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  The History of the Piano
 
 

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Information or research assistance regarding the history of the piano is frequently requested from the Smithsonian Institution. The following information has been prepared to assist those interested in this topic.

Steinway grand piano. Hall of Musical Instruments
The renowned Polish pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski used this Steinway grand piano on his 1892-93 concert tour of the United States.

Selected Bibliography

"Chickering." In The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. London: Macmillan, 1984.

Closson, Ernest. History of the Piano. Translated by Delano Ames; edited and revised by Robin Golding. 1947. Reprint. London: P. Elek, 1974.

Clutton, Cecil. "The Pianoforte." In Musical Instruments through the Ages. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1961.

Ehrlich, Cyril. The Piano: A History. London: Dent, 1976.

Gaines, James R., ed. The Lives of the Piano. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981.

Gill, Dominic, ed. The Book of the Piano. Oxford: Phaidon, 1981.

Good, Edwin M. Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos: A Technological History from Cristofori to the Modern Concert Grand. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1982.

Harding, Rosamond E. M. The Piano-Forte: Its History Traced to the Great Exhibition of 1851. 1933. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1973.

Hollis, Helen R. "Jonas Chickering: `The Father of American Pianoforte-Making'." Antiques, Aug. 1973.

______. The Musical Instruments of Joseph Haydn: An Introduction. Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology, no. 38. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977.

______. Pianos in the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology, no. 27. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973.

______. The Piano: A Pictorial Account of Its Ancestry and Development. Rev. ed. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1984.

Jung, Karl, and Hubert Unverricht. "Klavier." In Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, edited by Friederich Blume. Kassel, Germany: Baerenreiter, 1958.

Juramie, Ghislaine. Histoire du piano. Paris: Prisina, 1947.

Krehbiel, Henry Edward. The Pianoforte and Its Music. New York: Charles Winston, 1981.

Loesser, Arthur. Men, Women, and Pianos. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954.

Marcuse, Sibyl. "Piano." In Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary. 1964. Reprint. New York: W.W. Norton, 1975.

Pierce, Bob. Piano Atlas. Long Beach, CA: Bob Pierce, 1977.

Randel, Don Michael, ed. The New Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.

Ripin, Edwin M., et al. "The Piano." In The New Grove Musical Instrument Series. New York: W.W. Norton, 1988.

Sadie, Stanley, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition. London. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001

Schonberg, Harold C. The Great Pianists. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963.

Sumner, William L. The Pianoforte. London: McDonald, 1966.

Wainwright, David. Broadwood by Appointment: A History. London: Quiller Press, 1982.

Prepared by the Division of Music, Sports
and Entertainment in cooperation with the
Public Inquiry Mail Service, Smithsonian Institution

PIMS/Mus12/12-05

 

 
 


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