THE STORY OF THE PIANO

Grear (King Frederick II of Prussia), a keen music enrhusiasr

This rime rhe insrrumenr
Ir is probably

and

highly

exrernporising
harpsichord,

Emanue'BACH

SONATAS & RONDOS

reflecred

culrure.

C.P.E. Bach's intensely

adventurous

approach

rhe new penchanr

Alrhough

his music

it laid rhe foundations

composing

and improvising

throughout

the 19rh century and, through

who

added

Prellzungenmechanik
manufacrurers
classical period,

for emorionalism

or 'German

was raken

own
action'.

developmenrs

both soughr

to England,
to develop

This

and Haydn.

Haydn

and

on which
rhis role

(zunge)

became

ro

popular

by Johann
produce

with

rhe

German

of a check mechanism)

By contrast,

to

of the

Crisrofor i's later action

influenced

the 'English

forms simply as Srossrnechanik)

action'

to form the

in English piano design.

including

Americus

the possibilities

square piano with a simplified

in

for the

It rerained

up and developed

The Seven Years War, which broke out in Germany

manufacrurers

conceived

styles of Mozart,

(with the addition

in its earliest pre-escapemenr

basis of subsequenr

and

(Ernpfindsamkeir)

principally

escapement

(which came to be known as Srosszungemechanik)

(known

composing

action in pianos used by many of the grear composers

such as Mozart

the

emotionally

jazz, inro the 20rh century.

acrion
his

the elder

role of the piano as the instrument

and was larer modified

become rhe Viennese

dramatic,

mosr fully overlap and inreracr.

Prellmechanik

Srein,

amongsr

keyboard

for the pianisric

as well as for the subsequenr

Silbermanri's

to

was probably

Beethoven,

Andreas

Music by Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach.

playing.

composer

for many years

sons, and the one who did more than anyone else to found

school of keyboard

Bach, the most original

in Porsdam

Emmanuel

numerous

German

Carl Philipp

that the court composer

Bach's

involved,

PLETNEV

no coincidence

was Carl Phillip

modern

MIKHAIL

and amareur composer.

was acclaimed.

anion

of Crisrofori's
(without

in 1756, drove many piano

Backers and Johannes

action. Zumpe

an escapement)

Zumpe,

who

developed

that could be built

lumpe square piano

Probably invented in Germany in the early 1740s, the
square piano rose to fame some 20 years later in
England. It was smaller and mare practical rhan the
grand piano, with strings at right angles to the keys,
and sold in large numbers, paving the way for the
piano's coming popularity. The square piano shown
here was made in london in 1769 by Johannes Zumpe
and Gabriel Bunrebarr.