Men, Women and Pianos: A Social History (Dover Books on Music) by Arthur Loesser

Author:Arthur Loesser
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780486171616
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-04-27T03:00:00+00:00

8. THE ERARDS GROW; THE PIANO ASPIRES AND PRETENDS TO SING

IN 1802 Napoleon reduced the government appropriation for the Conservatoire by nearly three fifths. It had operated on an annual budget of 240,000 livres, he let it vegetate on 100,000, saying it ought to confine itself to the teaching of military music. Somehow, this decree has the ring of sincerity: it seems to have sprung more directly from the Napoleonic heart than the concerts he ordered up at the Tuileries or the operas he attended in state. In any event, the deprivation hardly daunted the general progress of the pianoforte.

Johann Friedrich Reichardt, the intelligent, articulate Prussian musician who informed us in such detail about Vienna’s social and musical life, had spent the winter of 1802–3 in Paris, leaving us his “confidential letters” about the visit. His letter of November 22, 1802, tells how impressed he was with the size and activity of the Erard shop as he observed it. It occupied two substantial houses, he says, “in one of the best neighborhoods of Paris.” The firm made squares and grands, “and in what incredible quantities!”—everything on a much larger scale than any shop in Germany. He speaks of its division of labor: joiners, turners, metal workers, all working at their specialties in well-equipped workshops, as well as “the painter, the lacquerer, the enameler, the gilder, the wire drawer, and who knows who else ...” The final assembly, he says, is accomplished under the direct surveillance of the master himself.

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