Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A History of Pianoforte-Playing and Pianoforte-Literature
The earliest history of clavier-playing goes hand in hand with that of organ-playing; not until the beginning of the 16th century (in the clavier performances of noted organists sometimes find special mention. At that time the two chief species of claviers alluded to above were already in existence; their compass, with the chromatic scale, embraced 3 octaves (a - a), and sometimes even 4: octaves (f - f), the'succession of white and black keys being the same as at present.* In their tuning, the claviers were already tempered to sitch an extent, that the diatonic ecclesiastical keys predominant down to about the 17th century, to which a chromatic tone was seldom added, and Which also occurred transposed by a fifth lower (then in every case with one ?at in the signature), might be employed with tolerable By the establishment of the equal temperament, about 17 0( Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries were enabled to write coni positions in all the modern major and minor keys for the clavier; the ecclesiastical modes then vanished entirely as far as their peculiar and purely diatonic character is concerned, and the widest field was thrown open to modulation.
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