Guillaume-Lebrecht Petzold
Encyclopedia
Guillaume-Lebrecht Petzold was a piano maker in Paris in the early 19th century.
Petzold was born 2 July 1794 in Lichtenhayn, a village in Saxony
near Meißen. His father, a Protestant minister, wanted him to learn an artistic trade and in April 1798 brought him to Dresden
where he apprenticed with Charles Rodolphe August Wenzky, maker of organs and pianos to the court. After five years, Petzold travelled to Vienna
with a letter of recommendation from Wenzky to Walther for whom he worked until departing for Paris
December 1805. Petzold formed a partnership with J. Pfeiffer in April 1806, and their first products were a cabinet upright which Petzold called the harmomelo, and a well received triangular piano, followed by an improved square. The partners established their own workshops in 1814, and the sound, regulation and construction of Petzold's subsequent instruments earned him a distinguished reputation.
The enlarged soundboard Petzold introduced in square pianos at the 1806 French National Exposition received little notice. Its purpose was to increase the amount of sound, but the arrangement increased the height of the strings and required greater action leverage than the English square action could provide. Petzold substituted a variation of an English grand action with a crank escapement and individual hammer flanges, but the heavier blows it allowed required heavier stringing, which in turn required stronger frames. These changes gave his squares an unprecedented fullness and capacity for expression, and indicated the direction of subsequent changes that would take place in the art of constructing, as well as writing for and performing on pianos.
Petzold was born 2 July 1794 in Lichtenhayn, a village in Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
near Meißen. His father, a Protestant minister, wanted him to learn an artistic trade and in April 1798 brought him to Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
where he apprenticed with Charles Rodolphe August Wenzky, maker of organs and pianos to the court. After five years, Petzold travelled to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
with a letter of recommendation from Wenzky to Walther for whom he worked until departing for Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
December 1805. Petzold formed a partnership with J. Pfeiffer in April 1806, and their first products were a cabinet upright which Petzold called the harmomelo, and a well received triangular piano, followed by an improved square. The partners established their own workshops in 1814, and the sound, regulation and construction of Petzold's subsequent instruments earned him a distinguished reputation.
The enlarged soundboard Petzold introduced in square pianos at the 1806 French National Exposition received little notice. Its purpose was to increase the amount of sound, but the arrangement increased the height of the strings and required greater action leverage than the English square action could provide. Petzold substituted a variation of an English grand action with a crank escapement and individual hammer flanges, but the heavier blows it allowed required heavier stringing, which in turn required stronger frames. These changes gave his squares an unprecedented fullness and capacity for expression, and indicated the direction of subsequent changes that would take place in the art of constructing, as well as writing for and performing on pianos.
- This was a vertically strung, full size upright with underdampers operated by a crank from the keys. (Harding. p248); Fetis mistakes it for a kind of upright grand.