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The Piano-forte

出版	Da Capo Press, 1973-01-21
主題	Music / Musical Instruments / Piano & Keyboard
ISBN	03067108469780306710841
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=TIYXAQAAIAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋"In this remarkable treatment of the development of the pianoforte through the middle of the nineteenth century--the point in time when the instrument became pretty much the modern piano as we know it today--Rosamond E. M. Harding discusses not 'how the pianoforte evolved from those instruments which are usually called its 'precursors', but ... how it was invented in response to new artistic ideals.' As a result, her carefully detailed account of the pianoforte's structural development becomes part of a fascinating narrative involving some of the great names in music--Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Clementi, Beethoven, Moscheles, among many others. The author begins by considering the more or less simultaneous invention of the pianoforte in France, Germany, and Italy at the very beginning of the eighteenth century, in apparent response to a desire to express the emotional significance of a musical phrase through an accentuation that could not be provided by the organ, the clavichord, or the harpsichord. She then traces technical developments in the instrument in these countries, as well as in England and America, to the time near the end of the century when the pianoforte gained recognition as an instrument of musical value separate from the harpsichord--one requiring special playing techniques and music written specifically for it. At the outset of the nineteenth century, the pianoforte first came into vogue as a substitute for the orchestra, creating a demand for pianoforte reductions of operatic and symphonic works. Its gradual acceptance as a distinct solo instrument, along with innovative playing techniques--and here we find the beginning of the virtuoso pianist--necessitated structural improvements permitting greater expression. Finally, the pianoforte began to be used in and constructed specially for the home. Harding traces this rapid development clearly, moving smoothly from musical needs to the many diverse efforts to satisfy them through better instruments. She meticulously describes the progressive improvements in the pianoforte's design and tonal quality, and in the process succeeds in producing the definitive history of the pianoforte's development. Her narrative is enhanced by 47 plates showing various pianofortes built over more than a century and a half."--Dust jacket.