Thursday, February 6, 2014

Evolution of the Piano



The Evolution of the Piano postcard above is circa 1910/1911. It advertises R. K. Maynard Piano Company of Chicago pianos and player pianos with "Quality High" and "Price Low." To me, the message is "Buy one of our pianos and your home will look as cultured and elegant as the one in this picture." There appears to be quite a bit of artistic license involved. Why would the woman (whether mother or teacher) be wearing a dress with a train? What time of the day is it? I would expect a child's lesson to be in the afternoon, when the "father" in the background would be at work making money to support this lifestyle. I wondered, also, whether the picture above the piano was meant to represent a specific type of instrument and/or famous composer.

Chicago became a major player in piano manufacturing during the 19th century. Little is known now about the Maynard Piano Company. It appears on a list of Piano Manufacturers in Illinois with a date of 1905. A 1910 ad from the The Music Trade Review gives locations for both offices and factory. From what I could find on the internet, however, it was not clear whether Maynard was actually a manufacturer. One source said that "Popular pianos bearing this name are from the factory of the Werner Piano Co., Chicago, Ill." Another source said that "The hugely successful M. Schulz Piano Company manufactured and sold pianos under the names of Walworth, Bradford, Irving, and Maynard in addition to their premier line of M. Schulz brand pianos." 



The real photo postcard below shows a woman sitting at a piano in a more modest looking environment. There is no information available on this postcard. The piano top was a popular place to display pictures. I enlarged the area with the pictures to show their details and variety..





The video on the Evolution of the Piano shows some of the early instruments that preceded the modern acoustic piano and ends with Kurzweil digital pianos.




For More Vintage Images

http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2014/02/sepia-saturday-214-8-february-2014.html

18 comments:

  1. A good contrast between the two scenes and know which I prefer! Nicely answering all the themes this weeks.

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  2. Thanks for the video re: the evolution of the piano. From college music courses, I was familiar with the process, but what I really enjoyed were the pictures of those beautiful instruments from the Clavichord to the piano we know today in all its forms.

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  3. I like the picture of the girl with curly hair that is on the piano. I wonder why they put pictures on the piano, was it to inspire the piano player???

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  4. What beautiful carvings on the piano! I am not surprised to see pictures on the piano because the piano certainly makes a nice shelf. I wonder if the vibrations caused those pictures to topple over.

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  5. Great video! And it's true, isn't it, that we had dresser scarves atop our pianos, and lots of photos! Is that a world-over tradition?

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  6. I think that painting above the piano is of Beethoven. I googled the image and several sites came up with the same or very similar pictures, for example, http://piano4life.com/C_Beethoven.htm, but they don't identify who created the painting as far as I can see. It certainly is a lovely idyllic scene of a child practising in an elegant home, and the rest of your post is very interesting too.

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    1. The painting on that website does look like the inspiration for the one on the postcard.

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  7. Jo has it right, Beethoven as the frustrated composer is what I recognized too.
    What makes the first postcard even sillier is that the boy is sitting at a player piano with the perforated paper roll in front of him! He did have to practice pumping the pedals to make it work as the early player pianos used a pneumatic mechanism instead of electric motors to run the machine. It not the model family home you would think if the parents force their child to run the music machine for their entertainment.

    As for the woman at the piano in the other photocard, I bet she could really play. It's a terrific portrait.

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  8. You always have such fascinating images to match the theme each week.

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  9. Very interesting; I learnt something form the video and even recognised the painting.

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  10. Some of those old pianos are real works of art with all their carved decorations. I love them.

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  11. I loved Mike's comment about the piano roll - until then I hadn't even noticed! LOL.

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  12. The piano top is still a popular place for the display of photographs in our house.

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  13. Maybe the point of the ad was to show if you bought one of their pianos, you wouldn't have to work and could wear fancy dresses!?

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  14. Maybe, in that first scene, this was on a Sunday and they were expecting company for dinner and cocktails, and the child was rehearsing what he'd be playing for the guests.

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