A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Wolff, Auguste

WOLFF, Auguste Désiré Bernard, pianist and pianoforte maker, head of the great firm of Pleyel-Wolff et Cie., born in Paris May 3, 1821. At 14 he entered the Conservatoire, studied the piano with Zimmermann, and took a first prize in 1839. He was also a pupil of Leborne for counterpoint, and Halévy for composition, and under these auspices composed several pianoforte pieces, published by Richault. At 21 he entered the staff of the Conservatoire as 'répétiteur'—teacher of pupils in dramatic singing—and kept it for five years, when he gave up teaching to become the pupil and partner of the well-known pianoforte-maker, Camille Pleyel, who, being old and infirm, was looking out for a dependable assistant. M. Wolff entered the business in 1850, became a member of the firm in 1852, and naturally succeeded to the headship of it on the death of Pleyel in 1855. From that day his exertions have been unremitting, and while still adhering to the principles of his illustrious predecessor, and the processes of manufacture which made the Pleyel pianos famous, he, with the scientific assistance of his friend M. Lissajous the acoustician, has devoted all his attention to increasing the volume of tone without losing sweetness. His repeated experiments on the tension of strings, on the best possible spot for the hammer to strike the string so as to get the fullest tone and the best 'partials,' on the damper, etc., have proved very fruitful, and led him to patent several ingenious contrivances. These are, a double escapement, which he is still perfecting, a transposing keyboard, a 'pédalier,' which can be adapted to any piano, thus enabling organists to practise pedal passages without spoiling a piano by coupling the notes, and lastly the 'pédale harmonique,' a pedal which can be used while playing chromatic passages, as it can be applied to the melody alone, or to any specific notes, at the option of the player. It is owing to such labours as these, and M. Wolff's indefatigable activity, that the firm of Pleyel-Wolff still keeps its place in the front rank of pianoforte makers, and gains so many distinctions. Thoroughly liberal, and a philanthropist in the best sense of the word, he has contrived to give his 600 workmen a real interest in the success of the business by forming a special fund, amounting already to nearly 150,000 francs (£6,000), out of which benefit societies, retiring pensions, etc., are provided. Not ceasing to be an artist because he has gone into trade, M. Wolff has founded a prize—the Prix Pleyel-Wolff—for a pianoforte piece with or without orchestra, to be competed for annually. In fact, whether as artist or manufacturer, M. Auguste Wolff was a notable personage in the French musical world of his day. His health had been on the decline for more than a year, and he died at Paris, Feb. 9, 1887.

[ A. J. ]