Since the 'Piano' was made by Cristofory in 1709, it has been an influential keyboard instrument in the history of Western music. The emergence of a piano pave the way for the disappearance of the Harpsichord and the Clavichord, which had kept firm st...
Since the 'Piano' was made by Cristofory in 1709, it has been an influential keyboard instrument in the history of Western music. The emergence of a piano pave the way for the disappearance of the Harpsichord and the Clavichord, which had kept firm stance among keyboard instruments. The shortcomings of the Harpsichord and the Clavichord, along with the Echiquier, had not been redressed, especially they did not meet the ideal of music in the era of the classicism. The emergence of the piano, which had rectified the shortcomings strongly influenced the music in the eras of the classicism and the romanticism. A touch of keyboard of the piano has created various rhythm and tempos by changing a stress and a range of sound. Accordingly the piano had been played in many Royal Courts and salons and furthermore has been employed in concerted musics, accompaniment, and musical composition.
To examine the styles of the musical performances in the periods of classicism and romanticism through Mozart's and Liszt's piano musics, this paper developes the process of progress of the Echiquier, the Harpsichord, and the Clavichord, which was the predecessor of the piano and explains Mozart's and Liszt's piano musics. Also it could be known that a instrument-developing process and the purpose of piano musics in the periods of Mozart and Liszt had an strong influence on the styles of performance of piano musics.
The piano in the period of Mozart was between the Harpsichord and a modern piano, which employed the pedal and 5 octaves. Unlike the era of the romanticism, in the times of classicism performers placed an emphasis on the thoroughly-analyzed objectivity of musics rather than intentionally changed musics. The piano in the times of Liszt was similar to a modern piano and had been improved in a dramatic way. The Vienna piano in the 19th century employed 6-6.5 octaves compared to 5 octaves in the period of Mozart. Furthermore, the invention of double escapement by Piere Erard made the play and composition of Etudes d'execution pranscendante possible. However the late 19th century was the times of the completion and distribution of the piano that played 7 octaves.
In the period of romanticism, unlike the times of classicism that seeked the objectivity, subjectivity had been highly regarded, and the future life, fantasy, and desire were main materials for musics, which invited various piano musics. Especially, Liszt had been regarded as 'virtuoso' of piano and this was possible because of improved instruments and the change of musical ideal. Piano has been thought of as the most dramatical instrument and it also met the ideal of music in the period of the romanticism. The popularization of the piano made the separation between composers and performers possible and this created many virtuosos of music. From the above examples it can be said that the development of instruments and circumstances of times strongly influenced the styles of performance and musics.
In conclusion, if the modern piano had been employed in the times of Mozart, Mozart's musics that we are currently enjoyoing would have been different. However it will be wrong to say that Mozart's musics are simple and fall behind Liszt's. At this moment that we are playing more developed piano, I do hope that my paper will help you understand the musics in the periods of the classicism and the romanticism and pave the way for better performance.