File:A description and history of the pianoforte and of the older keyboard stringed instruments (1896) (14780480952).jpg

Identifier: descriptionhisto00hipk (find matches)
Title: A description and history of the pianoforte and of the older keyboard stringed instruments
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Hipkins, Alfred J. (Alfred James), 1826-1903
Subjects: Piano Piano Keyboard instruments
Publisher: London, Novello
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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that timesuch collections were formed by eminent personages and much caredfor. To Ferrini was left by Cristofori the completion of the instru-ments he had in hand at the time of his death. The merit of having taken the invention up and introducing it inGermany is due to Gottfried Silbermann, the great organ Iniilderand clavichord maker of Dresden. Silbermann was the friendof the Dresden Court poet Konig, who published at Hamburg,in 1725, a translation of Maffeis article in the Giomale uponCristoforis invention.! According to J. S. Bachs pupil, JohannFriedrich Agricola,; Silbermann made two pianofortes upon an.existing model, the origin of which in his lifetime he would, neverconfess, and submitted them to Bach, who, to his great vexation, * Cesare Ponsicchi, II Pianoforte sua origine e sviluppo (Florence, 1876), \. 37. t Oscar Paul, Geschichte cles Claviers (Leipzig, 1868), pp. 105-113.\ Adlung, Musica Mechanica Organoedi (Berlin, 1768), Zweiter Band, pp.Wj-\11, footnote by Agricola.
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fi oJ a o Q r/3 ?: o o a-/J 03-si a _3 a3 O -J a o a •J THE EAKLY PIANOFORTE. 103 disapproved of them on account of their weak trebles and heav)-touch. We now know, from my examination of the instruments atPotsdam, that he was following Cristofori, and probably had notunderstood his model or had not attained the skill required toreproduce it. Being annoyed at his failure, he made, or atleast showed, no more pianos for some years.i Then Agricolamentions a piano made for the Countess of Eudolstadt, and that hesubmitted another to Bach which met with the great composersapproval. Here follows the often quoted anecdote of Frederick theGreat, who, meeting with and approving of pianos made bySilberma,nn, ordered them for his Eoyal Palaces. Accounts differ:some say all that Silbermann had made.^ According to Forkel thepianofortes of the Freyberg Silbermann pleased the king so muchthat he set about buying them all, fifteen in number. Mooser,fSilbermanns biographer, says they were in Forkels

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