An interesting short history of the piano

[Gurn Blanston]

Whilst searching the Web for a biography of Broadwood, I came upon this reprinted extract from what is obviously a much larger book, but the 24 pages reprinted here are quite interesting if you are historically inclined. Note, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer in order to open this.
http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/music/m3s.pdf



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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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[ruudp]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Whilst searching the Web for a biography of Broadwood, I came upon this reprinted extract from what is obviously a much larger book, but the 24 pages reprinted here are quite interesting if you are historically inclined. Note, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer in order to open this.
http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/music/m3s.pdf

WOOOWW..What an interesting article it indeed is.
I'm a pianoplayer myself and have got a fewe books on the piano myself but this article contained even insights I didn't know of.
thanx for sharing it with is.

Regards,
Ruud

[Gurn Blanston]

Ruud,
You are most welcome.


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Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Rod]

I question some of the statements made in this document regarding Beethoven's Broadwood and the composition of his late piano music. As far as I am aware the Broadwood did not have the keyspan of 6.5 octaves necessary to play the piano music from op101 onwards yet this document states the contrary. I know for a fact Melvyn Tan had to artificially re-tune some keys that were not in the score to allow for the notes that Beethoven required for his recording of the bagatelles op126, as the compass was not wide enough. Unless I've had things wrong for years, in terms of keyboard compass the Broadwood was virtually obsolete by the time Beethoven received it.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Gurn Blanston]

Rod,
Hell, I don't know, you may be right. This is one chapter of a textbook, obvious from the page numbers, but although that gives it a bit more credibility than some other sources, it is not at the "God's lips to Rod's ear" level either.


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Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Rod]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Rod,
Hell, I don't know, you may be right. This is one chapter of a textbook, obvious from the page numbers, but although that gives it a bit more credibility than some other sources, it is not at the "God's lips to Rod's ear" level either.

I'm pretty sure I'm right, my written sources contradict this pdf, and as I said have seen myself on TV the Broadwood had to have its keyspan atificially 'extended' for op126. I know for a fact it is only 6 octaves so your document is incorrect. The connection with the 'Hammerklavier' and the Broadwood is also sometimes overplayed as Beethoven was working on the piece before he got his hand on it.


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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin


[This message has been edited by Rod (edited 05-31-2004).]

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by Rod:
I'm pretty sure I'm right, my written sources contradict this pdf, and as I said have seen myself on TV the Broadwood had to have its keyspan atificially 'extended' for op126. I know for a fact it is only 6 octaves so your document is incorrect. The connection with the 'Hammerklavier' and the Broadwood is also sometimes overplayed as Beethoven was working on the piece before he got his hand on it.

Rod,
As I said earlier, you may well be right, it is just that you cannot take this up with me, I am not the author. Besides which, even if what you say is true, it does not invalidate the entire article in any case. I would wager that a little diligent research would turn up the name of the actual author, and then you could perhaps hurt him in some way, although I suspect he has already been paid, so you can't hurt him much!
Hey, here's a Schubert joke to brighten your day:

Schubert's Unmanaged Symphony

A managed-care company president was given a ticket for a performance of
Schubert's Unfinished Symphony [#8]. Since she was unable to go, she
gave the ticket to one of her managed-care reviewers.

The next morning she asked him how he had enjoyed it. Instead of a few
observations about the symphony in general, she was handed a formal
memorandum, which read as follows:

1. For a considerable period, the oboe players had nothing to do. Their
number should be reduced, and their work spread over the whole orchestra,
avoiding peaks of inactivity.

2. All 12 violins were playing identical notes. This seems an unneeded
duplication, and the staff of this section should be cut. If a volume of
sound is really required, this could be accomplished with the use of an
amplifier.

3. Much effort was involved in playing the 16th notes. This appears to
be an excessive refinement, and it is recommended that all notes be
rounded up to the nearest 8th note. If this were done it would also be
possible to use Para-professionals instead of experienced musicians.

4. No useful purpose is served by having the horns repeat a passage that
has already been handled by the strings. If all such redundant passages
were eliminated then the concert could be reduced from two hours to
twenty minutes.

5. The symphony had two movements. If Mr. Schubert didn't achieve his
musical goals by the end of the first movement, then he should have
stopped there. The second movement is unnecessary and should be cut.

In light of the above, one can only conclude that had Mr. Schubert given
attention to these matters, he probably would have had time to finish the
symphony.




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Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~