John Broadwood
John Broadwood (6 October 1732 – 17 July 1812) was the Scottish founder of the piano manufacturer Broadwood and Sons.
Life
Broadwood was born 6 October 1732 and christened 15 Oct 1732 at St Helens, Cockburnspath in Berwickshire, and grew up in Oldhamstocks, East Lothian. He inherited his father James Broadwood's (b1697 Oldhamstocks) profession, that of a wright or carpenter/joiner, and as a young man walked from Oldhamstocks to London, a distance of almost 400 miles (640 km), where he worked for the harpsichord maker Burkat Shudi. Burkat Shudi died in 1773, and John Broadwood took control of the company from his brother-in-law in 1783.
Broadwood is credited, together with Robert Stodart, founder of another famous firm of piano makers, of helping Americus Backers to perfect the English Grand Action, which remained in use by many makers virtually unchanged for 70 years and, in Broadwoods' case over 100 years, and continued in use in various improved forms until the early years of the 20th century. In time his sales of pianos exceeded those of harpsichords, to the point that he ceased to manufacture harpsichords in 1793. He died in London. Broadwood's other technical innovations in piano manufacture include: adding a separate bridge for the bass notes, patenting the piano pedal in 1783 and expanding the then-standard five octave range upwards by half an octave, in response to a request of Dussek, and then by half an octave downwards.
John Broadwood (song collector)
Rev. John Broadwood (1798 – 26 January 1864) was the first English folk song collector.
Life and legacy
He was born in 1798, the son of James Shudi Broadwood and the grandson of John Broadwood, both piano makers in London. When he was young, his family moved to the Broadwood family home: Lyne House in Capel, Surrey. In 1825, he married Charlotte King of Loxwood, Sussex. It is certain that he was a clergyman, because he officiated at a wedding in 1850. He died at Lyne House in 1864.
He is known for the book or pamphlet dated 1843, originally published anonymously, usually known as Old English Songs. It contains 16 folk songs, "set to music exactly as they are now sung", and with the words "given in their original rough state with an occasional slight alteration to render the sense intelligible".
His niece, the noted song collector Lucy Broadwood, said that Old English Songs "is the first serious collection of English traditional songs that we possess"; and related that he insisted to G. A. Dusart, the musician who arranged Old English Songs for publication, that the songs should be set down exactly as he had heard them. According to the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, he "is to be honoured in the annals of English folk-song". In 1943, the music critic Frank Howes wrote a scholarly article about him to "celebrate the centenary year of scientific method applied editorially to the oral tradition of English folk-song".
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