| Contents |
The early piano I -- The early piano II -- John Zumpe and the English pianoforte -- After Zumpe: small pianos in Europe and America, 1770-1795 -- Buying a pianoforte: extracts from the Twining-Burney correspondence -- Beyond Zumpe: improvements to the English square piano after 1780 -- Americus backers and the English grand piano -- The English grand, 1778-1805 -- Pianoforte or pantalon? The origins of German Tafelklaviere -- Johann Andreas Stein and the German grand piano -- Keyboard instruments in Germany and Austria, 1770-1790: an overview -- Mozart's own fortepiano -- In Vienna -- Harpsichord, pianoforte, and combination instruments -- The upright pianoforte: the genesis of upright forms -- Into the nineteenth century -- Construction of the early piano -- At the keyboard: touch and tone in the early piano -- Fakes, frauds, and forgeries -- Envoi -- Appendix I. Selected passages from early sources. |
| Abstract |
This book charts the progress of the piano and related instruments during the lifetimes of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. Wherever possible the author returns to the original sources--a wide variety of previously unreported documents, as well as surviving instruments--to reconstruct the history of the pianoforte that radically departs from earlier theories of many of the most fundamental issues. A wide range of instruments, each carefully described, is placed in a precise chronological and cultural setting. New insights are offered into the parameters that governed the performance of keyboard music in the Classical era. |
| Local note | Little-319730--305131040942W |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 386-391) and index. |
| LCCN | 97015105 |
| ISBN | 0198166346 |
