page_title: Malcolm Bilson
section_title: His encounter with the fortepiano
hierarchical_section_title: Malcolm Bilson / Life / His encounter with the fortepiano
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of a replica en:fortepiano made by Paul McNulty, following an 1804 original by the Viennese maker Anton Walter. Photo from Mr. McNulty's website (http://www.fortepiano.eu/). Permission was obtained from Mr. McNulty under the GFDL license by email correspondence, which is repeated below: Dear [Opus33's email name omitted], I hereby authorize the Wikipedia to use my photograph posted at http://www.fortepiano.eu/images/2_instruments/2/ff-c4.jpg, under the GNU Free Documentation License Sincerely Paul McNulty and Viviana Sofronitzki paul@fortepiano.eu www.fortepiano.eu viviana@sofronitzki.com www.sofronitzki.com Tyrsovo namesti 128 25726 Divisov, Czech Republic Tel: +420 317 855 286 Fax: +420 317 855 035 mobile:+420 737 927 567
context_page_description: Malcolm Bilson is an American pianist and musicologist specializing in 18th- and 19th-century music. He is the Frederick J. Whiton Professor of Music in Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Bilson is one of the foremost players and teachers of the fortepiano; this is the ancestor of the modern piano and was the instrument used in Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven's time.
context_section_description: Arguably the key event in Bilson's career was his first encounter with the fortepiano in 1969, which he narrated to Andrew Willis in a 2006 interview. Interested in historical pianos, he had bought a 19th-century instrument, described to him as a "Mozart piano," and was referred to Philip Belt, an expert on early pianos, about the possibility of restoring it:
  I wrote Belt and sent some pictures, and Belt wrote back that yes, he could do that, but [my piano] wasn't at all a piano from Mozart's time. And as a matter of fact, he had just built such a piano, after Louis Dulcken, c. 1785, and he wanted to take it around to show at colleges and music schools. So I said fine, bring it, and I'll play a concert on it. He brought it and left it for a week, and I played an all-Mozart concert ... with K. 330 and the B minor Adagio and the Kleine Gigue, [as well as] the G minor piano quartet with some modern string players at 440.
  In preparing for this concert, Bilson was startled by the challenges—and opportunities—that playing a fortepiano poses to a traditionally-trained pianist (fortepianos have a far more delicate touch, shallower key dip, lighter framing, and shorter sustain time than modern grands.)
  I have to admit now that I really couldn't handle the thing at all. I must be the least gifted person for the job; my hands are too big, and I don't have the necessary technique such an instrument required. In trying to operate this light, precise mechanism, I really felt like an elephant in a china closet. But I kept at it all week and practiced hard and after several days began to notice that I was actually playing what was on the page. What I had been doing before was simply playing legato and pedaling through. I saw the slurs, but, of course, I didn't want to create hiccups, which can happen so easily on the modern piano. Suddenly I found that I really didn't need much pedal and that the articulative pauses actually made the music more expressive.
  At the concert at the end of that first week, which was absolutely filled to overflowing, there was great enthusiasm. Nobody had ever seen such a thing. I thought to myself that this was an opportunity to do something useful with my talents. This was in 1969, and I decided to buy one of these pianos and to seriously pursue playing it. For several years I took the instrument [also by Belt] around and played it in colleges and small venues. It was, of course, viewed as a curiosity back then, and some people thought I was a bit crazy. I knew I was doing something fringe-y, but I also thought it was important and worth doing because there were aspects of this music that nobody could hear any more.
caption: A modern fortepiano built by Paul McNulty in imitation of a historical instrument by Anton Walter. The smaller size, smaller range, and lighter construction of the fortepiano, relative to the modern grand, can be seen.
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