Fortepiano

Presentación de una fuente impresa, hasta el presente desconocida, de sonatas de José Ferrer, y reflexión acerca de la pertinencia de anteriores atribuciones. En Flores de Música. Miscelánea en homenaje a José Luis González Uriol, Zaragoza, Institución Fernando el Católico, 2019, pp. 185-196. ISBN: 978-84-9911-546-7

In the course of Ferrari’s life clavichord, harpsichord, Tangentenflügel, spinet, clavichord, fortepiano in his various building traditions  coexisted and has changed significantly. The music of Giacomo Ferrari Gotifredo for keyboard instrument represents a rather conspicuous part of his executive and compositional activities: for training and for the professional needs and relationships the keyboard remained for the musician a constant. This study,  in Italian language, prepared for the First International Fortepiano Competition dedicated to Ferrari (2012), examines this aspect of the musician offering unpublished data, particularly in the field of concerts for piano and orchestra.

Este artigo dá uma visão dos tipos de instrumentos de teclado que se desenvolveram desde a Antiguidade até o período Barroco, dando início a uma série de artigos a serem publicados na "Revista Teclas e Afins" (Brasil), no intuito de revisitar cada um destes instrumentos, com base em importantes publicações na área acadêmica.

This article gives an overview for types of keyboard instruments developed since the antiquity to the Baroque era, starting a series of articles to be published on "Revista Teclas e Afins" (Brazil), in order to revisit each one of these instruments with basis on important academic area publications.

Настоящая статья представляет обзор истории двух редких музыкальных инстументов XVIII века - организированного фортепиано и серинета, приводятся их изображения в живописи. Статья представляет собой исправленную и дополненную версию текста, опубликованного в книге "Мольберт Эвтерпы" (М., 2018. С. 112-121).

SUMMARY
To date, only two instruments testify to the production of harpsichords
in Switzerland in the 18th century: a double manual
harpsichord with the inscription «P Hellen à Berne 1759», which
belongs to the Württemberg Landesmuseum in Stuttgart, and a
single manual harpsichord built in Zürich by Conrad Schmutz
in 1761.
The discovery, in a private collection, of a second double manual
harpsichord from approximately 1763 and ascribed to the
studio of the Hellen Brothers in Bern, is therefore a revelation,
the more so because the instrument and its decor have been
preserved in their original state. The harpsichord adds to the
body of instruments built by the Hellen Brothers. They were
famous for their fortepiano, the genre of double manual harpsichords
à grand ravalement, which has not yet been researched.
Its aesthetic appearance indicates that Parisian models exerted
an influence on the newly discovered instrument. This is confirmed
by the position of this country at the crossroads between
French and German culture.

Restoring classical tuning to the classical musical repertoire of the Fortepiano and 19th century piano reveals dimension of emotion unheard in 150 years.

There was a legend that music conveyed different emotions granted by the use of particular keys. Einstein was not the first to notice Mozart's specialised use of keys, and likewise Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin and Liszt were all careful in their choice of key to match different moods. This paper examines that legend and shows with musical examples how the 18th and 19th century solutions to the scale problem gave rise to those experiences, only to be swept away in the 20th century.

The paper examines works by Bach, presenting them in a manner unthinkable for 150 years, and how the purity of scales with pure thirds in Meantone, or perfect fifths in other systems, leads to different playing and pedalling techniques through Beethoven to Chopin. The paper examines the Piano Sonatas by Haydn and Mozart in the tuning known to be used in the 18th century, and find surprising revelations relevant capable of bringing rebirth of interest in both Music and Religion in the 21st century, even their survival in the light of possible cultural collapse.

Works examined include Mozart Fantasias K594 and K608 for Mechanical Clock, Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, Beethoven Prelude 2 Op. 39, Mozart Piano Sonatas - in particular No 2 K280 F major and F minor, No 12 K322 F major, and Fantasia K475 C minor

Questo volume, dedicato alla storia del pianoforte in Italia, è il frutto di un progetto di ricerca ventennale, culminato in un convegno internazionale presso il Museo di San Colombano – Collezione Tagliavini di Bologna. Inventato a Firenze intorno all’anno 1700 dal celebre cembalaro padovano Bartolomeo Cristofori, il pianoforte ha avuto un enorme impatto sulla storia della musica degli ultimi tre secoli. Il testo analizza, per la prima volta in modo unitario, il ruolo che le attività manifatturiere legate alla fabbricazione del pianoforte hanno ricoperto nella cultura e nell’economia italiana tra gli anni successivi all’invenzione dello strumento e l’età contemporanea. Largo spazio è dedicato allo studio delle caratteristiche tecnologiche dei pianoforti storici di costruzione italiana, di cui si conservano numerosi esemplari presso musei e collezioni in tutto il mondo. I diciotto saggi che compongono questo libro hanno dunque l’effetto di riscrivere — sulla scorta di un cospicuo scavo documentario e di significativi aggiustamenti critici — un importante capitolo della storia di uno degli strumenti musicali più diffusi e amati nella moderna cultura occidentale.

"Hardly had we sat down at the facing keyboards when the listeners fell into utmost silence. I let Paisiello suggest the first theme, which consisted of a Grave and implied an overture in theatrical style to follow. I responded to him with complete confidence. Through alternating answers our ideas multiplied; we changed the tempo; I began with a new theme as if for the second movement of the overture, which Paisiello immediately took up and developed further. In short, we improvised for almost half an hour, and concluded with a fortissimo and with chords with contrattempi [off-beat accents], as Paisiello often does in his theatrical works. We both enjoyed the performance of our improvisation with such satisfaction that at the end we paid no attention to the audience but instead gazed at one another in astonishment, as if wanting to thank one another for the pleasure."

The collection of musical instruments belonging to the Florence Conservatory, housed today at the Galleria dell’Accademia, includes a piano action known as the Gatti-Kraus action, ostensibly by Bartolomeo Cristofori, that belonged to the Florentine collector Alessandro Kraus. Around 1900, Kraus was held to be the expert on Cristofori; he owned five Cristofori instruments: the spinetta ovale of 1693, the spinettone da orchestra, the harpsichords of 1722 and 1726 and, most importantly here, the piano of 1726. These he sold in 1908 to Georg Heyer in Cologne.
Kraus appears to have acquired the Gatti-Kraus action at about the time he sold his Cristofori instruments. After the sale, he expressed his pride in owning the only remaining witness of Cristofori’s work as a piano maker in Italy: the Gatti-Kraus action. The action has been shown to comprise only a few items by Cristofori and that most of it is concocted, copied from the action of the 1726 piano. Authentic parts, including a key lever and a damper, must have been taken from the 1726 piano before it left Florence. Kraus must have commissioned the new action and the incorporation in it of the parts from the 1726 piano.
In the 1870s, Kraus was one of those involved in what may be seen as an intellectual fight to establish Cristofori as the piano’s inventor. The background to this was the growing sense of nationalism after the consolidation of the unification of Italy in 1861. The invention of the piano had been ascribed by others to the ‘German’ Schröter and the French Marius. To establish the ‘Italian’ Cristofori was clearly a matter not only of Kraus’s personal pride but also of national pride.
The 1720 piano by Cristofori had already been sold to the USA and the one of 1722 had not yet surfaced when Kraus decided to sell his 1726 piano to Heyer. For Kraus, this decision to renounce the last remaining vestige of a Cristofori piano would have needed compensation. This must have been the reason he had the Gatti-Krauss action made. Perhaps by retaining parts of the 1726 action and using them in a copy, he could tell himself that he still owned something of a Cristofori piano. His story to the world was a different fairy-tale: he had found the action in a dilapidated instrument at an antique dealer’s shop.

Na virada para o século XVIII surgiu em Florença o instrumento que hoje conhecemos como piano, invenção de Bartolomeo Cristofori, empregado da corte dos Medici. Em 1709 o escritor Scipione Maffei o entrevistou para um artigo sobre sua invenção, o qual foi publicado dois anos depois em um periódico italiano, e em 1725 foi traduzido para o alemão, iniciando o processo de popularização do instrumento. Antes do final do século, o piano já teria ocupado o lugar do cravo como o instrumento de teclado mais versátil e mais utilizado fora do ambiente eclesiástico. Em grande parte, sua popularização se deveu à sua principal característica, a possibilidade de controle dinâmico diretamente pelo toque das teclas, qualidade que o distinguia radicalmente dos outros dois grandes teclados de então, o cravo e o órgão, ambos instrumentos muito mais antigos e repletos de possibilidades expressivas, mas que não ofereciam diferenciação dinâmica pelo toque. A partir da observação da estética musical, de características das artes visuais e do pensamento do período Barroco, além da coleção de relatos de personagens históricos, esta pesquisa reúne elementos que apontam para uma mesma conclusão: a criação de um instrumento de teclas de grandes proporções que oferecesse controle dinâmico pelo toque foi resultado da necessidade de preenchimento de uma lacuna expressiva na família dos teclados no século XVII, a qual não possuía um instrumento com tais características e que, portanto, não tinha meios de realização plena do ideal da música instrumental de então, a imitação do canto. A literatura especializada não trata de maneira clara ou aprofundada das implicações das novas possibilidades expressivas da invenção de Cristofori, daí a validade dessa pesquisa, no sentido de relacioná-las à estética do período e à mimese da expressão vocal. Nosso método apoiou-se no seguinte tripé: o levantamento de informações documentais diretamente relacionadas ao surgimento do fortepiano e/ou a Cristofori e seu ambiente, a investigação de uma literatura variada que nos possibilitou compreender ao mesmo tempo aspectos específicos e o contexto mais amplo relacionados ao objeto de estudo, e a busca por indícios da transposição do pensamento estético do período para a música tecladística do século XVIII, a qual consideramos como um dos frutos da busca estética da música instrumental que aconteceu desde princípios do século anterior, assim como o próprio surgimento do piano. Para nossas conclusões, foi fundamental a observação do artigo de Maffei a partir das considerações de Laura Och (1986) sobre uma provável participação indireta e não creditada de Cristofori como autor de trechos do artigo, especialmente no que se refere à descrição do mecanismo de seu novo instrumento. Como parte significativa da contribuição dessa pesquisa, apresentamos uma tradução do artigo de Maffei sobre a invenção de Cristofori, a qual, até o limite de nosso conhecimento, é a primeira para língua portuguesa.

Palavras-chave: Piano. Fortepiano. Bartolomeo Cristofori. Scipione Maffei. Música Instrumental. Música Vocal. Estética Musical. Interpretação Musical. Barroco. Classicismo.

This paper draws the following conclusions: 1. Michele Feroci might have been Cristofori's first assistant in Florence. 2. The Russell Collection's Italian harpsichord (cat. no. EUCHMI 4302) was rebuilt in around 1722. 3. Ferrini's 1746 piano action shows a development of the action which we do not find in Gottfried Silbermann's copy. 4. Cristofori pianos could be bought in Florence around 1730 without having to be commissioned.

Through the work of Paul Everett and Michael Cole it has been known for some time that Charles Jennens, Handel's librettist of "The Messiah", acquired a pianoforte from the Bartolomeo Cristofori workshop in Florence, and had it shipped to London in 1732. Only more recently, in a publication by Amanda Babington and Illias Chrissochoidis have additional details been made more widely known from the Jennens-Holdsworth correspondence, which indicate that Jennens' instrument was not the first Cristofori pianoforte in England, Willoughby Bertie having bought a piano in 1727. Through the research of Brenda Sumner, and Ruth Smith's publication on Charles Jennens, we now know a little more of his instrument. It may be possible to explain why Charles Burney was unaware of it in his summary of the early pianoforte in England. We further gain an insight into the activity of the Cristofori workshop in the last years of the inventor's life and during the transition at Cristofori's death in January 1732 when his assistant Giovanni Ferrini continued the piano building. Some of the details of Jennens' purchase also indicate how Gottfried Silbermann might have been able to acquire knowledge of the Cristofori action, which he then incorporated with success in his own pianos.

GiacomoGotifredo Ferrari was a prolific musician in the vocal and instrumental chamber music and opera, was a good teacher of the voice, to the point of being named teacher of Italian singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London when it, in 1822, opened its activities teaching. Are particularly significant his technical and aesthetic considerations on the music of his time, scattered in the charming and rich autobiography. Ferrari was also a good friend of the famous English piano maker Thomas Broadwood: despite being known
the relationship between the British manufacturer and Beethoven, who in 1817 received from him the gift of a piano, until today had not yet been sufficiently highlighted the fact that this fact also involved Ferrari. This study, in Italian language, prepared for the Second International Fortepiano Competition dedicated to Ferrari (2016), examines these intriguing circumstances.

Based primarily on articles in the Gazzetta toscana, this paper discusses the keyboard culture of late eighteenth-century Tuscany as exemplified by instruments by Giuseppe Zannetti, Luigi Vignoli, Francesco Spighi, and Vincenzio Sodi, by piano music by Salvador Pazzaglia, Filippo Maria Gherardeschi, Johann Paul Schulthesius, Vincenzio Panerai, and Eugenio Sodi, and by interactions between builders, composers, and performers. An early contribution to a scholarly dialogue involving (among others) Pierluigi Ferrari and Giuliana Montanari, "Presenza del pianoforte alla corte del Granducato di Toscana, 1700–1859," Recercare 7 (1995), 163–211 and 8 (1996), 59–155; John Koster, "Three Grand Pianos in the Florentine Tradition," Music, Images, Instruments 4 (1999), 94–116; Stefano Barandoni, Filippo Maria Gherardeschi (1738–1808): Musicista "abile e di genio" nel Granducato di Toscana, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2001; and Maria Virginia Rolfo, "Vincenzio Sodi: Life and Work," MM thesis, University of South Dakota (2011).

Three hitherto unpublished documents provide us with new information about the career of Anton Walter, the great piano maker of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Vienna. The documents, concerning the decision in 1790 to grant Walter the title of Imperial Royal Chamber Organ Builder and Instrument Maker, reinforce our perception of Walter as Vienna's most important piano maker during the period between 1780 and 1800. They also contain evidence about the changing place of the piano in Viennese musical life and the growing importance of Vienna as a center of piano design and manufacture.

This manual sets out to analyse and tackle the key problems posed by harpsichord technique, presented in order of difficulty; the principles outlined can be applied with just a few modifications to the clavichord and the fortepiano. The student will find three types of musical excerpts: purely technical exercises, which isolate the specific movement to be mastered; short fragments - what François Couperin styled évolutions ¬- in which the movement is practised in a more authentic context; and studies which are more complex in scope. I have chosen not to start from the elementary stage, since this is dealt with in other methods, but rather to go in some detail into the intermediate and advanced levels. The material has been largely transcribed or adapted from the harpsichord repertoire; in some cases I have composed it myself.

Este artículo es el resultado de la conferencia ofrecida en la Real Academia Canaria de Bellas Artes (diciembre 2020) sobre «Los primeros fortepianos entre el siglo XVIII y el siglo XIX». En este artículo se muestran los tipos, influencias y estéticas de los primeros instrumentos de teclado con maquinaria de macillos en la Península Ibérica desde principios del s. VXIII hasta principios del siglo XIX, así como los pianos llegados a las Islas Canarias, teniendo en cuenta  los instrumentos pertenecientes a la colección de la propia Real Academia de Bellas Artes.

Prima che il fortepiano venisse accolto come strumento a tastiera di riferimento dalla comunità musicale europea, passarono diversi decenni dalla sua invenzione. Nel corso del Settecento e dell’Ottocento, esso subì numerose modifiche, che costituirono un fertile terreno di sperimentazione per Beethoven, impegnato nella ricerca di nuove strade per superare i confini musicali allora praticati. La crisi spirituale che il compositore attraversò nei primi anni dell’Ottocento, testimoniata dal cosiddetto “Testamento di Heilgenstadt”, cui non poco contribuì l'aggravarsi dei suoi problemi di udito, determinò in Beethoven uno stimolo per un cambiamento di prospettive musicali. Le opere scritte a partire da questo periodo presentano soluzioni tecniche possibili solo alla luce delle innovazioni cui la meccanica dello strumento fu progressivamente soggetta. La storia della variantistica del Terzo Concerto per pianoforte, op. 37, scritto nell'arco di circa un decennio (1796 -1803), e la presenza nell'opera di moduli tecnici innovativi rappresentano una fonte emblematica per la comprensione dell' assiduo lavoro di ricerca estetica intrapreso dal compositore di Bonn. Il connubio tra innovazione tecnica e sperimentazione armonico-formale contribuì allo sviluppo di una concezione estetica che si andava arricchendo, intanto, anche delle riflessioni filosofiche sull'arte che animavano gli intellettuali a cavallo tra XVIII e XIX secolo e che si andavano sempre più delineando come quella corrente di pensiero che prenderà il nome di "Idealismo tedesco".

Esta comunicación presenta parte del análisis del “Elementos de Música y Método de Fortepiano Op. 19 de João Domingos Bomtempo en la perspectiva de la música históricamente informada”, disertación de magíster. La improvisación, una práctica de performance en el pianoforte del final del siglo dieciocho e inicio del diecinueve, fue comentada en su relación con los Treinta preludios del Op. 19. El análisis de los preludios fue hecho comparando el Op. 19 con los métodos para pianoforte con los que Bomtempo probablemente tuvo acceso, los de Muzio Clementi y Johann Baptist Cramer. Se observaron sus semejanzas y diferencias para apuntar la contribución del pensamiento de Bomtempo.

This presentation describes part of the Master’s degree critical analysis of “Elements of Music and Method of Fortepiano, Op. 19, by João Domingos Bomtempo in the perspective of historically informed music”.  Improvisation was an integral part of pianoforte performance in the end of XVIII and beginning of the XIX centuries, and it is discussed in this dissertation, where it is studied together with the Thirty Preludes of Op. 19.  The analysis of the preludes of Bomtempo’s method involves a comparison with other methods for pianoforte that probably he had access to, ie, mainly Muzio Clementi and Johann Baptist Cramer, focusing on their similarities and differences, aiming at underlining the contributions from Bomtempo’s work.

Esta pesquisa aborda os aspectos referentes a questões de dedilhado na transição da técnica e linguagem cravística para a pianística, no método de Muzio Clementi: Introduction to the Art of playing on the Piano Forte que, para muitos estudiosos, é considerado a chave para a sistematização dos princípios técnicos da escola moderna de Piano. Anteriormente a Clementi, já se buscavam novas maneiras de dedilhar e novos tipos de toque ao teclado. Clementi é, entretanto, quem de fato sistematiza essas ideias em um tratado conciso, organizado em conformidade com a maioria dos tratados ingleses do século XVIII e XIX. Nessa sistematização, Clementi estabelece novos padrões para os dedilhados, que serão mantidos como sendo ideais à moderna técnica pianística, prevalecendo em sua maioria até os dias atuais, principalmente por seu potencial facilitador para o toque legato ao teclado. O método Introduction to the Art of playing on the Piano Forte revela-se fundamental para a pedagogia do Piano, resultando em muitos materiais que tratam especificamente da técnica do instrumento, pura e aplicada, servindo também como apoio às demais escolas que surgiram posteriormente a Clementi. Carl Czerny, considerado um dos grandes pedagogos do piano, foi um dos principais adeptos à escola de Clementi.

Arpeggione soloist Nicolas Deletaille has collaborated with pianist Alain Roudier and composer René Mogensen in a project with the intent of reinventing the musical thinking for the arpeggione, in the context of contemporary computer music. For this project, Mogensen composed two new works for arpeggione and computer, which brought together 1820s performance practice with current interactive computer music. The project toured in Belgium, Denmark, France and Italy, and culminated in a CD release of new works. In this report we give some background information, and briefly introduce some analytical tools to help ground understanding of the musical context. We then focus on discussion of several performance practice problems, and the solutions to these problems which we developed during our work on this collaborative project. These problems and solutions are indicative of a performance practice that is specific to the combination of acoustic instruments and computer sound in chamber music. We found that the results of the project were artistically successful, giving rich experiences both for performers and audiences.

Norbert Hadrava, Austrian diplomat in Naples during the 1780s, was an amateur musician of varied interests, many of them having to do with musical instruments. As self-appointed agent for the great instrument-builder Johann Andreas Stein, he arranged for the purchase of keyboard instruments and their shipping from Stein's workshop in Augsburg to Naples. In doing so he played an important role in the consolidation of the piano's triumph over the harpsichord in Italy and in the enhancement of Stein's international prestige.

Hadrava's letters to his friend Johann Paul Schulthesius (published, with Italian translation, by Giuliana Gialdroni) represent an important source of information about musical life in Naples during the 1780s and about Hadrava's activities, including his piano-importing business. From this point of view the most valuable letter, written in 1789, largely concerns a vis-à-vis piano-harpsichord by Stein that Hadrava had helped a Neapolitan nobleman to obtain. It contains descriptions not only of the instrument but also of a recital in which Hadrava played it, first by himself and then together with Giovanni Paisiello. This letter is of special interest to historians of the piano because one of two surviving vis-à-vis instruments by Stein is preserved today in Naples. That instrument may well be the one described by Hadrava in 1789.

Sigismund Ritter von Neukomm, estimado aluno de Joseph Haydn, atuou como músico em diversas cortes, residindo em diversos países da Europa, Norte da África e Brasil, onde permaneceu de 1816 a 1821 e exerceu intensa atividade musical durante a sua estadia.

Este projeto contempla a obra para fortepiano “L'amitié et l'amour”, escrita por Neukomm no Rio de Janeiro em 1820 a qual encontra-se disponível apenas em seu manuscrito no acervo da Biblioteca Nacional Francesa. Nosso objetivo é disponibilizar aos intérpretes de teclados uma transcrição desta obra singular, até então desconhecida no repertório, em conjunto com informações pertinentes para uma performance historicamente orientada. Esse trabalho de Iniciação Científica foi financiado pela agência FAPESP durante minha graduação na Universidade Estadual de Campinas (BR).