Books › The M. Steinert collection of keyed and stringed instruments : with various treatises on the history of these instruments, the method of playing them, and their influence on musical art, 1893 › scan 87
Scan 87
The M. Steinert collection of keyed and stringed instruments : with various treatises on the history of these instruments, the method of playing them, and their influence on musical art, 1893
6 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 85. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE history of pianoforte building is replete with almost as many celebrated men as that of the violin. While the latter has its shining lights in Caspar di Salo, the Amatis, Guarneris, Stradivaris, Stainer and others, the pianoforte can enumerate as many historical names amongst its builders. To begin with, mention must be made of Gottfried Silbermann, a member of a family of organ, clavichord, harpsichord and pianoforte makers. He was born in Frauenstein, Germany, 1683. He was first apprenticed to a book-binder, but soon left him and went to his brother Andreas, at Strasburg. This city he had to quit in 1707, on account of an attempted abduction of a nun, and then returned to Frauenstein, where he built his first organ. Although he attained great celebrity as an organ builder, he became equally renowned as a maker of clavichords. Philip Emanuel Bach used one for nearly half a century, and while playing on the same, he excited the admiration of Dr. Burney. It is a well established historical fact that Gottfried Silbermann was the first maker of pianofortes in Germany. He built three grand pianos for Frederick the Great, for his castle at Potsdam, where they still remain to-day.
3Agricola adds the following to the history of the piano:
5"Mr. Gottfried Silbermann had made at first two of these instruments. The blessed chapel master, Johann Sebastian Bach, had seen and played on one of them. He had praised its tone and even admired it, but he had found the fault that in its high tones it was too weak, and that it was too hard to play. Mr. Silbermann had heard these complaints with ill grace, and had
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