Pape presented his instruments at most of the Expositions until the 185 5 Crystal Palace
Universal Exposition and won the gold medal at the 1834 Paris Exposition. He would
have won the gold medal at the 1824 Exposition but he fell out with the jury whom he
accused of being biased. At this time he was one of the foremost makers of grand pianos
in France, with Pleyel and Erard, although his main production was in square and upright
pianos, the piano-console being particularly successful.
Pape seems to have set up a factory in London as several piano-consoles mention Paris
and London. The fact that Pape and Erard built pianos in England and Boisselot in Spain
shows that the French piano industry was dynamic and successful at this time. At Pape’s
death in 1875, which put an end to Pape pianos, production had come to a standstill. The
inventory of his estate mentions ‘50 pianos, complete or incomplete, two work benches
and some old tools’ with an estimated total value of 300 francs.
Pape married in 1819 and had a son Frédéric-Eugène who also built pianos but went
bankrupt leaving the debt to his parents. Pape published several leaflets about his piano
production from which his interest in innovation is obvious. He described the evolution
of the down striking action: ‘I wasn’t entirely satisfied with this action, and I abandoned
it later for another, then this one for a third, and so on. In other words, innumerable trials
followed one another over a few years.’ Over twenty actions of this type were
experimented with: ‘I aspired to a sort of ideal impossible to reach’. Pape’s
determination, however, went with an inflexibility of character. He fell out with
Exposition juries in 1823 and 1827, and in 184 9, unhappy about the place he had been
given, withdrew his pianos from the Exposition altogether.
Pape wrote that the great variety of shapes he tested for his pianos was only possible
through ‘the abandon and sacrifice of my own interests’, as the general public is always
scared of innovations and the time spent in research is not reflected in the final price of
the instruments. Pape contrasted the purist and disinterested approach of the inventor
whose main ambition ‘is to be known by useful inventions and realisations’ to that of
dealers whose main aim in life ‘is to fill their safes quicker and quicker’. This rather
bitter observation was followed by a conclusion in the same vein: ‘The way things are,
truth finds few defenders amongst those responsible for publicity, and the piano-maker
has to abandon his tools for the pen, to plead his own cause, however much he hates
talking about himself.’
PAUSE
Air pause
‘In music, stillness is often as important as sound. Slight breaks, short silences or longer
pauses help to shape musical phrases and ideas, to communicate the composer’s
intentions and to assist the listener in his [or her] understanding and enjoyment. These
silences may sometimes be obvious; on other occasions a performer may place them so
unobtrusively and deliberately that the listener may hardly be aware of them, though their
effect may unconsciously shape his appreciation and response.