Musicon / Bach / Musical education / Spinet, Virginal and Harpsichord
The spinet, virginal, and harpsichord were quilled instruments, the tone of which was produced by snapping the strings by means of plectra made of quill, or some other flexible substance, set in the upper end of a bit of wood called the jack, which rested on the farther end of the key and moved ::More
Musicon / Bach / Musical education / Clavichord and the Art of Bach
The clavichord was generally the medium for the composer’s private communings with his muse, because of its superiority over its fellows in expressive power; but it gave forth only a tiny tinkle and was incapable of stirring effects beyond those which sprang from pure emotionality. The ::More
Musicon / Musical education / Piano – The tone formation and production
In the intricacy of its mechanism the piano stands next to the organ. The farther removed from direct utterance we are the more difficult is it to speak the true language of music. The violin player and the singer, and in a less degree the performers upon some of the wind instruments, are obliged ::More
Musicon / Musical education / Piano: A lack of sustaining power
Despite all the skill, learning, and ingenuity which have been spent on its perfection, the piano can be made only feebly to approximate that sustained style of musical utterance which is the soul of melody, and finds its loftiest exemplification in singing. To give out a melody perfectly, ::More
Musicon / Gluck / Musical education / Gluck and Vestris
The other operatic excerpts common to concerts of both classes are either between-acts music, fantasias on operatic airs, or, in the case of Wagner’s contributions, portions of his dramas which are so predominantly instrumental that it has been found feasible to incorporate the vocal part ::More
