- The Fortepiano

Catalog description

Some of the most familiar composers of music for the piano (including Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Schumann) would not recognize the instrument we play their music on today. The modern piano is just a little over a century old; its antecedent was the fortepiano. Students will learn about the mechanics of fortepianos, period performance practice (technique and style), and the social history of the instruments (who played them, when, and why). Texts will include 18th- and 19th-century primary sources as well as present-day scholarship, videos, and recordings. Every student will gain hands-on experience tuning and playing Skidmore's two fortepianos.