A History of Stringed Keyboard Instruments (Paperback)

Stewart Pollens

ISBN 10: 1108434452 / ISBN 13: 9781108434454

Published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2024

About this Item

Paperback. This book explores the history of keyboard instruments from their fourteenth-century origins to the development of the modern piano. It reveals the principles of their design and describes structural and mechanical developments through the medieval and renaissance periods and eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries, as well as the early music revival. Stewart Pollens identifies and describes the types of keyboard instruments played by major composers and virtuosi through the ages and provides the reader with detailed instructions on their regulating, stringing, tuning and voicing drawn from historical sources. A wide-ranging history of the piano, clavichord, and harpsichord, from their origins in the fourteenth century to the present. It will interest scholars, keyboard instrument players, makers and technicians, as well as those who simply enjoy listening to over five centuries of keyboard music. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781108434454

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A History of Stringed Keyboard Instruments (Paperback)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108434452
• ISBN 13: 9781108434454
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This book explores the history of keyboard instruments from their fourteenth-century origins to the development of the modern piano. It reveals the principles of their design and describes structural and mechanical developments through the medieval and renaissance periods and eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries, as well as the early music revival. Stewart Pollens identifies and describes the types of keyboard instruments played by major composers and virtuosi through the ages and provides the reader with detailed instructions on their regulating, stringing, tuning and voicing drawn from historical sources.

About the Author

Trained as a harpsichord, organ, and violin maker, Stewart Pollens served as the conservator of musical instruments at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1976 to 2006. He has published widely on the history of musical instruments and is the recipient of the American Musical Instrument Society's 1997 Bessaraboff Prize for The Early Pianoforte (Cambridge University Press, 1995).