Description

Book Synopsis

The piano is the best loved of musical instruments, thanks in part to the elegant symmetrical design of its ivory and ebony keyboard that ensures each pitch is reliably equidistant from the next. But this ''equal temperament'' tuning was once a hugely controversial notion. It is difficult now to imagine the keyboard as other than it is; yet this was precisely what many European musicians practising before the nineteenth century demanded of their instruments. For hundreds of years, musicians, craftsmen, church officials, heads of state and philosophers fought heatedly against the introduction of ''equal temperament'' tuning.

Stuart Isacoff hereby recounts this great battle over the best way to create music - a battle that culminated in the destruction of the harpsichord and the emergence, from its flames, of the piano. Why the resistance to equal temperament lasted so long, and how it was finally overcome, is a story that encompasses crucial elements of Western culture - socia

Trade Review

"'Isacoff untangles the complexities of this issue with the aplomb of a virtuoso planist.' New York Times"

Temperament

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    A Paperback by Stuart Isacoff

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      Book details

      Publisher Faber & Faber
      Published 5 April 2007
      ISBN-13 9780571234462
      978-0571234462
      ISBN-10 0571234461
      Also in:
      Music

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      The piano is the best loved of musical instruments, thanks in part to the elegant symmetrical design of its ivory and ebony keyboard that ensures each pitch is reliably equidistant from the next. But this ''equal temperament'' tuning was once a hugely controversial notion. It is difficult now to imagine the keyboard as other than it is; yet this was precisely what many European musicians practising before the nineteenth century demanded of their instruments. For hundreds of years, musicians, craftsmen, church officials, heads of state and philosophers fought heatedly against the introduction of ''equal temperament'' tuning.

      Stuart Isacoff hereby recounts this great battle over the best way to create music - a battle that culminated in the destruction of the harpsichord and the emergence, from its flames, of the piano. Why the resistance to equal temperament lasted so long, and how it was finally overcome, is a story that encompasses crucial elements of Western culture - socia

      Trade Review

      "'Isacoff untangles the complexities of this issue with the aplomb of a virtuoso planist.' New York Times"

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