Field Nocturne No.6
SQUARE PIANOS
Welcome to the website of Michael Cole, instrument maker & author
Here you will find reliable information about historic keyboard instruments, their music, and related topics. (This site is scanned and archived by the British Library.) No pop-ups. No adverts. No data collection!
Michael's BLOG is here. It can also be accessed from other pages by hovering on HOME.
The First Piano in England was claimed by Charles Burney to have been made in Rome, and brought to London by his friend Samuel Crisp. But according to a contemporary, William Jackson of Exeter, 'the first piano in England' was the one he saw at the home of 'Mr. Jennings' in Great Ormond Street. To read more, click this link first piano.html.
Pioneer Pianomakers in London (a paper jointly written by Michael Cole and Margaret Debenham) for the Royal Musical Association continues to be noticed: It has been read and/or downloaded more than 5600 times from the Taylor & Francis academic website. Naturally, we are pleased that the stories of Plenius, Neubauer and Vietor, who each made 'pianos' before 1765, are now more widely known. The publishers, Routledge, allow access to this paper free of charge for which we are grateful. So if the advent of the piano is of interest, the information is there for you.
Margaret Debenham's informative paper on Joseph Merlin, again on the Taylor & Francis site, has had over 4800 views.
Latest revision: 14 April 2025