[CAUT] sostenuto history - Montal

[Dan Reed]

Thanks Fred...

What is the title of the book by Montal?


Dan

Dallas, Tx..102 in the shade

On Jul 28, 2008, at 2:58 PM, Fred Sturm wrote:

> 	For any interested, I got a copy of Claude Montal's book (an early 
> predecessor of Braid White's Piano Tuning and Allied Arts, one might 
> say, perhaps the first attempt to lay out the practical principles of 
> piano tuning and repair), and it was published in 1836 (not 1856 as 
> reported in my last post), and says nothing about a sostenuto pedal. 
> Further research at Groves on-line (a major music encyclopedia) 
> reveals that Montal exhibited a sostenuto system in 1862 in London. 
> And the same article names three others who had supposedly come up 
> with devices along the same lines prior to Montal. So there you have 
> it, the inception of the sostenuto pedal, which probably would have 
> disappeared along with the bassoon and sourdine pedals and the like 
> had it not been for Steinway adopting it. FWIW.
> 	Montal's book is fascinating. He was writing before the time of the 
> double escapement, when the single escapement was what you found on 
> better pianos, and yet what he has to say seems so familiar in so many 
> ways. The profession has come a long way, but remains to a large 
> degree precisely the same as it was 150 years ago.
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> University of New Mexico
> fssturm at unm.edu
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