Men, Women & Pianos

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Synopsis
Some of the greatest composers of history have confined some of their most precious thoughts to the piano. For a century and a half, series of pianists of outstanding nimbleness and expressive power have attracted millions of admirers to their performances. Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin, Liszt, Rubinstein and Rachmaninov, to achieve the fulfillment of their art, needed to have pianos. From where did they get them? From factories, of course. But piano factories cannot stay in business simply by making a few instruments for a few great musicians. They must sell their products annually by the hundreds, by the thousands, to all manner of persons: doctors, lawyers, merchants, government officials. What did those persons want with pianos? This book may supply some answers to this question." That is the modest raison d'être for his book given by the author in a letter to the publisher. But any reader will see at once that the proliferations in the answer to his question result in something much more important and delightful. What Mr. Loesser has written is really a piano's-eye view of the social--and sometimes the philosophical--history of Western Europe and the United States from the seventeenth century to the present, with glances both forward and back. With a keen eye for both the ridiculous and the significant detail (which turn out often to be the same thing), he traces the history of the design and manufacture of the piano, and the music written for it, from its predecessors, the clavichord and the virginal, to the latest concert grand and the modern "spinet." Long established as an internationally known concert pianist, Mr. Loesser here shows himself to be an elegant stylist and an impressively learned scholar, who has the wit to see that in a social history the role of the interior decorator may be quite as important as that of the virtuoso--and that of the ambitious parent, more important than either.
Copyright:
1954

Book Details

Book Quality:
Excellent
Book Size:
654 Pages
Publisher:
Simon and Schuster, Inc.
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Arthur Loesser
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Music
Submitted By:
Garyp
Proofread By:
Kelsey Grant
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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