Have you ever heard the term “prepared piano?”  I remember that when I first learned what a prepared piano is I was horrified.  “Oh my gosh, why would anyone do that?”  But, when I was in college and I studied more about it, wrote a paper on it, and went to concerts with prepared...
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Mozart was born on a wintry day in January 1756 in the town of Salzburg, Austria.  His father was Leopold Mozart and his mother was Anna Maria Pertl.  Leopold and Anna had seven children together, only two of whom survived infancy (the 4th child Maria Anna, also known as Nannerl, and the 7th child...
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I’ve been spending a fair amount of my blog time on composers lately.  Have you noticed?  Well there are three reasons for that:  (1) I’ve been swamped with “life” lately which has hindered my ability to finish the posts that I’ve started on other aspects of piano study and Piano Discoveries, whereas I have...
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The Austrian world, to which Haydn was born, in 1732, was beginning a new life, free from foreign Turkish oppressors, full of religious zeal, and expanding boundaries, living under the talented rule of the Habsburgs.  Charles VI, reigning emperor, was a fine violinist, harpsichordist, and operatic composer.  The class system especially poignant at this...
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