"If you have ever looked under the lid of a piano and wondered about the technical how and why of it all, this is the book to sate your curiosity. . . . Good's vigorous prose breathes life into the technology . . . and brings forward the people involved, with humor and sensitivity."--Los Angeles Times"Good's book has been a standard history of the piano and the development of its mechanisms since its first publication. The second edition contains some improvements and enhancements but retains the overall plan of the first. . . . Good was able to add more detail to the information concerning early pianos, piano-shaped instruments, builders, and mechanisms. And in the last chapter, he has enlarged the twentieth-century view of the piano to include digital instruments and other technological developments. . . . The writing is clear and precise throughout, and the footnoted information and references are almost as valuable as the text itself. . . . This second edition includes more illustrations . . . and in general appearance, the book is easier to read and more handsome as a whole."--Choice

Illustrations; Preface to the second edition; Preface to the first edition; Author's note; 1. Technology and the piano; 2. The earliest pianos; 3. The classic piano; 4. Beethoven and the growing grand; 5. Pianos for early-nineteenth-century homes; 6. Iron enters the piano; 7. The French take the lead; 8. The radical Americans; 9. The Europeans imitate - or do not; 10. Some odds and dead ends; 11. The modern piano; Notes; Bibliography; Index.