Founding a workshop

Having obtained a crucial royal protection that allowed them to compete freely with their Parisian rivals, the Erard brothers concentrated on enlarging their workshop in order to meet the growing demand for their pianos—not only in Paris, but throughout France. The firm hired numerous skilled workers from German-speaking Europe, enticing them by offering a good salary and a stable contract. The success of the Erard firm depended on recruiting, training, and supervising their numerous employees, and stocking their workshops with great quantities of specialised raw materials for instrument manufacture. The Erards developed relationships with musical instrument dealers, musicians, and music teachers as an important way to extend their instrument-building empire across Europe.

Camille Erard and the end of the Erard Empire

Pierre Erard’s death meant that for the first time in over eighty years there was no longer an inventive genius running the Erard firm. But by assuming control of the firm, Camille became one of the only women of her time to run a large-scale international business and one of the few women to make her mark in the history of musical instrument manufacture. The recognition of her authority as head of the firm by musicians such as Richard Wagner and Clara Schumann gave Camille the confidence to undertake two ambitious and transformative construction projects. The first of these initiatives was to build a concert hall on the premises of the rue du Mail. The second was to construct a vast modern factory on the outskirts of Paris. In the end, a lack of innovation combined with increased competition from German and American piano builders was the cause of the eventual demise of the Erard firm.

An Apprentice to Ghosts

This chapter focuses on builders (Bob Thornburg, Jeff Menzies, John Bowlin, Allen Hart, Jim Hartel, George Wunderlich and Pete Ross) who have chosen exclusively to create instruments that are either inspired by or meticulously replicate the earliest examples of the banjo. These range from instruments made of gourds and other repurposed materials to banjos from the 1840s forward that evince the beginnings of industrialization in instrument manufacture. While individual motivations differ, the thread that unites these makers is a desire to draw attention to the most conflicted elements of this instrument’s history, i.e., its origins among enslaved populations and its cooptation by white entertainers involved in blackface minstrelsy. The response among old-time banjoists has been surprisingly positive, in large part because the playing technique required is very similar to what is currently favored, a fact that strengthens the historical connections between these nearly forgotten instruments and their contemporary counterparts. Yet, as all of these builders have discovered, restoring these early banjos to the old-time musical community necessitates a re-examination of the sources of much of the repertoire and an expansion of the conceptions of a shared, albeit mythical past. These topics are covered in greater detail in Chapter Six.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MAKING IN GEORGIAN LONDON, 1753–1809: EVIDENCE FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE OLD BAILEY AND THE MIDDLESEX SESSIONS OF THE PEACE

Throughout the Georgian period London was the most significant British centre for musical instrument manufacture. Traditionally, research in this area has focused on the surviving instruments themselves, thereby emphasizing those makers in charge of flourishing workshops and those who were in the habit of signing their products. By examining archival sources, however, it is possible to glean a more complete picture of musical instrument production, through the identification of ‘hidden’ makers unrepresented by extant instruments, the establishment of patterns of settlement and the highlighting of relationships between different builders.Two principal sources form the basis of this study: the online edition of the Proceedings of the Old Bailey and the Middlesex Sessions of the Peace Records. While these sources are an important record of crime and punishment, it is the unwitting testimony of the trials rather than the crimes, the legal procedures or the punishments that is the primary focus of this study. Indeed, since the trials enable the identification of people involved at all levels of the musical instrument trade, it is arguable that they provide one of the most significant means of establishing some of the processes characterizing the industry during the second half of the eighteenth century.