ference
or with positive ridicule.

The fact is that revolutionary sudden changes in musical instruments
are rendered impossible owing to the near relationship which exists
between each instrument and the general body of the music that is
written for it. No one can divorce the two, which, as a factor in
aesthetic progress, are really one and indivisible. Therefore, if any
man invents a musical instrument which requires for its success the
sudden evolution of a new race of composers writing for it, and a new
type of educated public taste to hail these composers with delight, he
is asking for a miracle and he will be disappointed.

What is wanted is not a new instrument, but an improved piano that
shall at one and the same time correct, to some extent, the defects of
the existing instrument, and leave still available all the brilliant
effects which have been invented for it by a generation of musical
geniuses. We want the sustained note, and yet we do not wish to lose
the pretty turns and graceful devices by which the lack of it has been
hidden, or atoned for, in the works of the masters. Therefore our
sustained note must not be too aggressive. For a long time, indeed, it
must partake of the very defects which it is intended ultimately to
abolish.

In other words, we want to retain the percussion note with the dampers
and with the loud and soft pedals, in fact, all the existing
inventions for coaxing some of the notes to sustain themselves while
others are cut short, as may be desired, and at the same time we have
to add other and more effective means to assist the performer in
achieving the same object.

The more or less complicated methods aiming at the prolongation of the
residual effect of the percussion have apparently been very nearly
exhausted. Some of the most modern pianos are really marvels of
mechanical ingenuity applied to this purpose. We have now to look to
something slightly resembling the principle of the violin or of the
organ, in order to secure the additional _sostenuto_ effect for which
we are searching. Having to deal with a piano in practically its
existing form, we obviously require to take special account of the
fact that the note is begun by percussion, and that any attempt to
bring a solid substance into contact with the wire while still
vibrating, with the object of continuing its motion, is likely to
produce more or less of a jarring effect.

The air-blast type of note-continuer for _sos