New instrument, old sound
Fortepiano allows students to hear music as composers did
A humidifier perched on a stool emits a steady cloud of steam in music Professor Janice Wenger’s cramped office and studio, which holds two grand pianos and another smaller, historic instrument called a fortepiano. Fortepianos are highly sensitive to humidity.
A grandparent to the modern piano, the fortepiano was invented around 1700. It has five and a half octaves and 68 keys, as opposed to the modern piano’s seven and a half octaves and 88 keys. The one in Wenger’s office came to Mizzou in November 2006 to be a teaching and performance tool. With it, students and faculty can hear the music of Mozart, Beethoven and others just as the composers heard it.
The significance of a period instrument
In the 20th century, performance practice, a subdiscipline of music history, developed. Scholars look at letters, notebooks, comments from students, scores and notations on the pages — all in an attempt to understand how composers might have heard their music or what they had in mind for its performance.
“The only way to hear what sounds they heard is to have either a restored or a reproduction instrument," Wenger says. "This is the instrument that Mozart, Hayden, Beethoven and their contemporaries had. It doesn’t mean we can’t play that music on the modern piano, but hopefully it will show us some of the things that the old instrument was capable of that the modern piano should achieve.”
The fortepiano does require a bit of getting used to for modern pianists.
“You’re quite disoriented. You probably have some music in your fingers, but it takes a while to get to know," Wenger says. "The keys are shorter in the long dimension. The touch — the key goes down one-third as far. If you would think of it as a piece of lab equipment, you’ve got to do your experiments for a while as a professor to know how to help your students.”
The fortepiano, smaller than its successor, the piano, has 68 keys and a wooden frame. The strings are struck by hammers. Photos by James Yates.
How the fortepiano came to Mizzou
Wenger first proposed purchase of an instrument to Melvin Platt, director of the MU School of Music. She took development leave to research the period, type and sound of the instrument to purchase for Mizzou, and she traveled to other schools in the U.S. and to the Czech Republic.
The School of Music purchased an exact reproduction of an 1802 fortepiano. The School of Music, the College of Arts and Science and the Office of Research funded the piano’s purchase.
Paul McNulty built the reproduction. He was able to take apart an original Anton Walter fortepiano, then carefully measure and study each piece. An American, McNulty lives in the Czech Republic to be closer to authentic wood sources for his custom-built instruments.
“He has an ear for making the sound … he fiddles with every one he makes until it makes a truly spectacular sound,” Wenger says.
It looks good and sounds better
Because the fortepiano is smaller and has fewer octaves than the piano, Wenger says sometimes people are misled.
“They expect it to be such a Schroeder toy piano, but when you play the music on it that composers wrote for an instrument like that, the music just comes to life,” Wenger says.
The cabinet — ornate, hand-crafted and complete with gilt embellishments on the legs — has a striking appearance.
“People who walk up to it see the cabinet, and I say it’s nothing compared to the sound," Wenger says. "Can you tell I love it?”