Jean-Henri Pape was a distinguished French piano maker in the early 19th century. Pape was born in Sarstedt in 1787. He arrived in Paris in 1811 and secured employment with Pleyel, whose piano workshops he directed for several years. In 1815, he established his own manufacture of pianos, and almost annually for nearly forty years improved them with new inventions.

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  • Jean-Henri Pape was a distinguished French piano maker in the early 19th century. Pape was born in Sarstedt in 1787. He arrived in Paris in 1811 and secured employment with Pleyel, whose piano workshops he directed for several years. In 1815, he established his own manufacture of pianos, and almost annually for nearly forty years improved them with new inventions. His first grand pianos followed the English system of Broadwood and Tomkinson, though endowed with mechanical genius it was not long before he modified, then completely changed their principles of construction. Pape concentrated on defects in square and grand pianos caused by the structural gap between the sounding board and wrest plank allowing the hammers to strike the strings; the solution of placing actions above the strings had been imagined by Marius, then Hildebrand and finally Streicher in Vienna, but instead of levers and counterweights Pape's arrangement used a coil spring to raise the hammers quickly and with almost no effect on touch. This system was very successful in squares but lacked some lightness and delicacy in grand pianos. The variations he introduced in the forms and actions of upright pianos gave his instruments remarkable power. The work of this skilled maker was rewarded by favorable reports of his instruments from the Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale in September 19, 1832 and from l'Académie des beaux-arts de l'institut de France in 1833, and he earned a gold medal at the National Exposition in 1834, as well as a medal of the Legion of Honor in 1839. Skilled in every aspect of mechanics, Pape invented a machine used to saw wood or ivory in spirals, and exhibited its results in 1827. One of his pianos was veneered with sheets of ivory nine feet long and two feet wide. A small pamphlet commemorated his contributions to the instrument . In 1875 Pape died in Asnières-sur-Seine, near Paris, where he had continued research into the construction of the instrument that was his life's work. For some time his son and nephew managed the factory he founded.
  • Jean-Henri Pape est un facteur de piano français du XIXe siècle. Jean-Henri Pape est parfois appelé Henri Pape. C'est ainsi dans l'édition originale de la Biographie universelle des musiciens. On trouve aussi cette appellation à la rue de Paris qui a pris son nom. Pape est né à Sarstedt. En 1811, il arrive à Paris et entre dans la fabrique de pianos de Pleyel dont il devient directeur pendant quelques années. En 1815, il monte sa propre fabrique. Au début ses pianos sont construits selon le système anglais de Broadwood (en) et Tomkison, mais rapidement grâce à son génie d'invention dans la mécanique il introduit de nombreuses modifications dans la construction de ses instruments et change même parfois complètement le principe. Pendant près de quarante ans, il va ainsi construire une invention presque chaque année. Il dépose 137 brevets concernant le piano. Il sera par exemple à l'origine de la garniture des marteaux avec du feutre (1826) et du croisement des cordes, tendues en diagonale, les cordes graves passant au-dessus du plan des autres cordes, afin d'augmenter leur longueur (1828).
  • Jean Henri Pape, ook Johann Heinrich Pape genoemd was een Duits pianobouwer.
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  • Jean-Henri Pape was a distinguished French piano maker in the early 19th century. Pape was born in Sarstedt in 1787. He arrived in Paris in 1811 and secured employment with Pleyel, whose piano workshops he directed for several years. In 1815, he established his own manufacture of pianos, and almost annually for nearly forty years improved them with new inventions.
  • Jean-Henri Pape est un facteur de piano français du XIXe siècle. Jean-Henri Pape est parfois appelé Henri Pape. C'est ainsi dans l'édition originale de la Biographie universelle des musiciens. On trouve aussi cette appellation à la rue de Paris qui a pris son nom. Pape est né à Sarstedt. En 1811, il arrive à Paris et entre dans la fabrique de pianos de Pleyel dont il devient directeur pendant quelques années. En 1815, il monte sa propre fabrique.
  • Jean Henri Pape, ook Johann Heinrich Pape genoemd was een Duits pianobouwer.
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  • Jean-Henri Pape
  • Jean-Henri Pape
  • Jean Henri Pape
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