Èrard, Sébastien

Èrard, Sébastien, famous Alsatian piano and harp maker; b. Strasbourg, April 5, 1752; d. La Muette, near Paris, Aug. 5, 1831. His family name was originally Erhard. His father was a cabinetmaker by trade, and Sebastien worked in his shop until he was 16, when his father died. He was then engaged by a Paris harpsichord maker, who dismissed him “for wanting to know everything” Under a second employer his ingenuity made a stir in the musical world, and the invention of a “clavecin mecanique” (described by Abbe Roussier, 1776) made him famous. The Duchess of Villeroy became his patroness, and fitted up in her home a work-shop for Erard in which (1777) he finished the first pianoforte made in France. In the meantime, his brother, Jean-Baptiste, joined him, and they founded an instrument factory in the Rue Bourbon. Their growing success led to a conflict with the fan-makers7 guild (to which the brothers did not belong), which tried to prevent them from working. But the Erards obtained a special “brevet” from Louis XVI for the manufacture of “forté-pianos” and this enabled them to continue their trade unmolested. In the following years, Èrard invented the “piano organisé” with 2 keyboards, one for piano and the other for a small organ. He also became interested in the harp, and invented the ingenious double- action mechanism, perfected in 1811. From 1786 to 1796 he was in London. Returning to Paris, he made his first grand piano, and employed the English action until his invention, in 1809, of the repetition action, which is regarded as his supreme achievement. An “orgue expressif,” built for the Tuileries, was his last important work. His nephew, Pierre Èrard (1794–1865), succeeded him. He publ. The Harp in its present improved state compared with the original Pedal Harp (1821), and Perfectionnements apportes dans le mécanisme du piano par les Èrards depuis Vorigine de cet instrument jusqu’à Vexposition de 1834 (1834). Pierre’s successor was his wife’s nephew, Pierre Schaffer (d. 1878). The firm merged with Gaveau in 1859.

Bibliography

F. Fétis, Notice biographique sur Sébastien Èrard (Paris, 1831).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire