A History of Stringed Keyboard Instruments

The first comprehensive technical and historical study of stringed keyboard instruments from their fourteenth-century origins to modern times.

Stewart Pollens (Author)

9781108421997, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 April 2022

592 pages
26 x 18.3 x 3.2 cm, 1.4 kg

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.

1. Origins of keyboard instruments
2. Principles of design and construction
3. The Henri Arnaut manuscript
4. The renaissance
5. The Baroque period
6. Invention of the piano
7. The classical period
8. The romantic era
9. Stagnation and revival
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Keyboard instruments [AVRG], Musical instruments & instrumental ensembles [AVR], Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH]