HAYDN'S PIANOFORTE MUSIC
Played by KENDALL TAYLOR
Sonata No. 15 in C
Sonata No. 12 in E Flat
WHILE in English editions practically all music written in the eighteenth century for keyboard instruments is called pianoforte music, scarcely any of it is really so. It is true the pianoforte was in existence and in use during the whole of the century, but not until towards the end of it was music composed definitely in conformity with pianistic tone. and technique. Bach played on a pianoforte in 1747 to please Frederick the Great, but he much preferred the clavichord ; Mozart actually possessed a pianoforte, and his famous musical duel with Clementi (one of the first champions of pianoforte playing and the first real composer of pianoforte music) was fought before the Emperor of Vienna on the newer instrument. But Mozart was happier either with the more intimate clavichord or the old and tried harpsichord, while Beethoven, who did use a pianoforte and who wrote for it, admitted that for tone and interpretation there was nothing to equal the clavichord. Therefore, it is reasonably clear that Haydn's ' pianoforte ' sonatas to be played in this week's Foundation Series were composed in the technique of an older keyboard instrument, probably the clavichord, whatever their treatment may have been under the hands of contemporary and later executants. Were they, however, now to be played on a clavichord, radio listeners might find great difficulty in hearing the music at all, for the action of the clavichord -which is to excite a length of string to vibrate by pressure rather than by percussion as with the pianoforte-is so soft, intimate and cooing that its delicious tone is scarcely heard beyond a limited circle of attentive listeners seated near the instrument.