Friday, August 31, 2007

Respect the Pianoforte!

"Respect the Pianoforte! Its disadvantages are evident, decided, and unquestionable: The lack of sustained tone, and the pitiless, unyielding adjustment of the inalterable semitonic scale.

But its advantages and prerogatives approach the marvelous.

It gives a single person command over something complete; in its potentialities from softest to loudest in one and the same register it excels all other instruments. The trumpet can blare, but not sigh; contrariwise the flute; the pianoforte can do both. Its range embraces the highest and deepest practicable tones. Respect the Pianoforte!

Let doubters consider how the pianoforte was esteemed by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, who dedicated their choicest thoughts to it."

Who wrote this quote? (I changed one word to make the entry a little less...umm, sexist. That could be a little clue as to time period.)

To find out who (plus the source), highlight the text just below this sentence.
Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
In Three Classics in the Aesthetic of Music, Dover edition, 1962, p. 101.