Prof: Okay.
 
So this morning what we're
going to be dealing with is the
question of the development of
the piano,
really from the time of Mozart
through Beethoven through Chopin
and through Liszt up to the
modern grand piano that you see
in front of us and we'll end
with a guest performer.
Dan Schlossberg will be coming
in about 11 o'clock and we'll be
talking with Dan at that point.
 
We start with Mozart because he
was the first composer to switch
from the harpsichord over to the
piano.
The harpsichord was the primary
instrument, of course,
of the Baroque period,
as we said before,
1600 to 1750.
 
Now our first slide that we see
on the screen this morning is a
Dutch harpsichord--comes in the
Low Countries--of the
seventeenth century.
 
It's actually in our own
collection of historical musical
instruments at 17 Hillhouse
Avenue,
and many of the slides that
we'll--we will be seeing today
come from that particular
collection.
So if you ever happen to be
sick and going over to DUH,
right next to DUH on this side
of the railroad tracks or the
canal there is this splendid
collection of keyboard
instruments.
 
You got a chance I believe in
section last time to deal with
the harpsichord,
and perhaps even play the
harpsichord,
and you remember that it
produces this kind of tinkling,
jangling effect. Right?
So if you ever hear a tingling,
jangling keyboard instrument on
a test, what are you going to
say about musical style?
What period does it come from?
 
Daniel.
 
Student: Baroque.
 
Prof: Baroque.
 
Okay, so that's a good key.
 
It's one of the fingerprints
for Baroque music.
But young Mozart here about
1770-1780, he came to prefer the
piano because what was the one
limitation or a central
limitation of the harpsichord?
 
What was the problem,
in essence, with the
harpsichord?
 
Nice and loud.
 
Kristin, is it?
 
I can hardly see back there.
 
Kristin, nice and loud.
 
Student: No dynamics.
 
Prof: No dynamics.
 
Okay.
 
Basically, you get one dynamic
level.
Yeah, you can throw some levers
and maybe bring some more
strings in but it's cumbersome
and you can't shade a scale;
you can't reach for a climax.
 
It's not only dynamics.
 
It's shading that's also very
important there.
So people began to switch over
to this thing called the
pianoforte.
 
Originally, it was all one
word, pianoforte,
the loud-soft or the soft-loud,
pianoforte, so that there could
be gradations of sound.
 
And this was an instrument
invented in Florence around
1700..
 
Actually, we know the name of
the person who did it,
Bartolomeo Cristofori.
 
I didn't put that up on the
board but that's what happened
in Florence around 1700,
and it took about fifty years
or so for this to catch on,
this invention to catch on and
gradually replace the
harpsichord,
but notice that when we have
our first pianos that they look
virtually identical to the
harpsichord.
Here is a harpsichord from our
collection.
Here is a piano of the sort
that Mozart would have played
about 1770.
 
So it's not that much bigger.
 
Right?
 
Go back and forth quickly,
if you would,
Jacob.
 
There is the harpsichord and
there's the piano,
and, as said,
Mozart was the first
significant composer to switch
from the harpsichord to the
piano.
 
Mozart, of course,
came from the city of Salzburg,
Austria, and he was an
employee, a sort of disgruntled
employee, of the Archbishop of
Salzburg.
He referred to the archbishop
as the "Archbooby."
And Mozart is thought to be a
composer who worked at the
piano.
 
And indeed so was Joseph Haydn,
Mozart's contemporary and dear,
dear friend.
 
It's Mozart that first called
Haydn "Papa Haydn."
So let's go on to two slides
here.
We've got a couple to skim and
then here is Haydn.
He's composing,
thinking things through at a
keyboard.
 
And here is Mozart working at a
keyboard.
But Mozart actually didn't
compose at a keyboard.
What--why is he then seated at
a keyboard?
To show that he's a musician.
 
You need an icon to associate
it with.
When Mozart composed--do you
know where he did most of his
composing?
 
Some of it at a billiard table,
but most of it in bed.
His sister tells us that and
his wife tells us that.
He would get up in the morning.
 
He would just stay in bed and
he had this kind of desk with
ink trays and sand and stuff to
blot the paper,
and he would work in bed from
about seven until ten in the
morning.
 
He didn't need a piano.
 
He heard it all in his head.
 
In any event,
in 1781 Mozart has had it with
the "Archbooby"
of Salzburg.
He breaks free of him and
establishes himself as a
freelance musician in the city
of Vienna.
This was kind of a risky
gambit--to be a freelance
musician.
 
We have two freelance musicians
in our midst today,
Santana and Jacob.
 
How is it, Santana,
being a freelance musician?
Student: Busy.
 
Prof: Busy.
 
What do you have to do?
 
Student: Run around to--
Prof: Run around to
different gigs,
right, trying to patch together
a living as best you can until
you work your way up to a more
secure position.
 
Same thing, I'm sure,
with Jacob.
Well, what did Mozart do when
he got to Vienna then?
How was he going to patch
together a living?
He did it through two ways.
 
One, he was going to give piano
lessons to the aristocracy and
two, he was going to play the
piano in public
concerts--teacher,
performer.
And as a result of this,
he perfected or contributed
greatly to two important genres
in the history of music,
those genres being the piano
sonata--
we've talked about the sonata,
usually three movements.
Those he wrote mostly for his
pupils.
And then the piano
concerto--Mozart wrote
twenty-three original piano
concertos--
the piano concerto,
which he wrote principally for
himself as a kind of showpiece
for public concerts.
And you will be watching in
section beginning this evening,
a wonderful video of the
performance of the great D Minor
Piano Concerto of Mozart.
 
Mozart's piano concertos are
much more difficult than his
sonatas.
 
He intended these piano
concertos for he himself--no,
for him himself?
 
I guess so, for him,
yeah--to play,
and he did so,
interestingly enough,
at this public hall that was
located in the casino in Vienna.
Here's a picture of that
casino, which today is actually
the--it's this building to the
right there, the tallest one.
It's a big building and it had
a big public space in it and
that's where he performed.
 
It still exists.
 
That building still exists.
 
It's the Ambassador Hotel in
downtown--in the Neuer Market
Platz there in Vienna.
 
Why did Mozart play in a casino?
 
I was driving down the highway
the other day and I saw a sign
up there: Usher at Mohegan Sun.
 
My wife thought this might be a
Poe play, you know.
But who is Usher?
 
A rap artist?
 
Do--he is a musician. Right?
 
No?
 
Who's Usher?
 
Come on, guys.
 
Student: An R&B
singer.
Prof: Okay.
 
Frederick, nice and loud,
please.
Student: An R&B
singer.
Prof: An R&B singer,
but he's playing the casinos
because that's where the money
is.
Okay?
 
That's where the money is.
 
That's where the crowd is;
that's where the money is.
And Mozart was doing this back
in the eighteenth century as
well.
 
The other venue that he
played--I think I've got a slide
of this;
Jacob, let's take a look at
this--is the local Court
Theater, the Burgtheater.
It wasn't that big.
 
It was about the size of our
own Sprague Hall here,
Morse Recital Hall inside of
Sprague Hall--seated about
eighteen--excuse me,
eight hundred people.
And for this Mozart would have
to hire the orchestra,
he would have to compose the
music,
he would have to print the
tickets,
he would have to sell the
tickets out of his own
apartment,
and he would have to transport
his own piano over to this hall
to provide the instrument for
him to play.
 
Let's take a look at this piano
of Mozart.
So here is a piano of Mozart.
 
It's a very small instrument,
as you can see.
Its compass is only five
octaves, F to F.
So it--and it has only one
string per key.
If you go up to the modern
grand and actually look at it,
you'll--you hit middle C.
 
There are actually three
strings up there that get struck
by that hammer,
but in Mozart's piano there'd
only be one.
 
It's much smaller in a number
of different ways.
Now let's take a listen to it.
 
Let's listen to a performance
on Mozart's piano.
And I emphasize here:
this is not a replica of a
piano that--of Mozart's day.
 
This is Mozart's own piano.
 
After he died it went to his
widow who gave it to the eldest
son and ultimately it came in--
back into Salzburg and is today
in the Wohnungshaus there in
Salzburg.
So this is the real piano and
we're going to hear a
performance of the famous Sonata
in C Major.
So let's listen to a little bit
of Mozart's own piano.
>
 
Let's stop it there.
 
Notice that Mozart's piano--
>
In that piece he was in the
dominant there at the end of the
first theme.
 
>
 
>
 
Now it was
>
>.
 
That's the pitch at which
Mozart's piano is tuned and
probably pretty close to what it
was tuned in his own day.
So he was writing it in the key
of G, which is here,
>
 
but it's--they--it sounding for
our ears <<plays
piano>>
 
there.
 
Is that higher or lower,
Mozart's--the tuning of
Mozart's instrument?
 
>
 
Here's what he wrote it for;
here's what it is sounding.
>
 
Higher or lower?
 
What do you think?
 
How many say higher?
 
Raise your right hand.
 
How many say lower?
 
Raise your left hand.
 
Interesting.
 
It's actually lower, yeah.
 
It's down a half a step and
that was typical.
I think we talked about that
before.
The tuning kind of floated
around up until really the
twentieth century when it
got--sort of got fixed that A
should be 440 vibrations per
second.
So that's Mozart's own piano.
 
What did you think about the
sound of it?
Any adjectives there?
 
Somebody tell me something
about the sound of Mozart's
piano.
 
Play the beginning again
if--are you still there on that
one?
 
Okay.
 
Give me two adjectives about
this sound.
>
 
Someone give me--shout out an
adjective.
Student: Shallow.
 
Prof: Sarah.
 
Student: Shallow.
 
Prof: Shallow.
 
Okay.
 
It doesn't have a lot of
resonance.
It does not--It's not a big,
rich sound.
So the sound dissipates very
quickly because there are not a
lot of resonators around that
instrument.
So we'll take shallow.
 
Give me another adjective.
 
Roger.
 
Student: Punchy.
 
Prof: Pungent.
 
Okay, kind of sharp--pungent
you said?
Student: Punchy.
 
Prof: Punchy.
 
Oh, I like that even better,
punchy.
Yes, and I put the word up
there "staccato"
as opposed to
"legato."
Mozart's piano does not lend
itself to legato lines,
these lines that are tied
together.
Think of your ligament. Right.
 
It's all etymologically related
to the word "ligare,"
I suppose.
 
So, legato: smooth, connected.
 
But that's not the sound that
we get in Mozart's piano.
We get this staccato,
as Roger says,
punchy sound so--and it's
because the hammers are actually
made of leather,
kind of hard leather,
rather than felt.
 
In the nineteenth century they
put felt on these hammers and it
kind of smooths it out a bit.
 
It makes it less punchy.
 
So those are a couple
characteristics of Mozart's
piano.
 
It tends to encourage fast,
staccato playing.
All right. In 1791 Mozart dies.
 
Beethoven had been originally
sent to Vienna to study with
Mozart, but then there were
family problems.
His mother died back in Bonn so
he had to go back and look after
the family.
 
Beethoven, like Mozart,
was a pianist,
but unfortunately for
Beethoven, his teacher was his
father,
a somewhat unscrupulous
individual who tried to pass off
the rather short Beethoven as
being two years younger than he
actually was.
Why would he want to do that?
 
Well, oftentimes you get
kids--the cut-off in
twelve-and-under soccer or USTA
tennis you are supposed to--
you can't be sixteen before
that particular date and people
will try to sneak over on the
other side of it.
Well, because in terms of the
music of Beethoven here,
the father wanted the son to be
the next Wunderkind,
right, the next child prodigy,
the next Mozart.
Why?
 
Because money was to be made in
that fashion.
The Mozart family had certainly
made enough of it that way.
But eventually Beethoven broke
free of this tyrannical
environment in Bonn and
established himself permanently
in Vienna.
 
Think about it.
 
Bonn is at the very west end of
the German-speaking lands;
Vienna is off toward the east
end of the German-speaking land.
So he went all the way to the
other side of it but Vienna,
of course, was the musical
capital of the world at that
particular point.
 
So here is what
Beethoven--young Beethoven
looked like when he arrived in
Vienna permanently about 1797.
Oh, forget it.
 
We'll--I forgot that slide but
it doesn't matter.
Let's look at Beethoven here.
 
Here is young Beethoven.
 
And here is middle-aged
Beethoven when he is writing
things such as the Eighth
Symphony that we heard at the JE
concert.
 
So we have Beethoven young,
Beethoven middle-aged and
Beethoven dead.
 
Okay?
 
That's Beethoven's death mask.
 
The only reason I mentioned
this is that it was drawn by
Joseph Dannhauser who also was
the artist who painted the cover
of your textbook.
 
We'll come back to that just a
little bit later.
So when
Beethoven--let's--that's too
ghoulish.
 
Let's go back to Beethoven
looking a little better there.
I like that better. Don't you?
 
So with that vision of
Beethoven on the screen,
let's make the point that when
he arrived in Vienna he
astonished the aristocracy by
the power of his playing--
the aggressive nature of it,
the physicality of it,
the virtuosity of it.
 
It was much more technical than
anything that Mozart had ever
created on the piano,
in part because gradually in
this period the piano itself was
getting bigger and more
powerful.
 
So here is--let's move on now
over dead Beethoven's body here,
and over to this piano,
which again comes from our own
collection of musical
instruments.
It's a Konige piano of about--I
think we know exactly--1799 and
it was made in Vienna two doors
down the street from where that
casino was.
 
That's where the Konige shop
was in Vienna.
So this is the kind of
instrument that Beethoven would
have played when he first
arrived in Vienna.
It's a little bit bigger.
 
It's got a few more keys added
to it.
Then in 1817 Beethoven--well,
let me--let's move to the next
slide.
 
I want to show this to you just
for a moment.
This--does this look like
something from the early
nineteenth century,
picture of Beethoven?
Actually not.
 
It was created in the 1920s,
not 1820s but 1920s.
It's a fanciful representation
of Beethoven and his musical
study there with papers all
around.
You see the ear trumpets on
either side;
he is growing deaf.
 
You see his bowl of coffee or
porridge or whatever on the
keyboard.
 
I'm interested here
particularly in the piano,
because what do we have back
there coming out of the piano?
A lot of broken strings,
okay, and that's important
because when he played he would
frequently break strings.
Here, let's move on to the next
slide.
It's also something of a
fanciful representation of
Beethoven's room with the idea
of the moonlight and the
"Moonlight Sonata"
behind it,
but it contains as a piano an
illustration of a Broadwood
piano.
 
In 1817, the maker,
Broadwood, gave Beethoven a
free instrument.
 
Why would somebody do that?
 
Aren't these pianos expensive?
 
Let's go on to--I think I have
a shot of another one.
This is not fanciful.
 
This is Beethoven's actual
instrument.
It is preserved today.
 
It was purchased after
Beethoven's death by Franz
Liszt,
the famous pianist,
and taken to--ultimately to
Budapest and you can go into--
I did this two summers ago--you
can go into the National Museum
there in Budapest,
and it's actually in Pest,
and see this particular
instrument.
So it still survives.
 
And as you can see,
it's getting bigger and more
powerful, but why would this
maker--English maker Broadwood
give Beethoven a free
instrument?
These are expensive.
 
What?
 
Nice and loud.
 
Student: Probably
>
Prof: Probably what?
 
Student:
>
Prof: Publicity,
yeah, a celebrity endorsement.
Right?
 
Why does Tiger Woods drive a
Buick?
Do you think he really wants to
drive a Buick?
Okay, but
>
nonetheless in TV commercials
he's seen driving a Buick--a
celebrity endorsement,
and we'll be talking a little
more about that.
 
So this is Beethoven's
Broadwood here,
1817 still existing today.
 
Let's listen to a little bit of
it.
We can make recordings.
 
Specialists are allowed to make
recordings on it.
So here is Beethoven
instrument, just a little bit
out of a piece of this period by
Beethoven.
>
 
Okay.
 
Maybe we'll pause it there.
 
So do you like that sound?
 
Would you like to have that
piano in your house?
Maybe; maybe not.
 
A lot of you are shaking your
heads.
It sounds slightly out of tune
to me, and I think maybe the
reason is that often with
Beethoven's piano there are two
strings per note.
 
It's really hard to get two
strings exactly in tune.
One string is what it is.
 
Three strings you get the kind
of homogenization of sound.
Two strings it's a bit more
difficult.
I think it's the same thing
with singers,
oddly, too.
 
When you're singing with two
people, it's a little more
difficult to tune up.
 
One or three it's not an issue.
 
So it does have this slightly
out-of-tune sound to it,
but nonetheless,
that is Beethoven's Broadwood
piano.
 
What did Beethoven write for
the piano?
Well, thirty-two piano sonatas
and five piano concertos,
the most famous of which,
and I put this on your--
remember I gave you the
"Essential Beethoven"
sheet a couple of weeks ago.
 
The most important of these
piano concertos is the so-called
"Emperor Concerto."
 
So we have the "Emperor
Quartet"
by Haydn, the "Emperor
Concerto"
by Beethoven.
 
So Beethoven wrote five piano
concertos, thirty-two piano
sonatas, and these piano sonatas
were not so much like Mozart's
teaching pieces.
 
These were virtuosic pieces for
Beethoven himself to play.
How well did he play them?
 
Well, you would think that he
would play them absolutely
superbly but
that--contemporaries commented
that his playing was kind of
messy.
Here's what one of them said:
"His playing is not clean.
He has much fire,
but he pounds a bit too much.
He overcomes diabolical
difficulties but he does not do
so neatly."
 
Maybe--possibly--why might
Beethoven have trouble as a
performer here in the- in early
1800s?
What was Beethoven's issue?
 
Caroline.
 
Student: He was going
deaf.
Prof: He was going deaf
so if he pounded a bit too much
perhaps it's understandable,
but here is the kind of sound
perhaps--
oh, lordy.
Here's the kind of sound that
the commenter might have had in
mind, Beethoven pounding.
 
>
 
And I'm exaggerating a little
bit to get across that idea.
Two points I guess:
one, what the piano could do
for you,
with these extreme dynamics,
and two,
perhaps Beethoven because of
his growing deafness was
pounding a bit too much.
After Beethoven,
pianos only continued to get
larger and more powerful.
 
Let's take a look at some of
these later instruments.
We're moving on now to a Graf
piano.
Graf was another maker who gave
Beethoven an instrument.
This comes--my own shot from
the collection of historical
musical instruments in Vienna
itself.
As time goes on here,
what we find is that in order--
as this instrument gets bigger
and we want a bigger soundboard,
that thing underneath--that's
the main resonator.
Okay?
 
We need a bigger soundboard
and, as this thing gets bigger
and we want to put more tension
on these strings to really
pound,
so we don't break them or they
don't come loose,
we need some kind of iron
support.
 
So first they started putting
pieces of iron and then
ultimately an entire frame,
a bed of iron,
cast iron, underneath that
thing for that soundboard to
rest in.
 
Then we need the--at the other
end we need a pin block and that
pin block has to be very secure
because that's where the pins
that anchor the strings are
going to be.
Most of the problems--if you
think you've got a deal on a
piano sometime,
check your pin block,
because you probably don't.
 
It probably has cracks in it
and then you go to tighten that
thing,
get your instrument tuned,
the next day it's back out of
tune because that pin block is
not holding.
 
So you have to have a very
secure pin block.
You have to have a big
resonator and in order for that
to be helpful on--you need the
cast iron frame underneath.
All of these things allow for a
bigger, more powerful instrument
to be put into place.
 
So this is a Graf,
as I say, from the collection
in Vienna.
 
The range of the instrument is
getting bigger;
the sound of the instrument is
getting bigger.
Let's go on to the next slide
here.
Here is young Franz Schubert
about your age,
young Franz Schubert writing
the kinds of pieces that we used
in the review section for
example,
and here is the piano that he
was playing,
also a Graf instrument in the
Schubert Museum there in Vienna.
The Graf instrument was also
given not only to Schubert and
to Beethoven but also to Franz
Liszt.
Let's take a look at this,
another Graf.
Let's move on to this.
 
This, of course, is what?
 
Where have you seen this before?
 
Cover of the textbook.
 
What is this?
 
This is a marketing tool.
 
Did these people that included
Georges Sand,
Alexander Dumas père,
Victor Hugo,
Rossini, Paganini--did they
ever come together and pose for
this?
 
No.
 
They were in completely
different cities.
This is a marketing--I was
looking at a Brooks Brothers
thing that seemed to be shot in
Princeton,
but if you look carefully it
had all of these brown leaves on
the thing and the people had
been patched in there and the
trees around the thing they were
all in bloom.
This is a hodgepodge.
 
Well, this is a hodgepodge too,
but it's kind of an interesting
one because it tells us a little
bit about what the nineteenth
century thought of Beethoven.
 
Let's go to this last slide
here.
So here's Franz Liszt,
the famous Franz Liszt,
playing the piano.
 
He has the historian Marie
d'Agoult;
his paramour at his knees there
in a typical nineteenth-century
supplicatory position for women.
 
And up at the top,
who do we have?
The bust of Beethoven at an
Olympian height looking down
over the proceedings,
blessing Liszt and most
importantly, blessing the Graf
piano.
Well, Liszt did play a Graf
piano.
Let's listen to--and we're
going to have a slide here of
Franz Liszt.
 
Let's go on to the next slide.
 
Oh, no.
 
Well, there's one other
composer I should mention that's
a wonderful composer.
 
I don't have time to do
anything really with him in this
course, but he's one of my
favorite, Fredric Chopin.
Here's Chopin playing a Pleyel
piano.
And we have over with our
collection a Pleyel right--not
his piano but right from the
period that he was playing.
And let's go on now.
 
It should be the portrait of--I
got them out of order.
All right.
 
Let's go on to the portrait of
Liszt here, portrait of Liszt.
Here is Franz Liszt.
 
And let's go back one now and
here is an Erard piano that
Liszt played.
 
He actually--it's actually in
the collection of Buckingham
Palace,
but when Liszt went there and
played for the queen--
for Queen Victoria he played on
this particular Erard
instrument.
So it looks very much like a
modern instrument.
Let's hear just a little bit of
Liszt's music.
You have it as CD four,
track one.
It's a "Transcendental
Etude," a sort of hugely
difficult technical study by
Franz Liszt.
Let's listen to just a bit of
Liszt playing.
>
 
Okay. We'll stop it there.
 
So this is called a study.
 
There's some irony here.
 
It's called a study in
order--you play this piece and
you get better.
 
Okay?
 
Now how good would you have to
be to begin with to play this
piece?
 
Holy schmoly.
 
This is really difficult
technically.
Dan, have you ever played a
Liszt transcendental etude?
Oh, he has.
 
Well, we should have gotten him
to play a Liszt transcendental
etude.
 
It's kind of the top of the
line.
My guess is that in Liszt's day
there probably were six or seven
people in all of Europe that
could actually play these
studies that were designed to
get you to be a more proficient
pianist.
 
We were kind of out of the game
before the game even began in an
odd way.
 
So this is Liszt's Erard piano.
 
I want to show just a couple
more slides and then we'll
introduce our guest.
 
And we've seen the portrait of
Liszt.
I was struck when--at the Liszt
Museum in Budapest that when you
walk in there and you see that
Liszt played in his home--and
there it is.
 
It's a big instrument with two
pedals down there.
It's a Chickering instrument
and you know where that
instrument was made?
 
In Boston.
 
So Boston was a major--and New
York also here in the
1860s-1870s a major
manufacturing center ,
and they shipped one all the
way to Budapest for Liszt to
play.
 
And a fine, fine piano indeed.
 
A couple more and then we're
going to stop.
And of course when Liszt died
they were particularly--
not so much interested in doing
a death mask of his face but one
of his hand,
because he was thought to have
a very unusual sort of webbing
between his fingers that allowed
him to stretch in ways that
other pianists couldn't.
A few more and then,
as I say, we'll stop.
This is an interesting piano.
 
Liszt's son-in-law was Richard
Wagner.
You can read about--all about
this in the textbook.
Liszt's son-in-law was Richard
Wagner and Wagner composed at
the piano.
 
Mozart generally didn't,
but Wagner did,
and this is the instrument that
was involved at the end portion
of the composing of his opera
Tristan.
And we heard parts of
Tristan.
Right?
 
We heard the Liebestod
out of Tristan so it may
have been on this very
instrument that Wagner composed
part of that music.
 
Where is this instrument today?
 
Right down the street.
 
It's in that same collection of
historical musical instruments.
This is what we call the Wagner
piano over there on Hillhouse
Avenue.
 
So pop in someday to 17
Hillhouse Avenue.
Go up to the second floor and
you can see all these historic
instruments.
 
It's the greatest collection of
keyboard instruments in the
entire Western hemisphere,
right here, and it's virtually
unknown.
 
So that's Wagner's piano.
 
What's of interest is see how
those lines are going straight
out to the back.
 
They're simply braces helping
the soundboard there,
and the strings are running at
right angles to the line of the
keyboard.
 
But things didn't stay that
way, interestingly enough,
because as time went on,
there was a German
manufacturer--
this is actually a
Bechstein--there was another
German manufacturer,
however, with the name of
Steinweg who immigrated to the
United States and set up in New
York City,
and of course that Steinweg
became what?
Steinway.
 
Steinway piano manufacturers of
New York City.
And they instituted a couple of
changes.
But most importantly they
instituted this idea of
cross-stringing where instead of
having the bass strings run out
in a straight line they took
them and run them up over.
And next time you're at a grand
piano--maybe come up afterwards
today--to look at the bass
strings.
They run up over the other
strings.
What this gives is a much more
homogenous kind of sound.
It's a much more homophonic
instrument.
Ironically, the Wagner piano,
when you play it,
is very clear.
 
You don't get this kind of wash
of sounds, because the strings
are, as you can see,
a little bit more separated.
And here--this may be our last
slide--is what we end up with at
the piano, a sort of gilded
Steinway from the gilded age.
This is actually up in the
Clark Museum in Williamstown,
Massachusetts,
but it is a Steinway piano,
and you can see on it three
pedals and this is my last
point.
 
Initially, all the panels up
into the Steinway there you saw
just two pedals underneath,
and these are the two we're
going to talk about today.
 
The right-most pedal is called
the sustaining pedal.
>
 
Play that and the sound goes
away because there are dampers.
There are pieces of felt up on
top of the string,
>
 
but I can lift all those pieces
of felt, those dampers,
just by pushing that pedal
down, and then I get
>
 
so the dampers are now up.
 
So we call this the sustaining
pedal or the damper pedal,
sustaining pedal more often.
 
>
 
And the other one is the one
all the way to the left.
You can--what's happening here?
 
A.J., look at the keyboard here
if you will.
What's happening?
 
Can you see what's happening to
the keyboard as I push that left
pedal?
 
Chris, Daniel.
 
Student:
>
Prof: Yeah,
it's wiggling.
It's going this way.
 
What's happening is these
groups--units of three strings
are all sliding so that when you
hit the- <<plays
piano>>
 
that way you're--now instead of
hitting three strings
>
 
you're hitting only two strings.
 
It makes the sound softer by
shifting the whole keyboard and
hammer mechanism so only two
strings are engaged instead of
three and that makes the sound a
lot more quiet.
All right.
 
That does it for the specifics
of today.
Let's introduce our guest.
 
So Dan, come on up, please.
 
Daniel Schlossberg Jr.,
Yale College.
What college?
 
Is it Pierson, Daniel?
 
Yeah, he's in Pierson.
 
How many of you know Daniel?
 
Daniel Schlossberg:
Branford.
Prof: Branford.
 
Oh, sorry.
 
I'm sorry.
 
That's right.
 
I guess that was in Branford.
 
I heard a recital of him in
Branford.
So Dan is a junior now.
 
He's a music major.
 
I--right? You're a music major.
 
Any double majors or anything
like that?
You just--no.
 
Okay.
 
Sometimes, you know--Kensho's
out there doing microbiology and
music, but Dan is also a
composer.
Right?
 
Dan does a lot of composing so
he's really into music in a
serious--do you do any
conducting, Dan?
Daniel Schlossberg:
A little bit.
Prof: A little bit of
conducting,
and maybe at the end of the
semester it'd be fun when we get
to modern music to have--
do a piece by Dan,
bring in a piece by Dan and we
could have him come back as
guest composer.
 
So how long have you been
playing piano?
Daniel Schlossberg:
First grade
>
 
Prof: All right. Okay.
 
First grade,
six, seven, something like
that.
 
Are your parents musical?
 
Daniel Schlossberg:
Not at all.
Prof: Not at all.
 
Daniel Schlossberg:
No.
I mean, they play guitar and
piano >
Prof: Well,
that's kind of musical.
Right, but they're--so they're
not professional musicians.
And any relatives in music at
all?
Daniel Schlossberg:
No.
Not really.
 
Prof: Not really.
 
So--and I hate to embarrass
people, but this is something
that fascinates me--your ear.
 
I--it's--I always think
you--it's--you got to have a
really good ear to be able to do
what you do.
How good is your ear?
 
Daniel Schlossberg:
Well, in terms of what?
Perfect pitch or absolute
pitch?
Prof: Presumably you
don't have absolute pitch.
Daniel Schlossberg:
No.
I don't have absolute pitch but
I'm pretty close and sometimes I
can identify notes--
Prof: Okay.
So if we played something for
you and told you what the first
note is, you would get the notes
thereafter.
Daniel Schlossberg:
Actually,
I think if you just played a
note I could also identify
it--on the piano,
definitely.
Prof: Oh,
really.
How interesting.
 
So you do have absolute pitch
for--and I think this is
true--that some brains are wired
for absolute pitch with
particular instruments.
 
I get pretty close on the
trumpet because when I was in
the fourth grade I had to play
in a band kind of thing,
play the trumpet.
 
So if at a young age you get
locked into some instruments,
those particular pitches can
stick with you.
That's interesting.
 
So almost absolute pitch here.
 
So that's one thing I wanted to
ask you about.
Because if you have a sense of
pitch and if you hear--
if you know that in playing a
piece if I go out there--
what happens when somebody
plays a piece of music?
Lots of things are going on.
 
Why do I, Craig,
have memory lapses,
when Dan probably doesn't have
memory lapses?
Because he probably has a
better ear,
he can remember this more,
he can stream it out there,
and he knows--he hears that
inside of his head
>
 
and he knows,
"oh, that's probably an A
and if I want that sound I know
to go to that particular
spot."
 
I'm not sure what the sound is
in my head and I sure don't know
quickly,
instantaneously,
where that thing is,
and this stuff is going by
blazingly fast so your mind's
got to be wired for it to begin
with.
 
I think it--it's a huge benefit
to have a really good ear even
if you are a pianist.
 
Another question:
Do you ever get nervous when
you play, Dan?
 
Daniel Schlossberg:
Yes.
All the time.
 
Prof: All the time.
 
Well, think about that,
nerves and performers.
Jacob, do you ever get nervous
when you play?
Student: Absolutely.
 
Prof: Do you take drugs,
Jacob, >
>
 
recreationally,
pharmacologically?
>
 
Actually, musicians--has
anybody ever heard of this?
Musicians do take drugs for
this, beta-blockers to kind of
relax them,
to lower their heart rate,
French horn players--
I have a friend who is a
professional French horn
player--
just to kind of get you to
settle a little bit,
because if you play these
instruments,
and it's just a question of a
fraction of an inch and you're
like this,
my God, a string player,
it's a catastrophe,
and then things start going
downhill.
 
>
 
So these are the kinds of mind
games I think that performers
have to engage.
 
So do you take lessons here,
Dan, at the School of Music?
Are you studying with anybody
there?
Dan Schlossberg:
With Wei-Yi Yang.
Prof: Okay.
 
He is one of the artist
teachers over at the School of
Music.
 
Do you get any time to
practice?
This is a busy place.
 
Dan Schlossberg: Hardly.
 
Prof: Hardly--no time to
practice.
That's the great dilemma for
Yale--really good performers at
Yale.
 
There's just no time to
practice.
What do you want to do-- what
do you think you want to do with
this music business?
 
Dan Schlossberg:
I would love to play,
compose, conduct if possible,
everything--
Prof: Mm-hm.
 
So how are you going to connect
the dots?
How are you going to get from
Dan here, point A,
to Dan here ten years from now?
 
How do you plan to do that?
 
Dan Schlossberg:
I don't know.
Grad school--
Prof: Probably grad
school.
 
Yeah, you got to--for better or
for worse you got to get the
diploma, the certificate that
says I can do this.
Well, if you don't--it may or
may not make you any better
>
 
but you sort of have to get it
to get the--it may make you
worse.
 
I don't know.
 
You sort of have to get it to
get the gig.
Okay.
 
So let's talk about--let's talk
a little bit about this
Beethoven sonata we've got here.
 
It's an interesting piece,
because it's so short,
in a way--
Dan Schlossberg:
Ten minutes,
the whole piece.
Prof: Uh-huh. Okay.
 
So ten minutes and it--when you
went to the-- How many of you
went to the JE makeup concert?
 
Okay.
 
Remember that Eighth Symphony
and how quickly that went
through sonata-allegro form?
 
There was a period with
Beethoven about 1810 or so when
he started writing very small
things again after the Fifth and
Sixth symphonies and then he
sort of pulled back and wrote
kind of almost neo-classical
things and then at the end of
his life really expanded out
into the realm of the cosmos.
So this is a kind of pulling
back here.
What's hard in this piece, Dan?
 
What--
Dan Schlossberg:
It's so condensed that you
really have to invest everything
in each note.
 
With some Beethoven,
it's so long that you have to
think a lot more in terms of a
broader scale but in this case
there's a prelude and the
musical idea is so condensed
that you really have to focus
hard and make appropriate
contrasts quickly,
etc.
Prof: Okay.
 
Technically,
is this the most difficult
piece that you have ever played
from the sheer--
Dan Schlossberg:
>
Prof: Okay.
 
>
 
Yeah, well, we have another one.
 
In other words,
this is not a dazzler.
We've saved a bit of a dazzler
for the end of this 'cause I did
want to show you how well this
young man plays.
So let's just listen to the
Beethoven then.
Do you want to do--I beg your
pardon.
Dan Schlossberg:
>
Prof: Yeah.
 
Let's not do it.
 
We're going to let the cat out
of the bag here.
He's not going to repeat the
exposition--
Dan Schlossberg:
And also in this case the
development is--
Prof: Right.
Actually, if you look at the
score Beethoven wanted the
development and the recap also
repeated,
but I think in order to get the
next more technically demanding
piece in we're just going--
Dan is kind enough to do it
just without repeats.
 
I don't mean to upstage you
here, but I'm just going to--we
have to sort of teach as we do
this.
It can't just be a concert so
I'm just going to discreetly
point where we are in the form.
 
>
 
>
 
Okay, a wonderful piece.
 
Again Beethoven's sort of
pulling in just a bit there,
and a wonderful performance.
 
I think we have time now for
the second piece,
which is by the composer
Scarlatti.
In the Baroque period,
Handel, Bach,
Scarlatti were all composing in
the same period,
all born in 1685.
 
This piece is a sonata by
Scarlatti.
It's in one movement.
 
It goes by rather quickly.
 
Shall we take--maybe we should
skip repeats here too,
if that's okay.
 
So it has a binary form.
 
We have an A section and then a
B section and then both of those
binaries are going to come back
again.
I'll sort of--no,
I won't do that.
It's just in the way,
but the A section has lots of
this kind of Spanish quick sound
and the B section you'll hear a
rising sequence coming up out of
the bass.
>
 
Bravo.
 
>
 
Great. Thank you very much.
 
Wonderful. Thank you.
 
Okay. That's it for today.
 
See you in section starting
tonight.
>
 
 
 
