On November 23, 2017 we presented the restoration of our square piano Collard & Collard, late Clementi, Collard & Collard at the Museu de la Música de Barcelona, as part of the Clementi Conference organized by the Associació Muzio Clementi de Barcelona and the Catalan Society of Musicology.
In this post I set out the content of my presentation.
History of the instrument
Marina and I bought this instrument in France in 2009. I went to pick it up in a van to Sury-aux-Bois, near Orleans, accompanied by my friend and piano technician, Carles Sigüenza.
The piano was "unplayable" but in good condition and with the possibility of being repaired. It must have been restored before because it featured some new dampers and felts. The strings were all there and the sound board was in good condition. There was a crack in the bridge, damage that is quite common in these instruments. It was completely out of key, almost a fourth below the 440hz. The hammers were a little deflected from the strings; some of them played the adjacent string. Possibly this problem was caused, among other things, by the torsion affecting the entire piano case, resulting from the oblique tension of the strings, a common problem of square pianos that was not solved until the application of a iron frame (Steinway, ca.1855). The ironless instruments were weak and did not withstand correctly the tension of the strings. This also happened with many grand pianos, as can be seen in a Broadwood grand exhibited at the Museu de la Música de Barcelona. Instruments prior to the application of iron had less sonic power but a sound closer to the string nature. For this reason it is interesting for a modern pianist to rediscover the sonority with which the works of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were composed. The dynamic and timbre dimensions are very different and often explain things that cannot be understood on a modern piano.
The square pianos
In various researches to obtain a keyboard instrument capable of making dynamic nuances with more power than the clavichord, around 1700 Cristofori solved the basic principles of piano mechanics. The original invention of the piano is based on the existing shape harpsichord model. It seems that in 1742, Johann Socher built the first rectangular piano in Germany (Sonthofen, Bavaria). Christian Ernst Friederici, a disciple of Silbermann, states that he also made them in Gera in the early 1950s.
Coinciding with the Seven Years' War (1756-73), many German builders moved to England where, favored by the economic and social situation of the country, they could give out their knowledge and develop the piano business.
Johannes Zumpe (1726-1790) is the main reference in the initial construction of square pianos. In the 1860s, the manufacture of very simple squares, within the reach of all pockets, began and was quickly accepted. From 1769 to 1778, he was associated with Gabriel Buntebart. The Museum of Music has a recently restored one from 1776.
With the success of this instrument, many builders joined in and began a career of improvement that culminated in the great American square pianos Chikering, Steinway and others until the late 19th century. In the United States the taste for table pianos was maintained until very late.
Still in the early twentieth century some table pianos were built, such as a 1910 English Rogers.
The Collard firm
The Collard pianos are the direct continuation of the Clementi.
The Collard brothers were Clementi's only partners when he died. Frederick W. Collard (1772-1860) had already started working for the Longman firm in the middle of the last decade of the 18th century. Clementi put money in the late 1990s to save the company, which bore the name Longman, Clementi & Company. From 1801 he was the main shareholder and the pianos were named Clementi & Company. In 1810, Frederick's younger brother William F. Collard (1776-1866) joined.
From the outset, Clementi took the reins of the company, not only in business management, but also in quality control. There is a lot of correspondence between Clementi and Frederick Collard that proves it. Frederick, according to engineer and specialist Tom Strange, was an acoustic genius.
During the years that Clementi and the Collards worked together, William registered many patents. William, who was also a poet, was considered by Moscheles to be the smartest man he had ever met.
Clementi and the Collards formed a solid team and, apparently, with great cohesion and confidence that went beyond the employment relationship.
Clementi resigned from the business on June 24, 1831. From his death in 1832, the Collard brothers remained the company and put up the Collard & Collard brand. Clementi's fame lasted and for this reason, his name remained nearly two decades in the brand that carried the label Collard & Collard, late Clementi, Collard & Collard. Models based on designs prior to his death also continued to be manufactured, as is the case with what we present today.
It is a very simple instrument, similar to those of the late 1820s. The dampers are identical, small, and the mechanics and hammers as well. The high are covered with leather and the rest are made of felt. It is bicord and has 12 simple bourdons. There is only has one pedal. One difference from the previous pianos is the iron plate that holds the strings.
After Clementi's death, the Collard brothers soon left the music publishing house.
In 1842, William retires and Frederick brings in two nephews. In 1929 the firm was acquired by Chapell and in 1980 by Kemble. Nevertheless, the Collard brand still appears on some pianos until the 1960s. XX
A summary of the numbering of Collard pianos:
1850 - 51000
1880 - 115880
1900 - 160850
1920 - 187505
1940 - 196120
1960 - 198400
Our Collard is number 39504 and corresponds to the year 1843. It was restored by Jaume Barmona in the summer of 2017.
©Joan Josep Gutiérrez Yzquierdo
My thanks to Thomas Strange and David Hackett for their information before the piano restoration.
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