Piano Keys (Forwarded Message)

[gordon stelter]

OK Stephen. Now I must ask something that's been
bugging me for years:  What, pray tell, is a 
"Fortepiano"??? Christophori's first was a "Piano et
Forte", so how can one say that earlier instrumenmts
had the inverted usage. When did "Forte piano" enter
the language, why, and by whom, if you please ?
     Thump

--- Stephen Birkett <sbirkett@real.uwaterloo.ca>
wrote:
> David forwarded:
> >Begin Forwarded Message
> >>To whom this may concern,
> >>I am a college student doing research on the
> history of the piano.  What 
> >>I am trying to find out is why in the earliest
> pianos the keys that are 
> >>white today were black then and why did the color
> change?  Can you please 
> >>help me with this information?
> 
> Angela,
> 
> You won't be able to find an answer becuase the
> statement is not true.
> 
> First, it is a generalization that fails
> geographically (e.g. English 
> pianos and harpsichords) and temporally (Ruckers
> harpsichords from the 
> earliest 16th c had bone keyboards with dark bog oak
> sharps; italian 
> harpsichrods often had light boxwood keyboards).
> 
> Second, it is a generalization that fails even
> within the context of 
> Viennese pianos. All you can really say is that
> pianos after about 1815 all 
> had white keyboards (either bone or ivory). But
> there is at least one 
> extant Viennese piano as early as 1785 with white
> naturals. Prior to 1815 
> both types of keyboard were made and the colour of
> the keyboard cannot be 
> used as an indication of the date of the piano. All
> that can be said is 
> that white keyboards generally were coupled with
> fancier, more expensive 
> case veneering and ornamental stuff, often mahogany,
> while black keyboards 
> were used on pianos veneered more plainly, with
> fruitwoods or oak.
> 
> When it comes down to it it is all just fashion and
> economics - no 
> different from now.
> 
> Yo. How about doing some real research if you are a
> college student. Check 
> out the source material, organological literature
> etc. It's easy to ask but 
> more rewarding to do the legwork in the library
> yourself. And don't believe 
> everything that is written either - much of it is
> wrong.
> 
> Stephen
> 
> Stephen Birkett Fortepianos
> Authentic Reproductions of 18th and 19th Century
> Pianos
> 464 Winchester Drive
> Waterloo, Ontario
> Canada N2T 1K5
> tel: 519-885-2228
> mailto: sbirkett@real.uwaterloo.ca
> http://real.uwaterloo.ca/~sbirkett
> 
> _______________________________________________
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