communication between the artist and his hearers!
To follow the progressive development of the mechanical principles
underlying the pianoforte, one would be obliged to begin beyond the
veil which separates history from tradition, for the first of them
finds its earliest exemplification in the bow twanged by the primitive
savage. Since a recognition of these principles may help to an
understanding of the art of pianoforte playing, I enumerate them now.
They are:

1. A stretched string as a medium of tone production.

2. A key-board as an agency for manipulating the strings.

3. A blow as the means of exciting the strings to vibratory action, by
which the tone is produced.

[Sidenote: _Their Genesis._]

[Sidenote: _Significance of the pianoforte._]

Many interesting glimpses of the human mind and heart might we have in
the course of the promenade through the ancient, mediaeval, and modern
worlds which would be necessary to disclose the origin and growth of
these three principles, but these we must forego, since we are to
study the music of the instrument, not its history. Let the knowledge
suffice that the fundamental principle of the pianoforte is as old as
music itself, and that scientific learning, inventive ingenuity, and
mechanical skill, tributary always to the genius of the art, have
worked together for centuries to apply this principle, until the
instrument which embodies it in its highest potency is become a
veritable microcosm of music. It is the visible sign of culture in
every gentle household; the indispensable companion of the composer
and teacher; the intermediary between all the various branches of
music. Into the study of the orchestral conductor it brings a
translation of all the multitudinous voices of the band; to the
choir-master it represents the chorus of singers in the church-loft or
on the concert-platform; with its aid the opera director fills his
imagination with the people, passions, and pageantry of the lyric
drama long before the singers have received their parts, or the
costumer, stage manager, and scene-painter have begun their work. It
is the only medium through which the musician in his study can
commune with the whole world of music and all its heroes; and though
it may fail to inspire somewhat of that sympathetic nearness which one
feels toward the violin as it nestles under the chin and throbs
synchronously with the player's emotions, or those wind instruments
into which the pl