Friday, April 13, 2018
Friday Video: Listen to the Earliest Known Surviving Piano
Friday, April 13, 2018
Susan reporting,
While we were away on our spring break, we missed one of those daily celebrations that the Internet so loves, and honors with a hashtag: #PianoDay. Fittingly, this was the eighty-eighth day of the year, with a day for each of a piano's keys.
But perhaps everyday should be piano day. In the world of instruments, pianos are relative newcomers. The first were invented by Venetian-born Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1732), who built instruments for the Medici court in Florence. The piano in this video is the earliest known to survive today, and is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. For more information and additional photos, see the museum's entry here.
In this video, pianist Dongsok Shin performs the Sonata in d minor, K.9 by Domenico Scarlatti. Enjoy!
If you're receiving this video via email, you may be seeing a black box or empty space where the video should be. Click here to view the video.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
One of us -- 
4 comments:
I am amazed to find it sounds almost like a hybrid between a piano and a harpsichord
Wow! Thank you for that treat!
Gorgeous! I like the idea that the piece was played on the instrument for which it was written - maybe not that specific piano, but for an instrument with the same sound quality.
I love the sound and the touch of the fortepiano. The hammer action (as opposed to the plectrum) made it possible to use loud and soft dynamics in an age which was growing increasingly enamored with high expression, assuring its popularity. The harpsichord slowly fell out of favor as the keyboard instrument of choice. Thanks for this post! Love that Scarlatti.
Post a Comment