the hammer regains its seat. A bar, L, passing along under all the damper lifters, is raised by depressing the loud pedal. The soft pedal slides the whole keyboard along such a distance that the hammers strike two only out of the three strings allotted to all except the bass notes, which have only one string apiece, or two, according to their depth or length. In some pianos the soft pedal presses a special damper against the strings; and a third kind of device moves the hammers nearer the strings so that they deliver a lighter blow. These two methods of damping are confined to upright pianos.
A high-class piano is the result of very careful workmanship. The mechanism of each note must be accurately regulated by its tiny screws to a minute fraction of an inch. It must be ensured that every hammer strikes its blow at exactly the right place on the string, since on this depends the musical value of the note. The adjustment of the dampers requires equal care, and the whole work calls for a sensitive ear combined with skilled mechanical knowledge, so that the instrument may have a light touch, strength, and certainty of action throughout the whole keyboard.
THE QUALITY OF A NOTE.
If two strings, alike in all respects and equally tensioned, are plucked, both will give the same note, but both will not necessarily have the same quality of tone. The quality, or timbre , as musicians call it, is influenced by the presence of overtones , or harmonics , in combination with the fundamental , or deepest, tone of the string. The fact is, that while a vibrating string vibrates as a whole, it also vibrates in parts. There are, as it were, small waves superimposed on