4 - Instruments: 1772–1840

Summary

❧ Introduction

THIS chapter discusses the instruments produced by the Gray workshop between 1772 and 1840, and the contexts in which they were used. By comparison with other European organ cultures, its scope is limited by lack of surviving instruments and paucity of documentation. The former is a particular handicap, and while some organs were adequately documented from the start, the need in other cases to rely on later versions of specifications further compounds the difficulty. However, and despite these shortcomings, it is possible to learn a good deal about the Grays’ instruments, even if conjecture cannot be wholly avoided.

❧ Pianofortes

Robert and William Gray's trade card (c1782–6) describes them as ‘Organ, harpsichord & piano-forte makers’ (Plate 1.6). None of their harpsichords is known to survive, and the harpsichord trade was, in any case, in rapid decline during this period. Like the spinet – which had fallen from favour rather earlier – the harpsichord was being usurped in popularity by a newcomer: the pianoforte. John Broadwood (the most prolific maker of keyboard instruments in London, and eventually throughout Europe) stopped making harpsichords after 1793; the Kirckmans made their last one in 1809. With J.C. Bach as advocate, and J.C. Zumpe as leading maker, the pianoforte speedily established itself as the keyboard instrument of choice – assisted by the fact that the cost of a square piano was approximately one-third the cost of a harpsichord.

Ehrlich has written:

Until about 1770 pianos were ambiguous instruments, transitional in construction and uncertain in status. As modified harpsichords or clavichords their outward appearance and quality of sound betrayed their origins. Makers were not yet specializing exclusively in their manufacture, for there were as yet few buyers, even among the prosperous English middle classes. Support came predominantly from amateurs; among professional players, composers and musical journalists, complaint still tended to outweigh advocacy.

In this context of change, with its uncertain outcomes, it made sense for an instrument-maker to avoid unwise specialisation. Organ-builders (especially those whose trade was dependent on the domestic market) had frequently made stringed keyboard instruments as well as organs. This was the world from which the Grays had come – the world of John Crang, Thomas Parker and the Pethers – and they maintained its conventions, making and selling other keyboard instruments alongside the organs.