Liegende harfe (lying harp piano)
Alternate name(s)
- Tafelklavier
- Pantalon
Maker
Gottfried Maucher
Date1797
Place MadeKonstanz, Germany, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedUnsigned, however, signed by a repairer/tuner/technician?: label on extreme right hand side, handwritten: Gottifried (?) Maucher / Konstanz 1797MarkingsGottlieb Maucher, Konstanz, 1797 (technician's label)
DescriptionThe shape of this piano resembles a small harp laid sideways with its curved neck at the right. Popular in German-speaking regions, these pianos were often called "pantalons," the name referring to Pantaleon Hebenstreit who made large concert dulcimers about the time that Cristofori was developing his "gravicembalo col piano, e forte.” Harp-shaped pianos, such this one, have no pedals or dampers. A knob on the left hand side of the keyboard controls a leather moderator; another hand stop on the right side controls a lever which allows a portion of the lid (missing) to be closed or opened.
Compass: FF-f3 (five octaves)
Action: Stossmechanik with hammers facing towards the player.
Walnut case.
Keys made of lime wood. Naturals covered with ebony, fronts with blue-stained paper. Accidentals of fruitwood (?) covered in bone and ivory.
Stringing: bichord throughout.
DimensionsLength: 1255mm
Width at widest point: 467mm
Width at bass end: 333mm
Height of case: 196mm
Keyboard:
Three-octave measure: 456mm
Length of heads: 37mm
Width of heads: 20mm
String lengths, striking points:
FF: 1042mm
C: 929mm
c: 710mm
c1: 487mm, 33mm
c2: 280mm
c3: 125mm
f3: 89mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1989 from Bernhard von Hünerbein, Cologne, Germany.
Published ReferencesClinkscale, Martha Novak. Makers of the Piano 1700-1820 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 250.
Kelly, Rodger S. A Catalog of European Pianos in The Shrine to Music Museum, M.M.Thesis (University of South Dakota: 1991), pp. 60-66.
Klaus, Sabine K. "Der Instrumentenmacher Johann Matthäus Schmahl (1734-1793) im Spiegel der Ulmischen Intelligenzblatter," Zeitschrift fur Organologie, Vol. 1 (Nürnberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 1998), pp. 73, 75, and 80.
-------. "German Square and Harp-Shaped Pianos with Stoámechanik in American Collections: Distinguishing Characteristics of Regional Types in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries," Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, Vol. XXVII (2001), pp. 128-134.
-------. “Forschungsgegenstand Tafelklavier – Problemstellungen, L"sungsversuche und Konsequenzen,” in Geschichte und Bauweise des Tafelklaviers (23. Musikinstrumentenbau-Symposium, October 2002; Michaelsteiner Konferenzberichte 68), ed. by Boje E. Hans Schmuhl and Monika Lustig (Augsburg: Wiáner-Verlag, and Michaelstein: Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein – Musikinstitut für Aufführungspraxis, 2006), pp. 19-33, specifically p. 21.
Kuronen, Darcy. "Keyboard Instruments at The Shrine to Music Museum," Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter, Vol. VI, No. 1 (October 1991), p. 10.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1989
Object number04570
On View
On view
