SOCIAL STANDING","date":"May 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The tuner would appear to have been working in the factory yet not regarded as a factory worker. \u00a0 A plate in Wainwright's book on the Broadwood company\u00a0shows a tuner at work in Broadwood's factory in 1842.\u00a0 He wears what would appear to be far smarter clothes than the other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;English Articles&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1816,"url":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/1816","url_meta":{"origin":1700,"position":5},"title":"History of Piano Tuning","date":"May 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"PREFACE It was while tuning an elderly upright piano that the possibility of electing piano tuners as a theme for academic study suggested itself to me: I noticed, scrawled on the hammer rest rail of the piano action, the initials and tuning dates of about twenty piano tuners who had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;English Articles&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/logosmall.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tongtuning.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}