The
Cristofori Silbermann inverted wrest-plank has reverted to the usual
form; the tuning pins and downward bearing being the same as in the
harpsichord. There are no steel arches as yet between the wrest-plank
and the belly-rail in these German instruments. As to Stein's
escapement, his hopper was fixed behind the key; the axis of the hammer
rising on a principle which I think is older than Stein, but have not
been able to trace to its source, and the position of his hammer is
reversed. Stein's light and facile movement with shallow key-fall,
resembling Cristofori's in bearing little weight, was gratefully
accepted by the German clavichord players, and, reacting, became one of
the determining agents of the piano music and style of playing of the
Vienna school. Thus arose a fluent execution of a rich figuration and
brilliant passage playing, with but little inclination to sonorousness
of effect, lasting from the time of Mozart's immediate followers to that
of Henri Herz; a period of half a century. Knee-pedals, as we translate
"geuouilleres," were probably in vogue before Stein, and were levers
pressed with the knees, to raise the dampers, and leave the pianoforte
undamped, a register approved of by Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, who
regarded the undamped pianoforte as the more agreeable for improvising.
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