The opening chord of the Pathétique is a simple C minor chord in forte: Why should that have broken earlier pianos? It's dramatic, but not particularly loud to play (as many students must learn). I can see several things in the Pathétique that would have been difficult to impossible to pull of on earlier pianos: Like the sforzandos mentioned in the text, or indeed the "fp" dynamics starting with the very first chord. "Not breaking the piano" though...?
Wow, wow. This essay is so powerful, so well written and so thought-provoking. I've been mulling it for days and passing it along to my piano loving friends. The 1790's technological revolution in Pianos and your story of Mr. Beethoven's response...then a segue to now and an invitation for your readers to connect the dots.
Terrific piece, Dean. Thought-provoking and quite apropos of all the end-of-year appraisals-->New Year tidings we all tend to mull over this time of year.
This is the least important point in the story but that's great that M1 Air served you well for so long. I'm sure that, I'm guessing M4 Air/Pro will as well though : ))
The m1 air is a goat laptop (and fwiw I replaced it with an m4 MacBook Pro, maxed out ram, nano texture display, but base chip since I wanted the extra battery life)
The opening chord of the Pathétique is a simple C minor chord in forte: Why should that have broken earlier pianos? It's dramatic, but not particularly loud to play (as many students must learn). I can see several things in the Pathétique that would have been difficult to impossible to pull of on earlier pianos: Like the sforzandos mentioned in the text, or indeed the "fp" dynamics starting with the very first chord. "Not breaking the piano" though...?
Maybe! I think it depends on the fortepiano.
Wow, wow. This essay is so powerful, so well written and so thought-provoking. I've been mulling it for days and passing it along to my piano loving friends. The 1790's technological revolution in Pianos and your story of Mr. Beethoven's response...then a segue to now and an invitation for your readers to connect the dots.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I had fun writing it.
Terrific piece, Dean. Thought-provoking and quite apropos of all the end-of-year appraisals-->New Year tidings we all tend to mull over this time of year.
This is the least important point in the story but that's great that M1 Air served you well for so long. I'm sure that, I'm guessing M4 Air/Pro will as well though : ))
All the best for 2025!
The m1 air is a goat laptop (and fwiw I replaced it with an m4 MacBook Pro, maxed out ram, nano texture display, but base chip since I wanted the extra battery life)
Excellent piece!
Thank you!
A very elegant analogy. Well done!
Thank you!
Beautiful thoughts
Thank you!
related - on my reading list https://a.co/d/gNs8NkY, there’s a whole long follow up about evaluation for you
Thank you! Looks worthwhile, I gotta read.
I am glad that someone saw this post was intended to be evals-pilled :)