Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos (GOOD, Edwin M.)

Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos: A TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY FROM CRISTOFORI TO THE MODERN CONCERT GRAND, SECOND EDITION

This lavishly illustrated book treats the history of the piano from its invention in 1700 to the present in terms of its technology. Looking at the technologies of design, materials, and manufacture, and focusing its description on specific existing pianos, it describes the changes in pianos from the earliest days to contemporary instruments. This revised edition incorporates the results of recent research and adds additional illustrations. The first edition of this book received the Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society as the best musicological book in English published in 1982-83.

“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

Edwin M. Good is Professor of Religious Studies and (by courtesy) of Classics, Emeritus, at Stanford University.