Autorentext

American classical pianist and author Arthur Loesser (1894-1969) served on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1926 to 1969. He wrote program notes for the Cleveland Orchestra and liner notes for Vladimir Horowitz and other internationally famed musicians.

Klappentext

As the "social anchor" in middle-class homes of the 19th century, the piano was simultaneously an elegant piece of drawing-room furniture, a sign of bourgeois prosperity and a mean of introducing the young to music and entertaining their elders. In the admirably balanced and leisurely account of the popular instrument, the late, internationally known concert pianist Arthur Loesser takes a "piano's-eye view" of the recent social history of Western Europe and the United States.