History of the Pianoforte - A Documentary in Sound by Eva Badura-Skoda

[Music] so [Music] three centuries ago the most versatile and most important of all keyboard instruments the piano was invented it was named by its creator echem below k phi piano e a harpsichord which can produce piano and forty sounds and naturally all the other dynamic shadings too just as a human voice or a violin player can do this remarkable achievement was a culmination of numerous and strenuous efforts by many craftsmen ever since the 15th century shortly before 1700 it took the genius of bartolomeo christophery and the sponsoring medici family of florence to launch such an innovation and since then the new instrument has literally conquered the world the ancient city of padua in northern italy claims christopher as its native son he was baptized at padua's san luca church on may 4th 1655. the original spelling of his name seems to have been christofani or perhaps crystal folly in florence it was changed to christophery this talented inventor of the hummer flugel to give the instrument its german name of beethoven's time apprenticed as a musical instrument maker in padua and very likely tried his hand at every kind of string instrument but his special interests focused probably early in his career on improving the harpsichord christophery must have thought for years about a solution of the old mechanical problem of how a chimbolo could make subtle dynamic shadings prince ferenande medici made the acquaintance of christopher at the latest in 1688 this highly musical prince of the distinguished ruling florentine family had a reputation as a special patron of the arts having learned of christopher's efforts to improve the harpsichord the prince invited him to join the florentine court records from 1688 show that at the age of 33 christophery drew an income from the princely purse his appointment as curator of all the musical instruments at the medici court soon followed shortly before 1700 christophery successfully implanted a hammer mechanism into a chambolo corpus when in 1700 christophery was requested to make a list of the musical instrument collection he took this opportunity to describe his newly invented chambolo as a new harpsichord which may be played piano and forte new york's metropolitan museum houses one of the most valuable collections of musical instruments anywhere in its keyboard instruments section the pride of place goes to christopher's cembolo con martellini from 1720 the world's oldest known piano credit for its excellent restoration is due to the museum's master restorer stewart collins whose painstaking efforts made the instrument playable again the christopher piano at the metropolitan museum is at present the only one of the three extant pianos by this florentine builder which is in a playable condition prior to the invention of the piano just before the year 1700 the only keyboard instrument which was capable of dynamic nuance was the clavichord the clavichord used a small blade of metal attached to the end of the key and when the key was pressed the tangent would come up and strike and just touch the string because it touched the string and maintained contact with the string during the sound the string was not really free to vibrate christopher's invention of the hammer mechanism provided a hammer which delivered a pulse of stre of energy to the string and consequently a greater volume of sound was created the secret of this mechanism was the little escapement lever operated by a spring which enabled the hammer to fall immediately after impact the clavichord produced a very small sound and i'll demonstrate it now christopher's piano created a much greater volume of sound [Music] to celebrate the recent centennial of the collection of musical instruments the metropolitan museum invited the pianist paul badoura skoda to give a concert for the friends of the museum using the christopher piano restored for this occasion so [Music] so [Music] you just have heard the world's oldest preserved piano a hammer flugel made by christopher in 1720 exhibited today in the metropolitan museum if it does look to you like a harpsichord that it is because it is a harpsichord as far as appearance goes inside there is a hammer action which makes it a chamber look on martellini or a chambello sensor pen a harpsichord with small hammers and without quills hammers which touch the strings instead of plucking them such wing-shaped instruments in german fleural mittens ornikil or hammerflure or kilflugel were being offered for sale in the local viennese newspaper serving richard the argument of december 1725 the announcement read it is here withdrawn to the notice of those who love beautiful and well-made keyboard instruments that the famous organ builder johan christophe leo of augsburg has arrived in vienna with various pieces from his workshop a recent and excellent invention including true loots harps harpsichords with and without quills along with other wing shaped instruments which he has brought with him so that they can be tried out in his advertisement leos us offered not only normal harpsichords with quills but also hema harpsichords probably the most admired keyboard player of christopher's time was domenico scarlotti when in 1702 domenico as a 17 year old lad while visiting florence with his father first encountered the new harpsichord with hammers he must have been impressed and delighted to discover the possibilities this new instrument opens for a performer trying to trace the place where the workshop of christophery in florence was we may guess that it was in the uffizi from there he could bring his precious instruments safely over the ponte vecchio bridge to the palazzo piti in case a concert was scheduled to take place there in and outside tuscany bartolomeo christophery had become known for his new hammer flugel one of his customers in 1706 was cardinal ottoboni in rome to whom he delivered a hammer harpsichord the young handle probably had to play this chambolo con martellini during the famous contest with domenico scalati in ottoborne's palace in 1709 and domenico was probably more familiar with it than handel and thus won as with most innovation christopher had students and imitators take for example domenico del mela who had managed to build a vertical homophily in 1739 which today belongs to the florence conservatory and is exhibited in the palazzo vecchio christopher's most famous pupil was giovanni ferrini who inherited his workshop he built himself hammer harpsichords and at least once also a compound instrument a combination of a hammer flugel with a harpsichord it has a two manual keyboard the lower keyboard activates the harpsichord with quilts and the sound is brilliant [Music] [Applause] the upper keyboard is connected with the hammer mechanism thus the instrument is combining what were essentially two different instruments the tiny hammers of hollow curved parchment can be played only on a softer dynamic level but with more subtle expressive shadings this compound harpsichord allowed a sound experience which was certainly a revelation for musicians who now quickly could switch from brilliant passages or imitated tuttis demanding a forte sound to soft delicate cantabile sections [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] ludovico jostini wrote six sonate which are the first known piano sonatas written expressively for the piano sonate piano effort of olga [Music] do it is no mere coincidence that these sonate were dedicated to scarlotti's royal pupil don antonio in lisbon scarlotti's other distinguished pupil there the portuguese princess maria barbara who later became the queen of spain took scarlotti with her to seville and madrid and purchased during her lifetime at least five hammer harpsichords when tracing the development of the hammer clavier in the german-speaking countries we do find ample evidence of early attempts at building keyboard instruments capable of dynamic shades here in nuremberg national museum here at the german national museum in nuremberg we encounter the world's largest collection of keyboard instruments including nearly 400 pianos the museum was enriched through the merger of the two vast collections from the collectors rick and noipat it also owns the oldest data german square piano built 1742 by a virtually unknown artisan called zohar from santovan a little town near the terrorian border and soccer [Music] during the baroque period practically all keyboard instruments with strings were built in germany by organ builders who proudly called themselves organ and instrument makers sebastian bach's friend gottfried zilberman signed his instruments with this title later also johan andreas stein born in saxony in 1683 gottfried zilberman learned his craft from his older brother andreas in strasbourg in alsace he returned to his native saxony to open his own workshop in freiberg in 1711. while still in strasbourg zilberman had built in 1704 for the dulcimer virtuoso pantalone hebenstreit a rather large instrument distinguished from all other dalsomers by its size and double stringing with gut and metal strings listen to the sound of a normal-sized dulcimer [Music] was a much larger instrument with his certainly unique virtuoso technique hebenstreitz had then tremendous success when constantine before king louis xiv at paris who afterwards gave the large instrument its name pantalone the christian name of its owner with this instrument hebenstreit travelled through europe constantin everywhere until he found a well-paid employment at the court in dresden heben streit's dulcimer was as large as a harpsichord no one could play it with sticks as impressively as havenstrite himself to facilitate playing probably gottfried zilberman invented a keyboard connected with a hammer action to be placed on top of the pondalone [Music] corpus [Music] [Music] similar instruments were then built in many small towns in saxony around 1720 and called pantalone they were the primitive forerunners of the piano had metal strings and no dampers and thus an intermingling of sounds we have heard the instrument with metal strings but now we have stringed it with gut strings and this sounds not quite differently doesn't it [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] christopher's instruments had dampers but no mechanism to lift the dampers such a device was a german innovation inserted by zilberman into his early hammer flugel and found long after in square pianos in nuremberg is a hammer flugel of godfred silverman the silverman flugel in the museum in berlin however was made by his nephew heinrich [Music] gottfried zilberman's hammer flugel had a very similar action to christopher's but the additional device for lifting the dampers in 1732 zilberman presented such a grand piano to the elector of saxony august the 3rd apparently he also brought one of these new instruments to leipzig and named it piano fort a fact which was mentioned in volume 5 of zedler's universal lexicon issued in 1733 thus being the first instance of the use of christopher's adjectives piano a forte as a noun [Music] regrettably box scholars failed for decades to understand the meaning of an advertisement that bach placed in a leipzig newspaper in 1733 leipzig june 16th 1733 tomorrow there will be in the zimmerman gardens a concert of the collegiate musicum whereby local audiences will hear a brand new instrument that clavichimbulum played here for the very first time not only in italy also in germany and france the term chamber law or clavice respectively was in common usage well into the 19th century and still applied to the hammer flugel when using the italian language even such composers as mozart or beethoven used the term chamber law in their manuscripts when actually referring to the piano sometimes both terms were linked together according to forkl frederick the great amassed no fewer than 15 hammer flugel from zilberman when j s bach visited frederick the great's court in potsdam in 1747 the king played a theme and requested from bach elaborations on it bach improvised the composition later entitled musicalisus opfer [Music] reporting on bach's visit to the prussian king the berlin newspaper made it clear that frederick as well as bach used a piano forte when playing at this occasion bach's son carl philip emmanuel was in the employee of frederick the great as was kwanz the king's flute teacher both musicians already used the term piano forte and their treatises but elsewhere this term was still little or not at all known only in london where german musical instrument makers emigrated from war-stricken saxony in the 1750s and 1760s the term piano forte came slowly into use sebastian bach's youngest son johann christian bach played the piano privately in 1763 and publicly from 1767 onwards after 1760 music played on pianos was certainly more often heard than hitherto believed in vienna's imperial court archives an entry can be found from 1763 confirming officially that public concerts on a 40 piano took place in march and in may at venezuela thus contrary to common belief the first documented public concerts on pianos took place in vienna and not in london the third most important craftsman after christophery and zilberman to play a role in the development of the piano was johan andreas stein leo's successor in augsburg born in 1728 in swabia he learned his craft as an organ and instrument builder mainly at the zilberman workshop in strasbourg before starting his own business in augsburg mozart admired stein's hammer flugel when he came to augsburg in 1777 and wrote to his father in glowing terms a famous letter about these instruments one can easily appreciate mozart's enthusiasm when listening to a stein forte piano [Music] as you may have noticed this hammer flugel of stein sounds almost like a modern piano in the last quarter of the 18th century the progress and in the development of the piano was constant and universal with better and better examples being turned out by craftsmen chiefly in vienna paris and london on a larger scale piano construction began only between 1770 and 1780 in vienna by makers such as the brothers wenzel and johann schuntz whose pianos haydn liked best in 1773 haydn was seen by a visitor playing on a hammer flugel and it seems that the sonata in c minor who work in 1620 cannot have been written for any other instrument but a hammer flugel [Music] [Applause] [Music] viennese craftsmen built instruments with an action the so-called viennese action allowing for an especially subtle refinement during the 1780s and 1790s more than 50 workshops were already opened in vienna due to the fact that emperor joseph ii abolished guild restrictions by around 1800 there were more than 100 piano makers active in the imperial city in vienna in the 1780s anton valter became the most successful builder his pianos gave out voluminous sound mozart ordered one from him probably in 1782 it is the same instrument which is today exhibited in the house in salzburg where mozart was born mozart had been trained as an organist in salzburg in his youth and that is probably the reason why he ordered later in vienna a second instrument from walter a forte piano pedale which was placed underneath the hammer flugel in an announcement of one of his concerts mozart cited as a special attraction the use of this additional instrument the forte piano pedale in the score of his piano concerto in d minor kirkhofen is 466 mozart notated the following all these notes can be played only on a piano combined with a pedal instrument unfortunately mozart's own pedal piano is lost and no original instrument from the 18th century is known to us only some from the 19th century a reconstruction of such a forte piano pedale you can see here and you will hear now how the first solo of the d minor concerto sounds if played as written down by mozart and how the pedal maybe enriched other compositions now i play the end of this passage the way it is usually done and now the same with the pedal keyboard in the original notation [Music] but a trained organist can do much more with this pedal instrument especially in free fantasies [Music] do [Music] so original master instruments of mozart's time are seldom in such good condition that they can be played in concert their beautiful sound differs as much from replicas as modern violin differs in sound from a stradivarius or grenier violin in our studio we have three original master instruments from the time of haydn mozart and beethoven please listen now to these three master instruments first to the shunts [Music] and now the piano of anton walter so and now an instrument by john broadwood from london built in 1795. now you will hear the three master instruments in mozart's piano concerto for three pianos k 242 in f major [Music] christopher's pianos had dampers but no device to lift the dampers it fell to the talented godfrey silverman to make the piano truly complete by adding such a device yet even in silverman's pianos the damper lifting mechanism was still activated by hand levers or stops which limited naturally its use first you will hear the instrument here with hand levers as it sounds with tempers the sound stops when the finger leaves the key [Music] now listen to the first prelude of bach's well-tempered clavier first with stampers that means dry and then with lifted tempers [Music] [Music] the next step in the development of what is now called the pedal of the piano was a knee lever here one can play already beethoven's moonlight sonata with changes of the pedal as we would say today [Music] do in england pianos were built already from the 1790s on with petals instead of knee levers which soon was imitated on the continent [Music] the viennese piano makers like to provide their instruments with different stops for sound colors and many instruments were built with a number of pedals indeed the pedal is one of the great inventions it was in vienna that gradually the number of pedals was increased and that new tone colors were added this one piano by hashkar built at around 1820 has no less than six pedals very appropriate for people with six feet and we shall now demonstrate what these petals can do first of all there is a normal forty petal [Music] then like on every modern piano there is a shifting pedal which renders the sound more [Music] delicate do [Music] but people who practice at night or who accompany singers want even a more soft soft approach and therefore we have the moderator pedal felt strip which reduces the overtones and gives a very beautiful sound close to the modern piano [Music] and there is even a more soft pedal excuse me bad english this is when you want to play after midnight which makes the sound as soft as butter i don't know whether our recording will render this well let's try [Music] but not every pedal is to make the sound softer there we have the bassoon stop piece of parchment over the string which produces a very particular effect let's see [Music] not quite contemporary but the most popular of them all was the percussion pedal of the turkish stop which we could use for example in mozart's turkish march [Music] but not every piano had six pedals the piano contemporary to this of conduct graph had only four petals let's see on this instrument from broadwood built in 1817 you see only two pedals like on modern pianos however there is a special feature which unfortunately is lacking today on our modern pianos the right pedal is split in the middle which means that the device to lift the dampers can be activated for the discount and the base register separately this makes it possible for the pianist to play easily the left hand staccato and the right hand legato or vice versa [Music] around 1800 beethoven was the city's musical genius in residence while anton valter produced the most expensive pianos not only mozart also beethoven preferred for his concerts forte pianos made by vaulter to beethoven's dismay vaulter wouldn't give him a piano free of charge as all the other piano builders had offered to do here we have two of the most beautiful five octave pianos in the world a piano of johann chance the piano of anton valter two of the most famous perhaps the most famous out of the around a hundred important builders in vienna around the turn of the century there's a letter from haydn to a dedicatee of one of his sonatas saying don't buy a walter chance is much better for your delicate hand on the other hand mozart's instrument was a vaulter and his son writes that he always took his own instrument along with him to play his concerts rather than use another and there's a letter from beethoven where he says i would rather pay 30 ducats to valter than get another instrument for nothing here's the chance [Music] so [Music] and the walter [Music] [Music] why don't we play something together let's [Music] do [Music] around 1820 pianos by walter and chance were already old-fashioned by then the most famous viennese piano maker was conrad carve the pianist ignatz marshalls who was used to play broadwood pianos wanted to borrow beethoven's piano when coming to vienna but found it in need of repair conrad graf offered to repair the broadwood if marshalls would also play on one of his pianos [Music] the sound of early 19th century broadwood and this is the sound of a graph so [Music] so yes you know there's the story of the confrontation of these two instruments the pianist motionless in 1823 wanted to show the viennese public the virtues and the beauties of these english pianos and got beethoven to lend his own broadwood and got conrad graff to set it and put it in order and gave a concert on which the first half was played on the graph in the second half on the broad wood and apparently the viennese public they retained their allegiance to the viennese instrument yes but suppose that concert had been in london yes it might have come come out quite the other way well let's start something and play the same work on alternately on all right both pianos and see what our audience will decide shall i start you start okay [Music] quite often during late summers beethoven went to baden near vienna to take the waters in the summer of 1823 beethoven went to baden he wanted a piano there in order to complete the finale of his ninth symphony conrad graf offered and delivered him one of his best instruments upon beethoven's request a percussion stop was built in which according to witnesses beethoven used quite frequently it might have sounded like this [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] this piano sounds particularly beautiful in the soft cantabile pieces like the slow movement of the hammer clavier sonata [Music] [Music] pianos from the workshop of anton walter in conrad graf also played a role in the life of fran schubert as a child france met conrad graf in the workshop of the letter because a cousin of schubert's father worked there until 1810 and the young france visited him quite frequently apparently he was allowed to play on one of the pianos during recreation times in 1814 his father presented him with an old piano five octaves only probably from carf's workshop in later years the painter reader rented a square piano from walter and son on which schubert played frequently this instrument has been preserved and is exhibited today in the musical instrument collection of vienna's kunst historical museum reader's well-known watercolor painting of schubert for tracy composer lounging in an armchair with his right arm dangling over the side of the chair understandably a small toefl clavier did not always suffice for the interpretation of schubert's larger works one would definitely need a concert grand in order to do justice for example to such a large-scale work as the wanderer fantasy of schubert [Music] among the famous visiting pianists adored by the viennese audience was clara schumann conrad graff was so impressed by her art and her personality that he presented her with a concert grand as a wedding gift when she finally could marry robert schumann this instrument later came into the possession of brahms who left it to the gesellschaft their music friend in vienna unfortunately it is not playable anymore another fine concert grand by michael schweighofer one of the most successful among the more than 200 piano makers working in vienna around 1840 is in better condition with this instrument schweikofer won a gold medal for excellent workmanship at the world exhibition of 1845. the warm and romantic sound of a schweighofer piano is ideally suited for romantic music [Music] do a new phenomenon named frederic chopin made his indelible mark on the musical scene around the same time as schumann having learned to play and to love the piano in warsaw in his formative years he composed later and nearly exclusively for this instrument in poland he probably used a piano with a viennese action when he gave his first concerts in vienna in 1829 he had no difficulties playing a concert grand from conrad graf whose fine qualities and tone he praised in a letter to his parents in paris on the other hand chopin owned a pleiel piano which is now in the possession of the chopin institute in warsaw another piano on which chopin liked to play in paris was made by errar at present it's in the germanicis nazional museum in nuremberg [Music] the instrument used by chopin at his last public concert was a broadwood piano concert grands of broadwood had gone through a considerable chain since 1817 and were more romantic in song [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] france list without doubt was the greatest genius among all pianists as a child prodigy he gave his first public recital at the age of nine in bratislava a hungarian city at that time studying afterwards with cherny in vienna he played one a year later before beethoven brought to paris by his ambitious father another year later liszt was launched on a stutter career as a piano virtuoso there playing in all important salons he mesmerized society women who literally threw themselves at his feet and paved his truly international career across europe his powerful playing style wrecked more than one of the delicate wooden pianos causing the industry to come up with more durable materials for frames and strings when list gave a concert he often had more than one piano placed on stage so that he could change the instrument when strings broke or the tuning did not hold so piano companies came up with the innovation of iron bars and later with the copies of the american invention of metal frames for the pianos listen now to one of list's powerful compositions the second hungarian rhapsody played on a bersendorfer from 1870 constructed only with iron bars and not yet with a metal frame [Music] [Music] do [Music] so so simultaneously with list's appearances in europe in the new world a pianist named gottschalk who had been trained in paris was giving concerts using a concert grand by the chickering company of boston the same instrument makers built a piano for liszt who apparently liked its qualities this concert grand now stands in the list museum in budapest the year 1853 was especially notable in the history of the piano and that year three companies on two continents entered the business of piano manufacturing leading to international prominence for all three of them it was beijing in berlin in blutner and leipzig and steinle in new york in europe especially beijing from the admiration of concert pianists originally living in braunschweig the family steinwegg arrived in new york in 1850 and began to work in american piano factories before starting their own business in a surprisingly short time new york's steinway company became world famous for its marvelous instruments we are here in steinway house in new york here is the original work bank brought from germany to america by heinrich engelberg steinberg and here is the lathe he used to build his first piano in this country we have today the great privilege and honor to be received by the great grandson of the founder of the steinway company mr henry steinway this is a great pleasure birth alice deutsche what's up english he was in here so long at night the steinways arrived in 1850 and they at that time started to work for other manufacturers to learn american methods and study piano production and in 1853 when they started they made the improvements using the iron frame and the over-stringing along with several improvements of their own which made a better square piano the square piano tafolclapia was the staple of commerce in the united states and remained the steady product of the use in the home long after it had fallen into disuse in europe up until the 1880s and it was largely due to steinways later on that improved uprights which could stand the severe climatic conditions of the united states were made which eventually replaced the square in the 1880s of course all these improvements that steinway made were included in the grand piano and eventually became known as the steinway system and all pianos are made more or less than that method today around 1880 the steinway company sent lists to steinway concert grand piano as a present list thanked them and praised the instrument enthusiastically the metropolitan museum owns a steinway concert piano from about the same time you will hear now an intermezzo by johannes brahms from his opus 118 being played on it [Music] so [Music] so [Music] the iraq company in paris had always been among the most innovative piano builders here you see a double piano similar to stein's vis-a-vis flugel of 1777. towards the end of the 19th century thomas edison invented the phonograph this made it possible to retain for posterity and improvisation on the piano that until then was mostly at the mercy of human memory once played and heard another invention prior to that concerns the so-called player piano an instrument which reproduced music with the help of a perforated paper roll and a pneumatic mechanism which later became an electric one it soon became immensely popular in america at one time more of these automatic instruments were built there than traditional pianos in europe the fonola made by hoopfeld in dresden was invented in these mechanical pianos a player could override some of the built-in facilities at will such as tempo and the dynamic level [Music] and then the more refined velta claviera came into use no less a composer than edvard grieg played his lyrical butterfly suite opus number four on a perforated paper roll which is still in existence [Music] finally electric machines were applied underneath the instruments by the american ampico company such devices allowed amateur players to alternate on a piano with an added ampico apparatus at will between a normal instrument and a player piano one of five bersendorfer instruments with this ampico machine is owned by a collector in lower austria [Music] now let us listen to a composition entitled papillon composed and played on a perforated role by a well-known performer in his days maurice rosenthal during the 20th century neither the outer appearance nor the mechanical devices of the piano underwent radical changes what did change though was the size of concert halls and the general idea of the perfect piano sound the overwhelming impact of microphones brought about a demand for sharper brighter and much louder sounds here are the highly polished black colossus's that came to dominate the concert stages of our world an old version of the imperial grand piano built shortly after world war one has thinner strings and softer felt covers on its hammerheads than its modern brother much softer sounds can be produced on it than on the personal authors of today its velvet terms are ideal for music from impressionists such as dbc or ravel listen to the former's claire de lune or moonlight composition [Music] a special innovation during the period of expressionism with the aim of creating more overtones was the so-called alec flugel by julius blutner here the extra strings are not directly hit by the hammers but made to sound independently enlarging the sound of the overtone row so that a special lingering sound effect may be produced it sounds even without using the pedals like this [Music] to stay with debussy's impression of claire de lune or moonlight piece the listener will get the impression of a musical halo forming around the moon thanks to the special lyrical timbre effects of the aliquot strings [Music] so [Music] the piano of blutner can really be made to sing which is the highest accolade that can be accorded to an instrument these are the words wilhelm furtvengla wrote into the blutner family's almanac around the turn of the century successful piano companies used to erect their own concert halls in berlin and london karl bechtstein built such halls the one in london is still used today under the name wigmore hall and so are the zahl playel and the zalgavo in paris the bersendorfer hall stood on harangasa in central vienna and ranked for half a century as the most frequented concert hall for piano and chamber music recitals while the owner ludwig berzendorfer became a well-known popular figure in vienna the old concert grands of debussy's time produced a magical sound which more beautifully depict the impression of a sunken church in debussy's la cathedrale angloti than the pianos of today [Music] vienna's bersendorfer company was smaller than either steinway or beckstein ludwig bersendorfer's life ambition was not to turn out the greatest number of instruments but rather to produce the most beautiful sounding pianos he tested personally every piano that left the factory the degree of truly handmade quality and special sound and timbre control led to the reputation of bursendorfer's concert grands as being the rolls-royce among the pianos [Music] so during the 1920s and the 1930s of our century the piano reached the pinnacle of its popularity as long as silent movie pictures were offered to the general public piano players provided the background music as well as the sound to the movements afterwards the piano began being gradually displaced by radio and recorded music which eventually became the chief source of musical entertainment in north america the automatic player piano was to rob many pianists of their jobs as entertainers in contrast in latin america piano players grew into popular heroes especially if they played in the style of local folk music [Music] the piano was also of great importance in shaping jazz it was for example closely connected at the turn of the century with the development of ragtime music the combination of percussion instruments with pianos is not only characteristic of jazz it also plays a prominent role in modern piano scores for instance in the sonata for two pianos and percussion by the hungarian composer bela bartok this piece composed around 1930 is rightly famous for its intoxicating [Music] rhythm [Music] new innovations in piano building occurred once more in the 1930s the so called yanko keyboard was a typical example of the length to which innovators went to improve the piano's versatility using more than one keyboard the player could go beyond the range of sound afforded by only a single set of keys subsequent attempts to make the instrument popular resulted in making it an object of mockery as for arnold schoenberg who began writing twelve tone music after the turn of the century a special piano with a chromatic keyboard was an essential piece of equipment in 1935 schoenberg emigrated to the usa and taught music in los angeles there john cage became one of his pupils these gadgets i'm holding in my hands normally would have nothing to do with a musical instrument some composers however require these screws and nails cork plastic or rubber items to be secured inside the piano to obtain the required strange sounds intended these bits and pieces placed between the strings of a piano alter the sound often beyond recognition john cage and others wrote such compositions for prepared piano here the piano had been treated with nine screws eight bolts two nuts and three rubber belts [Music] do alas those robust experimentations ultimately led to an artistic dead end then there were the avant-garde efforts called aleatoric and cluster music style the latter produced dissonant sounds in clusters [Music] still another variation on the same abstract theme of merging piano and drum sounds was attempted in europe sometimes the keyboard isn't used at all one is advised to wear a protecting mask when commencing to play this piece or one of the steel strings which often snaps could hurt the player in the face [Music] we need not spend more time dwelling into the merits of aliatoric cluster music or that of prepared pianos as good and bad music can be made with every kind of means yet for the lover of the piano it does matter if the favorite instrument is brutalized or if it is made to sound ugly other innovations show how hectic the life of a pianist may be there are numerous piano contests and piano festivals organized around the world especially in the united states and france often these occasions allow pianists to compare instruments of better known companies with those of yamaha fazioli petrov or kawaii how do the prospects look in the piano building industry well we reckon that a new generation of instrument makers will come to the fore specializing in authentic period instruments in order to recapture the sounds of all times there will always be room or occasion to introduce new ideas take for example the bond piano maker who built a truly new instrument set up in a vertical fashion and altogether seven yards high [Music] one may guess that it won't become a mass product a computer grand piano built by the busandover company presumably every pianist has already heard of where does the difference between a normal berzendorfer grand and this enhanced computer grand lie there is a black cupboard down below the instrument containing some quite complex electronics able to register every nuance of the pianists playing to activate it the pianist does require the service of an assistant [Music] and now the reproduction and i am sure you will not notice any difference in sound [Music] what is really exciting about the computerized piano is that one can also correct any mistakes to demonstrate this paul badora skoda is going to strike a false note on purpose to illustrate how it can be corrected [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] what is more with the help of the computer one may accompany oneself on the instrument in effect doubling the pair of hands one has been given as a fitting finale to this presentation of the history of the piano paul verduras golden now will accompany himself in the military march in d major for forehands by fran schubert first he played the two left hands and now is completing the piece by playing the music for the two right hands [Music] you

Channel: Bösendorfer Official

Views: 42,223

Keywords: Malcolm Bilson, Jörg Demus, Gerlinde Otto, Hans Kann, Rudolf Scholz, Badura-Skoda, Piano, History, Cristofori, Bösendorfer, Vienna, Manufactory

Id: wtgdEN7Qq-0

Length: 89min 59sec (5399 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 05 2020