| Abstract |
This book is a collection of keyboard fact and falderal designed to entertain and educate those who play, tune, teach, sell, or love the instrument. Provides historical background including its fateful invention by Bartolommeo Cristofori, an eighteenth-century Florentine instrument maker, the piano's kaleidoscopic evolution from its forerunners, the harpsichord and clavichord, to today's concert grand and synthesizer, and the development of piano craftsmanship and manufacturing. Includes practical information, piano lore, and advice covering how to shop for a new or secondhand piano, how to compare the quality and playing potential of master brands, how to fix sticky keys, scratched cases, broken strings, and other piano ailments, where to find a reliable tuner, music schools and conservatories, and how to soundproof your room or apartment. In addition, this book is a celebration of America's love affair with the piano, ranging from firsthand accounts by piano makers, conservatory teachers, competition judges, and restorers to humorous and revelatory anecdotes about such stars as Artur Rubinstein, Lorin Hollander, Ruth Laredo, Liberace, Claude Bolling, Teddy Wilson, and Herbie Hancock--who tell you what inspired them to play, practice, and perform. Lastly, this book has a mix of quizzes, questionnaires, and quicky facts highlighting the piano in literature, film, and politics, and amazing piano feats by Mozart, Clara Schumann, and Rachmaninoff. |
