ALEKSANDER BLAHODIR, ADAM FALIMIRSKI: THE PIANO ITS HISTORY AND CONSTRUCTION IN OUTLINE [1928].

Description

This is a valuable publication on instrumentology and music history, published in 1928 in Lviv by the publishing house “Wiedza Muzyczna”. The authors – Alexander Blahodir and Adam Falimirski – were outstanding experts in piano construction, associated with the Lviv music community and the piano industry.

The book provides a systematic introduction to the history and construction of the piano, an instrument that enjoyed its golden age in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The authors discuss the evolution of the piano mechanism from the clavichord and harpsichord to their contemporaries, analyze the construction (strings, frame, hammer mechanism, resonance box) and introduce profiles of the most important piano builders, such as Bartolomeo Cristofori, Ignaz Pleyel, Sébastien Érard and Polish designers. The whole is enriched by drawings in the text, illustrating the mechanisms and design elements discussed.

The publication, is an extremely valuable source of knowledge for pianists, instrument builders, music historians and collectors. Published in the interwar period – when Lviv was an important center of Polish musical life – the book is also a testament to the highly developed Polish musicological thought of the time.