German firm of piano makers. Julius Blüthner (b Falkenhain, nr Leipzig, 11 March 1824; d Leipzig, 13 April 1910) began working as a cabinet maker. After working for Hölling and Spangenburg (piano makers) in Zeitz, he started his own small business in Leipzig in 1853, building grand pianos with the assistance of three men and a boy. He patented his ‘repetition action’ after his success at the 1854 Munich Industrial Exhibition. In 1864 he began making upright pianos. He expanded his business as he won prizes and medals at various exhibitions and attracted orders from royalty. He strove constantly to refine his instruments and this work culminated in the 1873 patent for the aliquot scaling of grand pianos. This added a fourth, unison-tuned sympathetic (‘aliquot’) string to each trichord group in the treble to enrich the piano's weakest register by enhancing the overtone spectrum of the instrument. The Aliquot string runs parallel to the normal strings, but is elevated where the hammer strikes so that it is not struck directly, but vibrates in sympathy with the other strings (the illustration shows the modified aliquot scaling system introduced by the firm in 1991; for an illustration of the original system, see Grove6). Julius Blüthner personally tested every piano; his sons, Max, Robert and Bruno, later took over this responsibility. Bruno, who had spent some time with the American piano manufacturer Chickering, took charge of the technical side of the business.
The large Leipzig factory was completely destroyed in World War II, but Bruno’s son-in-law, Rudolph Blüthner-Haessler, was able to recommence manufacture against considerable odds. Under the direction of his son, Ingbert (b Leipzig, 4 March 1936), Blüthner pianos have regained their former eminence; a splendid factory was completed in October 1974, and pianos are still made there largely by hand. From 1972 the company was volkseigener Betrieb, or ‘owned by the people’, but in 1990 it was reprivatized and passed back into the Blüthner family's ownership. By 1995 150,000 pianos had been made. A new range of cheaper pianos was introduced in 1998 under the name of Haessler.
Modern Blüthner pianos, still with aliquot scaling, are prized by many eminent pianists for their quality and craftsmanship. The pianos won the gold medal at the 1965 Leipzig 800th Anniversary Fair. Blüthner instruments are distinguished by a round, slightly romantic tone, with a particularly full treble. Pianos made today have an improved, arched soundboard crown, which enhances the lower overtones. The Blüthner patent action is described and illustrated by Blüthner-Haessler. The firm's British agents since 1876 have been Whelpdale, Maxwell & Codd of London, who in 1934 began to make an entirely British piano, the ‘Welmar’.
J. Blüthner and H.Gretschel: Lehrbuch des Pianofortebaues in seiner Geschichte, Theorie und Technik (Weimar, 1872/R)
The History of the Blüthner Pianoforte: Julius Blüthner, Pianoforte Maker 1824 to 1910 (London, n.d.)
I. Blüthner-Haessler: Pianofortebau, elementar und umfassend dargestellt von einem Klavierbau (Frankfurt, 1991)
MARGARET CRANMER