THE MODERN PIANO-FORTE. 



703 



111 the English translation of Bombet's " Life of Haydn " a list of 

 the keys is given with their acknowledged characteristics appended. 

 Thus : " D-flat major. Awfully dark. In this remote key Haydn and 

 Beethoven have written their sublimest thoughts. They never enter 

 it bjit for ti'agic purposes." Again " A-flat major. The most lovely 

 of the tribe. Unassuming, gentle, soft, delicate, and tender, having 

 none of the pertness of A in sharps. Every author has been sensible 

 of the charm of this key, and has reserved it for the expression of his 

 most refined sentiments." And so on. Now, it was never supposed 

 that the peculiarities of the keys could be confused with the peculiar- 

 ities of the old modes, such as Dorian, Phrygian, etc., which led Dry- 

 den to say, " Softly sweet in Lydian measure ; " for all these modes 

 were designedly, mathematically, and markedly, dissimilar. But it 

 was generally supposed that the " unequal temperament," which fa- 

 vored some keys at the expense of others, led to the various, other- 

 wise unaccountable, characteristics. These, however, have remained, 

 singularly enough, with the "equal temperament," by which system 

 all the keys are equal i. e., the ratios of their intervals are precisely 

 similar. 



This peculiarity of the key is not to be confounded with other, 

 accountable differences : such as induce composers to write in flat 

 keys for military bands to attain the greatest brilliancy, and in sharp 

 keys for orchestras for the same end. In these cases the greater 

 number of open notes (more naturally and simply formed tones), and 

 other such known facts, lead to a clear understanding on this point. 

 But in the piano-forte no such considerations can be made to account 

 for the subtile phenomenon. It was once supposed that the absolute 

 pitch employed was the cause of the difference ; but since the time 

 of Haydn the pitch in all countries has risen to such an extent that 

 the scale of A-flat characterized above has become virtually the scale 

 of A-natural, with which it was there compared ; but no correspond- 

 ing variation of opinion respecting it has been recorded. Ladies still 

 commonly express a decided preference for flat keys, and probably for 

 this reason fashionable drawing-room music is generally cast in four 

 or five flats although these keys may be also chosen partly because, 

 according to the conformation of the hand and the disposition of the 

 ivory keys, the chords with flats are more easily and readily con- 

 trolled, especially when distributed in the arpeggio style, and have 

 to be played with great speed, freedom, and facility. But the va- 

 rious attempts made to account satisfactorily for key -character 

 on the piano -forte have hitherto only demonstrated thnt reason 

 and understanding are incapable of fathoming and explaining the 

 matter. 



The piano-forte of the present day is, as we have seen, the result 

 of many contributions. Posterity alone can pronounce judgment upon 

 it, and show in what it is deficient ; for who shall say what the " piano- 



