I had a nice long talk with my dearest friend Ryan Wishner last evening, and we discussed for a brief period of time the possible dynamic of the oldest studio pianos. Now I have an ad on a piece of sheet music from 1890 that advertises a brand of piano being used by the North American Phonograph company.It was this piece in fact:
I did not at all notice that that very piece of music had that endorsement until many months after I got it. I picked it up randomly out of a pile of music somewhere, without having to pay any money for it, just because it was a march endorsing piano brand. The added bonus was the ad praising the brand for being a favourite of the Edison phonograph and North American companies. In fact, it is in this picture here:
(from Tinfoil.com)
You can see two of those Shoninger pianos that Edison supposedly bought in 1890(though they aren't uprights). That is extraordinary! How often does that come up? Almost never. Here is the ad I was talking about:
Here's the back page:
Amazing, right?
I'm surprised that Columbia never did any piano endorsing(that I know of, there might be some out there...). Edison was not nearly as weird of a place as Columbia, as I have explained before, and probably it didn't really occur to them that having a single piano company supply them was a good idea. This certainly is a good idea, as Rag-Time festival managers of to-day well know about that venture. Edison knew that having them endorse that piano company was a good thing for both companies. Well, I don't really know if Columbia had many of the same brand of piano, but it isn't really likely. 
Does anyone know what brand that piano is just to the left of the camera?
(If you do, PLEASE COMMENT!)
Yes, that thing closest to the camera is a piano, a very strange-looking one though. Hmm, now that I study the picture a little bit, they look like they might be the same kind of piano. Hm. They have the same kind of key-cover on them. One that just stays upward on the piano in a tilted direction(I have a German piano from 1925 that has that same kind of cover on it). Maybe they were German pianos? Maybe not. It is certain that the Edison pianos advertised on that sheet music were made in Germany. Hmm... You know what, those two pianos might actually be two of the same kind, because I just noticed that the design on the one seen on the floor(closest to the camera) has that weird carved thing that has a specific shape, and look at the piano Hylands is at. It has that same kind of design, as you can see the pleats on the wood that are on that one closer to the camera. They also have the same kind of key-cover as you may notice. Does that piano on the floor have another cover on the bottom half of it? I mean over the part just below the keyboard, or not, it could just be the beams that are connected to the pedals. It's very hard to tell, even if the picture is very sharp.
I swear, if Columbia had Shoninger pianos there... (Beheaded Emerson!)
Probably not by 1898 though, as they had become very split from Edison by then. Earlier on in its existence they probably had the same pianos, but later on they must have diversified. We all remember this story:
Uh yes. That one. Hunting's "Bureau" story is actually hilarious, and it really is kind of what is described here, here is a take by Hunting of it from about 1920:
Ha! Love it.Very funny in that typical Russell Hunting way.
It really was Spencer trying to get one of their pianos probably into the exhibition hall, and it flopped over, probably from a wrongful grip, as he was not a piano mover. He thought he could be, but we know how that turned out. Heh. I wonder if he and Hylands tried to move it at some point again after that. That would be a great picture. As Hylands probably would have confidently agreed to doing the thing, until it came to actually getting his hands on the piano. He probably wussed out on it and set his hands up at the last second as Len got a good grip on the thing, and the same flop over would have happened. Hm, maybe the reason Columbia's piano in later 1897 sounded so out of tune was because of that fail by Len Spencer? That would make some sense. Just for some examples, here are some cylinders of Columbia's very out-of-tune piano from 1897 and 1898:
https://archive.org/details/colnyp-3420(announced by Harry Spencer)
"Schubert's Serenade" by Clark and Hylands, recorded in later 1897.(the piano is significantly bad on this one)
Now this one here, is the worst sounding one in my opinion:
The piano is so out of tune with the bells, it's really almost painful to listen to. So I wouldn't be at all surprised is that is the piano that flopped over on Spencer, and if so, probably not long after it happened. And better yet, it's Hylands playing it. Heh, probably a little tipsy as well. For an interesting comparison, here's another take of the same selection:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder8359
This take sounds like the same circumstances as the other one, but either done on a different piano, or the same one just after it was tuned. After Hylands complained about it that is. Hylands sounds a little more tired or drunk on the take with the in-tune piano for some reason, he misses more notes is really what I'm meaning to say.
I heard a take of George Rosey's "The Handicap Race" by Dan Quinn recently, that has that same out-of-tune early 1890's piano, and since it was recorded in Columbia' "bigger Room", by that it is meant to being this one:
the wires of the piano and untuned strings can be heard even more.
While at Columbia in the late-1890's, they probably had their main studio pianos tuned every few months, which is why when he hear many Columbia brown waxes, sometimes they sounds like they were recorded with different pianos, when really they were just the same two pianos getting tuned up and down because Hylands was such a beast on them, also from them getting moved every once in a while, with a fail here and there. They must have had their pianos tuned more often after 1900 for some reason, as it's not as common to hear Columbia's piano extremely out of tune after 1901. It still happened, though occasionally. Here are a few from 1901-04 that have the piano a little out of tune:
(always had the belief that this was probably recorded in the afternoon or early evening, as they both sound broken up and tired)
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder4702(classic Hylands Rag-Time!)
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder4730
(this one is particularly noticeable)
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder4405
All of these have a similar story, and in fact, if your ears are good enough, you might be able to notice that the same piano that is on Collins and Hylands' "Bill Bailey" is exactly the same one that Hylands played back in 1898 behind Billy Golden on "Turkey in the Straw". The reason I caught that is because of the sound of bass notes, they are exactly the same kind of out-of-tune and wire-like that the same notes are on "Turkey in the Straw" from four years before that. Since both records have Hylands on them, it makes even more sense that they would sound the same. The different recording rooms could throw off the effects of the sound though, as "Turkey in the Straw" was recorded in their "bigger room", and "Bill Bailey" was recorded in a different, smaller room.
By 1905 however, Columbia still used their "bigger room" when making records, as they made only about a handful of records with piano accompaniment in 1905, but all of them were made in their big room, because of the effectiveness of all the 1890's records they made in that room, with piano accompaniment of course. one of them included this one here:
Still the same old Hylands playing his usual Rag-Time, even seven years after first digging his hands into that rugged old piano. Well, after seven years, that piano became old and rugged.
I hope you enjoyed this!
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