Lyon and Healy
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Lyon & Healy Harps, Inc. is an American musical instrument manufacturer based in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
and is a subsidiary of
Salvi Harps Salvi Harps is an Italian manufacturer of concert harps. The company was founded by Italian-American harpist and harpmaker Victor Salvi in 1956. History The father of company founder Victor (Vittorio) Salvi was an Italian luthier, piano and ...
. Today best known for concert
harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...
s, the company's Chicago headquarters and manufacturing facility contains a showroom and
concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that may ...
. George W. Lyon and Patrick J. Healy began the company in 1864 as a sheet music shop. By the end of the 19th century, they manufactured a wide range of musical instruments—including not only
harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...
s, but
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
s,
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
s,
mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
s,
banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
s,
ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...
s and various
brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...
and
other percussion instrument Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
s. Today, Lyon & Healy harps are widely played by professional musicians, since they are one of the few makers of harps for
orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
l use—which are known as ''concert harps'' or ''
pedal harp The pedal harp (also known as the concert harp) is a large and technologically modern harp, designed primarily for use in art music. It may be played solo, as part of a chamber ensemble, or in an orchestra. It typically has 47 strings with seve ...
s''. Lyon & Healy also makes smaller ''
folk harp Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...
s'' or lever harps (based on traditional Irish and Scottish instruments) that use levers to change string pitch instead of pedals. In the 1980s, Lyon & Healy also began to manufacture electroacoustic harps and, later, solid body
electric harp The electric harp is an instrument based on its acoustic original. There are both solid-body and hollow body electro-acoustic models available. True electric harps have a solid body versus a hollow body electro-acoustic harp, which can be played ...
s.


History

George W. Lyon, a native of
Northborough, Massachusetts Northborough is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The official spelling of the town's name is "Northborough," but the alternative spelling "Northboro" is also used. The population was 15,741 at the 2020 census. History ...
; and Patrick J. Healy, born in Mallow, Ireland, founded the company in 1864, after they moved from Boston to start a sheet music shop for music publisher
Oliver Ditson Oliver Ditson (October 20, 1811 – December 21, 1888) was an American businessman and founder of Oliver Ditson and Company, one of the major music publishing houses of the late 19th century. Early life and career Oliver Ditson was born in Bos ...
. Determining Lyon & Healy's history is complicated because its building and company records were destroyed in two fires, including the
Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 10 ...
of 1871. Two smaller fires did little damage to the firm and did not result in data loss. Company letters and trade catalogs don't provide exact dates that would reveal when Lyon & Healy began manufacturing instruments. An article in the ''
Musical Courier The ''Musical Courier'' was a weekly 19th- and 20th-century American music trade magazine that began publication in 1880. The publication included editorials, obituaries, announcements, scholarly articles and investigatory writing about musical ...
'' states that Lyon & Healy began manufacturing instruments in 1885. Clearly, Lyon & Healy was making fretted string instruments in the 1880s, with
Washburn Washburn (alternatively Wasseburne, Wasseborne, Wasshebourne, Wassheborne, Washbourne, Washburne, Washborne, Washborn, Wasborn, Washbon) is a toponymic surname, probably of Old English origin, with likely Anglo-Norman and Norman-French influen ...
(guitars, mandolins, banjos, and zithers) as their premier line. By the 1900s, if not earlier, Lyon & Healy might well have been manufacturing bowed string instruments. According to Vintage Guitar magazine, "Circa 1900, the firm was so large it manufactured under a host of sub-brands; Washburn is perhaps the most recognized, though Leland, Lakeside, and American Conservatory are still seen.

Lyon & Healy also made various percussion instruments. Later, Lyon & Healy began manufacturing brass instruments, possibly as early as the 1890s. Lyon & Healy also repaired instruments, and offered engraving services. Complicating matters still further, Lyon & Healy engraved instruments that it retailed but did not actually manufacture. In its 1892 catalog, it claimed that it manufactured 100,000 instruments annually. File:SweetByAndBy1868.png, " In the Sweet By-and-By, The Sweet By and By" sheet music (1868) File:NorthernSeymourBlairSong.png, Cover of Northern (Chicago) campaign song book (1868) File:Washburn Parlor Guitar (1894) and "New Model" (1896), Museum of Making Music.jpg, Washburn
parlor guitar Parlor or parlour guitar usually refers to a type of acoustic guitar smaller than a Size No.0 Concert Guitar by C. F. Martin & Company. ''Mottola's Cyclopedic Dictionary of Lutherie Terms'' describes the term as referring to "any guitar that is ...
s (1894/96) File:Lyon & Healy Lakeside (late 1900s) brighten.jpg, Lakeside guitar (1900s) File:Lyon&HealeyTenorGuitarReplica.jpg, Lyon & Healey
tenor guitar The tenor guitar or four-string guitar is a slightly smaller, four-string relative of the steel-string acoustic guitar or electric guitar. The instrument was initially developed in its acoustic form by Gibson and C.F. Martin so that players of ...
(replica) File:Piccolomando.jpg, Leland piccolo mandolin (1911) File:Gloria Swanson Ad - July 1921 Photoplay.jpg, Advertisement for banjos, mandolin banjos and violin-back mandolins (1921)
For a period of time, 1876 to the Great Depression, the "Golden Age" of piano making, the company hand made pianos and
reed organ The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...
s in addition to harps. Like their harps, Lyon & Healy put the highest quality and craftsmanship in building these instruments. In addition to making grand pianos, George W. Lyon patented his cottage upright in 1878. Its top-of-the-line pianos were sold under the Lyon & Healy name. Their pianos have been described as being remarkably powerful, clear, and having a singing tone. Some have compared the Lyon & Healy grand pianos to other high end brands of the time such as Steinway & Sons, Wm. Knabe & Co., and Sohmer. Lower cost pianos were sold by Lyon & Healy under various other brand names. Like most other Golden Age piano companies, they stopped making pianos during the Great Depression. Lyon retired in 1889 and Healy became the company's first president. That year, Lyon & Healy built their first harp. Healy wanted to develop a harp better suited to the rigors of the American climate than available European models. They successfully produced a harp notable for its strength, pitch reliability, and freedom from unwanted vibration. Previously, most harps in North America were made by small groups of craftsmen in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, or
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. In 1890, Lyon & Healy introduced the Style 23 Harp, still a popular and recognizable design. It has 47 strings, highly decorative floral carving on the top of the column, base, and feet, and a
fleur de lis The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a lily (in French, and mean 'flower' and 'lily' respectively) that is used as a decorative design or symbol. The fleur-de-lis has been used in the ...
pattern at the bottom of the column. It is available in a gold version. It is tall, and weighs about . Lyon & Healy produces one of the most ornate and elaborate harps in the world, the Louis XV, which includes carvings of leaves, flowers, scrolls, and shells along its neck and kneeblock, as well the soundboard edges. Lyon would later form a new company with E.A. Potter called Lyon & Potter, and remained there until his death on January 12, 1894. Healy died of pneumonia on April 3, 1905.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...
, "Lyon & Healy", 1980.
In the 1890s the company—which used the slogan,"Everything in music"—began building pipe organs. In 1894 Robert J. Bennett came to Lyon & Healy from the Hutchings company of Boston to head their organ department. The largest surviving Lyon & Healy pipe organ is at the
Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica is a Catholic basilica on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, which also houses the National Shrine of Saint Peregrine. Located at 3121 West Jackson Boulevard, within the Archdiocese of Chicago, it is, along with St ...
in Chicago. It is a large organ of four manuals and 57 ranks of pipes. They also made small pipe organs. An example survives at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Aspen Colorado. It is a two manual tracker with a 30 note straight pedalboard and 7 ranks. It is believed to have been built around 1900, and can still be pumped by hand. By the 1900s, Lyon & Healy was one of the largest music publishers in the world, and was a major producer of musical instruments. However, In late 1920s, Lyon & Healy sold its brass musical instrument manufacturing branch (see "New Langwill Index"). In the 1970s, the firm concentrated solely upon making and selling harps. In 1928, Lyon & Healy introduced one of the most unusual harps ever mass-produced, the ''Salzedo Model''. The company designed it in collaboration with the harpist
Carlos Salzedo Carlos Salzedo (6 April 1885 – 17 August 1961) was a French harpist, pianist, composer and conductor. His compositions made the harp into a virtuoso instrument. He influenced many composers with his new ideas for the harp's sounds through his w ...
. It an
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style instrument that incorporates bold red and white lines on the soundboard to create a stylized and distinct appearance. In the 1960s, Lyon & Healy introduced a smaller lever harp, the ''Troubadour'', a 36-string harp for young beginners with smaller hands, and for casual players. This harp stands , and weighs . In the late 1970s,
Steinway & Sons Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to ...
(then owned by
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
) purchased Lyon & Healy and soon after closed all retail stores, which sold sheet music and musical instruments, to focus on harp production. By 1985, Lyon & Healy also made folk harps, also known as ''Irish harps'', which are even smaller than the Troubadour. The "''Shamrock model folk harp''" has 34 strings. It stands tall with its legs. The legs can be removed so the player can hold the instrument lap—style on the knees. It weighs about . It features
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designs on the soundboard. An Irish or folk harp player is sometimes called a ''harper'' rather than ''
harpist The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual string (music), strings running at an angle to its sound board (music), soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various way ...
''.
DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...
now owns the Wabash building. Lyon & Healy harps are still in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
, at 168 North Ogden Avenue. The building was once home to the recording studios of
Orlando R. Marsh Orlando R. Marsh (August 6, 1881 – September 7, 1938) was an electrical engineer raised in Wilmette, Illinois. In early 1920s Chicago, Illinois he pioneered electrical recording of phonograph discs with microphones when acoustic recording with h ...
.


Craftsmanship

Wood in harp construction varies by instrument, but
Sitka russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...
Spruce (
Picea sitchensis ''Picea sitchensis'', the Sitka spruce, is a large, coniferous, evergreen tree growing to almost tall, with a trunk diameter at breast height that can exceed 5 m (16 ft). It is by far the largest species of spruce and the fifth-larg ...
) is the most common soundboard wood. Various Lyon & Healy guitars, mandolins, and many other instrument types reside in major musical instrument museums in the U.S. and Europe. Lyon and Healy now primarily manufactures four types of harps—the ''lever harp'', ''petite pedal harp'', ''semi-grande pedal harp'', and ''concert grand harp''. They also make limited numbers of ''special harps'' called ''concert grands''. Lyon & Healy makes electric lever harps in nontraditional colors such as pink, green, blue, and red.


Lyon & Healy Corporation

Lyon & Healy Corporation is a musical product distribution company in North America representing brands such as Delta, Relish Guitars, SIM1, Paoletti Guitars and Acus Sound Engineering. Lyon & Healy Corporation aims to become the leading provider of premium quality musical instruments and accessories.


See also

*
Washburn Guitars Washburn Guitars is an American brand and importer of guitars, mandolins, and other string instruments, originally established in 1883 in Chicago, Illinois. The Washburn name is controlled by U.S. Music Corp., a subsidiary of Canadian corpora ...
*
List of Stradivarius instruments This is a list of Stradivarius string instruments made by members of the house of Antonio Stradivari. Stradivarius instruments Violins This list has 282 entries. Early period: 1666–1699 Golden period: 1700–1725 Late period: 1726–17 ...


Notes


External links


Official website for Lyon & Healy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyon and Healy Musical instrument manufacturing companies based in Chicago Harp makers Former CBS Corporation subsidiaries Companies established in 1864