The History of the Erard Piano and Harp in Letters and Documents, 1785–1959

Sébastien Erard and the firm that carried his name are seminal in the history of musical instruments. Erard's inventions - especially the double escapement for the piano and the double-action for the harp - have had an enormous impact on instruments and musical life and are still at the foundation of piano and harp building today. The recently discovered archives of the Erard piano and harp building firm are perhaps the largest and most complete record of musical instrument making anywhere, containing never-before-published correspondence from musicians including Mendelssohn, Liszt and Fauré. These volumes present the archive's records and documents in two parts, the first relating to inventions, business, composers and performers and the second to the Erard family correspondence. In both the original French and with English translations, the documents offer fascinating insights into the musical landscape of Europe from the start of Erard's career in 1785 to the closure of the firm in 1959.

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'This new publication … brings together in a compact form and in an attractive layout a substantial amount of the extant Erard archives. … a significant contribution to musicological and organological literature and will certainly become a necessary reference source not only for those interested in the history of the piano and harp, but also in musical instrument manufacture and musical life in general from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries.' Panagiotis Poulopoulos, Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society

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Product details

• Date Published: October 2015
• format: Adobe eBook Reader
• isbn: 9781316407653

• contains: 40 b/w illus.
• availability: This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.