Lecture 18. Piano Music of Mozart and Beethoven

Listening to Music (MUSI 112)

This lecture addresses the history of the modern piano and its music. Undertaking a detailed discussion of the different forms of the piano from the early eighteenth through twentieth centuries, Professor Wright also shows how the instrument evolved through a variety of photographs and paintings. He further supplements the lecture by playing recordings that were made on the pianos actually owned by such composers as Mozart and Beethoven. The lecture ends with a guest piano performance by Yale undergraduate Daniel Schlossberg, Jr.

00:00 - Chapter 1. The History of the Piano -- The Harpsichord
02:25 - Chapter 2. Mozart's Exploration of the Pianoforte
13:31 - Chapter 3. Beethoven's Music for his Broadwood Piano
23:43 - Chapter 4. Increasing Range and Power -- The Graf Piano, Liszt, and Wagner
35:30 - Chapter 5. Guest Piano Performance by Daniel Scholssberg, Jr.

Complete course materials are available at the Yale Online website: online.yale.edu


This course was recorded in Fall 2008.