The American Piano Industry: Episodes in the History of a Great Enterprise by William E. Hettrick (review)

Reviewed by: The American Piano Industry: Episodes in the History of a Great Enterprise by William E. Hettrick Sarah Deters The American Piano Industry: Episodes in the History of a Great Enterprise. By William E. Hettrick. (American Music and Musicians Series, no. 8. ) Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon, 2020. xii, 427 p. ISBN 9781576473498 (paperback), 48. Illustrations, bibliography, index. William Hettrick's addition to the canon of books about the history of the piano combines the technological approach of Alfred Dolge (Pianos and Their Makers: A Comprehensive History of the Development of the Piano from the Monochord to the Concert Grand Player Piano Covina, CA: Covina, 1911; reprint, New York: Dover, 1972) and Edwin M. Good (Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos: A Technological History from Cristofori to the Modern Concert Grand Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1982) ; the corporate history focus of Robert Adelson (Erard: A Passion for the Piano New York: Oxford University Press, 2021) and Richard K. Lieberman (Steinway and the social history lens of Arthur Loesser (Men, Women and Pianos: A Social History New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954). Based on his extensive research, Hettrick presents a series of vignettes, which he calls "episodes, " that give the reader glimpses into portions of the nineteenth-century piano industry in the United States. The purpose of the book is not to give the history of the piano itself, but instead, as the title suggests, insights into piano manufacturing in the United States. Through Hettrick's methodically presented episodes, the reader dips in and out of various elements of piano manufacturing and touches upon the emergence of stencil pianos, industry leaders (and failures), advertising techniques, and trade journalism. Hettrick helps bring this period of the expansion of the United States piano industry to life, even if he sometimes gets a bit long on the details. Hettrick organizes the book into six chapters with corresponding appendixes. The first chapter is an introduction to the complex world of the piano supply industry. Using trade publications as a primary resource, Hettrick unravels the expansive net work of large-scale and cottage industries that manufactured piano parts and supplies. These "behind-the-scene" makers have not previously been studied at such depth, and this chapter will be invaluable to future researchers looking to get a better understanding of the complexities of the piano industry in the United States. Additionally, in the associated appendixes (1. 1, "American Piano-Supply Manufacturers and Dealers, " and 1. 2, "American Piano Manufacturers"), Hettrick provides comprehensive and cross-referenced lists of hitherto mostly unknown suppliers and connects them to the piano manufacturers who used their wares. In the second chapter, Hettrick presents a biography of one of the most important—but not well-known—piano manufacturers, Joseph P. Hale. Hale was a producer of "stencil" pianos and an innovator in manufacturing. Hettrick showcases an astute businessman who, although marred by many in the trade press, was later recognized by Dolge as "the father of what is now called the Commercial Piano" (p. 100) and by Henry E. Steinway as "the founder of the present day piano business" (p. 101). In chapter 3, Hettrick looks at the advertising practices of piano manufacturers. The chapter is full of anecdotes, and Hettrick showcases the many methods manufacturers employed to push their wares. From trade shows, End Page 706 endorsements, advertisements, and even poetry, piano manufacturers tried every method of promoting their instruments. Hettrick includes a colorful story about a "pay-to-play" campaign that trade journals such as Musical Courier employed to pressure manufacturers into advertising in their journals. If they did not, they faced scathing reviews of their products. Hettrick next turns his attention to innovative attachments to the piano in chapter 4, "Gilding the Lily. " Here he explores the fad of the mandolin attachment, a device that supposedly allowed the performer to choose a variety of tones through musical effects. He looks at the different manufacturers who added these attachments, starting with George Payne Bent, who claimed a huge number of tonal alterations through his invention. Other manufacturers followed, and Hettrick examines each in turn, describing the mechanism and its claims as well as providing. . .