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!
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NEW 'The First Piano in England' was claimed by Charles Burney to have been made in Rome and imported by his friend Samuel Crisp. But according to his contemporary William Jackson of Exeter, priority should be given to a different piano that he saw in Great Ormond Street, at the home of 'Mr. Jennings'. To read more, click this link first piano.html or the yellow text in the right hand column.
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 almost 5000 times from the Taylor & Francis academic website. Naturally, we are pleased that the stories of Plenius, Neubauer and Vietor, who each made 'pianos' or related instruments before 1766, are now more widely known. Access to this paper is free of charge: so if the advent of the piano is of interest, the information is there for you.
Latest revision: 27 November 2023