Isacoff - A natural history of the piano: the instrument, the music, the musicians--from Mozart to modern jazz, and everything in between

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright 2011 by Stuart Isacoff
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:

Alfred A. Knopf and Harold Ober Associates Incorporated: Excerpts from Juke Box Love Song from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel, Associate Editor, copyright 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random house, Inc., and Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.

The Colorado College Music Press: Excerpts from foreword by John Cage, included in The Well-Prepared Piano by Richard Bunger (Colorado Springs, CO: The Colorado College Music Press, 1973).
Reprinted by permission of The Colorado College Music Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Isacoff, Stuart.
A natural history of the piano: the instrument, the music, the musiciansfrom Mozart to modern jazz, and everything in between/ Stuart Isacoff.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-0-307-70142-8
1. PianoHistory. 2. Piano musicHistory and criticism. 3. Pianists. I. Title
ML650.I83 2011
786.209dc22 2011011557

Jacket design by Peter Mendelsund

v3.1_r4

Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground
for the Great Minds of Western Civilization

To my brother, Dr. Mark Isacoff,
and in memory of my teacher, Sir Roland Hanna

Dashing from one thing to another, or linking them together, he heaped them upfirst because he had endless things in his head, and one thing led on to the next; but in particular because it was his passion to make comparisons and discover relations, display influences, lay bare the interwoven connections of culture.

THOMAS MANN , Doctor Faustus,
translated by H. T. Lowe-Porter

Oscar Peterson (Veryl Oakland)

A Berlin cartoon of Liszt at the height of his powers; women would swoon and throw jewelry onto the stage.

Louis Armstrongs Hot Five, with Lil Hardin (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

The Oscar Peterson Trio of the 1950s: guitarist Herb Ellis, bassist Ray Brown, and Peterson (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

James Reese Europe and his band (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

A typical harpsichord for the home. Keene Bentside Spinet, ca. 1700 (L2009.17), on loan to Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, Arizona. Courtesy of Edgardo C. Sodero. (MIM/Holly Metz)

Ferdinando deMedici with his musicians, by Antonio Domenico Gabbiani (16521726) (Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence)

Scipione Maffeis diagram of Bartolomeo Cristoforis piano action, 1711

Lincoln Center at night ( 1999 David Lamb Photography)

The Mozarts in the 1780s, by Johann Nepomuk della Croce: Nannerl, Wolfgang, and father Leopold. Mother Anna Maria had passed away in 1778, but her portrait appears on the wall.

An anonymous portrait of the young prodigy, 1763

Zumpe square piano (Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution)

Muzio Clementi

The Borgato pedal piano (Courtesy of Luigi Borgato)

Mozart in his red coat

Franciolini harpsichord, ca. 1890 (T2009.440.2) Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, Arizona (MIM/Holly Metz)

The moral hazards of piano lessons. The Comforts of Bath: The Music Master, by Thomas Rowlandson (17561827). Watercolor, pen and ink. (New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection)

Portrait of Miss Margaret Casson at the piano, 1781, by George Romney (17341802) (Courtesy of Philip Mould Ltd)

Sewing table piano (Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution)

A Hawkins portable piano (Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution)

A Giraffe Piano (Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution)

Clara Wieck

John Field

Leopold de Meyer

Henri Herz

Caricature of Gottschalk conducting his monster concert in Rio de Janeiro, October 5, 1869 (A Vida Fluminense, October 2, 1869)

The hands of piano team Vronsky and Babin

Piano circus

Beethoven and the Blind Maiden, by Friedrich Bodenmller (18451913). An artists rendering of Beethoven conjuring the healing angels. Beethoven-Haus Bonn

Joseph Haydn

Franz Liszt as a young man

Liszt in his later years

Liszt in concert, from a Hungarian magazine, April 6, 1873. Drawings by Jnos Jnko

Bla Bartk with pianist Gyrgy Sandor

Stravinsky playing The Rite of Spring, by Jean Cocteau

Ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who commissioned The Rite of Spring, and Igor Stravinsky

Arthur Rubinstein (Courtesy of Eva Rubinstein)

Jerry Lee Lewis album cover

Eubie Blake

Earl Hines (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Cecil Taylor (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Claude Debussy

Marie dAgoult

Pianist Josef Hofmann and Alexander Scriabin, Moscow, ca. 1892

Modest Mussorgsky

Bill Evans (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Herbie Hancock (Francis Wolff)

Bill Charlap with singer Tony Bennett (Courtesy of Blue Note Records)

Duke Ellington in a rare informal pose (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Billy Strayhorn (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Thelonious Monk (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

John Cage preparing a piano, ca. 1960 (Photo by Ross Welser. Courtesy of the John Cage Trust)

Terry Riley (Betty Freeman)

An early player piano

The Plantation. Anonymous. (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Jelly Roll Morton (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

James P. Johnson

Dance team Buck and Bubbles (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Meade Lux Lewis (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Fats Waller (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Willie the Lion Smith and Duke Ellington (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Willie the Lion Smiths business card (Courtesy of Mike Lipskin)

Billie Holiday accompanied by Art Tatum (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Count Basie and his band, 1943, with singer Dorothy Dandridge (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Sir Roland Hanna (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Billy Taylor

Hazel Scott (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Mary Lou Williams (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Professor Longhair

Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) (Lisa Houlgrave. Courtesy of Blue Note Records)

Chucho Valds (Courtesy of Blue Note Records)

Eddie Palmieri (Tad Hershorn)

Dave Brubeck (Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Franz Schubert, lithograph of 1846 by J. Kriehuber (18011876)

Robert Schumann

The Sphinxes chart in Schumanns Carnaval

Young Brahms

The older Brahms

Felix Mendelssohn