Hammer mechanism instruments and their role in shaping the composition style of pieces written for keyboard instruments in the period of 1730-1780, part 3 – Keyboard instruments in concert halls and in the high society
Journal Title: Notes Muzyczny - Year 2019, Vol 1, Issue 11
Abstract
The present text is the third and last part of the cycle of articles devoted to keyboard instruments with hammer mechanism in the 18th century published in subsequent issues of the magazine “Notes Muzyczny”. The first two parts primarily touched on the history of keyboard instrument making in the 18th century: first pianos and other original inventions. The third part is in turn devoted to the changing position of the piano in the musical life of that period, namely – concerts, publications and compositions. The crowning of this part is the chronological and topic-related list (in a form of a reference chart) of the most significant phenomena and events discussed in the whole cycle of articles. The first mentions of a wider presence of keyboard instruments with hammer mechanism on the music market and concert life date back to the 1760s. In the 1770s there was a fast growth in the popularity of these instruments in the life of the high society, first of all in England and France (table instruments), as well as in Germany, even though there it took slightly more time because of the domination of the traditional clavichord. Due to the imprecise nomenclature used as long as until the 1780s and 1790s, it is often hard to decide which keyboard instrument was meant in a given case, hence it is impossible to assess how popular a specific instrument was. Some academics suggest that the presence of instruments with hammer mechanism in the musical life of that period was much greater than in might seem. Probably both hammer and tangent pianos and their other variants were not opposed to harpsichords but were treated as a special type within the same group of instruments. In the 1780s musical pieces written for both keyboard instruments, i.e., “for harpsichord or piano”, became the norm. Despite the increase in popularity of pianos (as compared to harpsichords) in the 1790s, such designation would remain on title pages of compositions until the end of that century. The period between the 1780s and 1790s was also the time when the first piano playing textbooks appeared. Expanding expressive capacities of keyboard instruments was the response to the changing needs of the galant and Empfindsamkeit styles. On the other hand, the presence of pianos had a significant influence on the styles of specific compositions. In order to illustrate these processes, the annex presents the analyses of two representative cycles of works from the 1760s written for the new instrument: Sonatas op. 1 by Johann Gottfried Eckard and Sonatas op. 5 by Johann Christian Bach.<br/><br/>
Authors and Affiliations
Joanna Owczarek-Ciszewska
Keywords
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- EP ID EP641077
- DOI 10.5604/01.3001.0013.3521
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