Some Historic Pianos
As I wind up my short tribute to the pianos of yesteryear, I want to mention two particular pianos that stand out in my memory. Last week, I wrote about…
John Broadwood and the Evolution of the Piano
When I was a student I was ignorant about early pianos, dismissing the sound as honky-tonk. This was until I attended lectures by my harpsichord teacher-to-be, Ruth Dyson, who opened…
Don’t Try This at Home! – Mechanical Aids to Practice
If you were a student at the Stuttgart Conservatory in the mid 1800‘s during the reign of Sigismund Lebert and Ludwig Stark, you would have had to practise a strict…
The History of Piano Technique: Studies and Exercises
There has been much feedback and lively debate on last week's post about Czerny and his legacy of studies and exercises. It seems some piano teachers firmly believe in assigning…
The History of Piano Technique: The Finger School
The connecting link between the harpsichord and the early piano was undoubtedly Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), whose treatise Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments was revered by Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), Johann…
The History of Piano Technique (Part 2)
One of the things that really gets my goat is the totally erroneous statement that the harpsichord is incapable of expression. Many famous and influential pianists who should know better…
The History of Piano Technique (Part 1)
Writing about the history of piano technique for my new eBook I recalled vividly my harpsichord studies with Ruth Dyson at the RCM, and her insistence that the fingers play from…