Liegende harfe (lying harp piano)
ALTERNATE NAME(S)
- Pantalon
- Tafelklavier
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: 89mmProvenancePurchased in 1989 from Bernhard von Hünerbein, Cologne, Germany.Published ReferencesBenoit, Adele. "In Search of Mozart: A History and Analysis of the Pianos He Knew and Wrote for." M.M. thesis, University of South Dakota, 2026: 26-27.
Clinkscale, Martha Novak. _Makers of the Piano 1700-1820_. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993: 250.
Kelly, Rodger S. _A Catalog of European Pianos in The Shrine to Music Museum_. M.M.Thesis, University of South Dakota: 1991: 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: 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 XXVII (2001): 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, 2006:19-33, specifically p. 21.
Kuronen, Darcy. "Keyboard Instruments at The Shrine to Music Museum." Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter VI, no. 1 (October 1991):10.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1989
Object number04570
On View
Not on view
