The piano action is an amazing mechanism. Its crucial task is to transfer musical energy seamlessly from the pianist’s fingers to the piano strings, allowing the pianist’s musical intentions to be transferred accurately and artistically through the instrument. To accomplish this “seamless transfer of energy” properly, all 8000+ parts of the piano action must remain stable and work together perfectly at all times – over the course of time. Even …
Franz Liszt's “Chopin” was published for the first time in installments by "France Musicale" in 1851, less than two years after the death of the artist who was celebrated there.
Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein influenced Liszt both in the first draft of the text and in the two reprints of 1879 and 1882. Carolyn, who lived alongside Liszt for fifteen years, and who kept an eye on him for the rest of his …
The piano has an undisputed father: his name is Bartolomeo Cristofori, born in Padua, Italy on 4 May 1655.
He was in the service of Prince Ferdinando de' Medici, in Florence, as harpsichord maker, from 1688 or 1689. In reality it would seem that the piano was conceived by Cristofori when a group of Florentine nobles discovered the flaws of the harpsichord.
Documents set "two years before the …
Let’s face it. If you’ve ever asked a student to compose for the first time, you’ll know that often the melodies are a bit of a mess. Once in a while a miraculous melody will appear out of pure musical instinct, and that’s great. But more often than not, without any clear instructions the result will be a random collection of notes with no meaning or direction. We can help …
Why does the keyboard have the shape it has?
The shape of the keyboard depends on the shape of the hand and on the evolution of Western music.
Up to a certain point the keyboard changed according to the evolution of music, then the opposite happened and it was music that, adopting equal temperament at the beginning of the eighteenth century, showed that it did not want to give up the advantages …