Do you hear what Haydn heard?

McNulty fortepiano takes music fans back to the early 19th century

Professor Janice Wenger knows how to pack up her piano and head down the road. With support from a Big 12 Faculty Fellowship Grant that helps finance consulting or research exchanges to other Big 12 schools Wenger recently traveled to Kansas University and Kansas State. While there she met with faculty and students, did a lecture and a recital in each place and offered attendees the chance to play the piano she is showcasing.

Something special in its own right, that piano is called the McNulty fortepiano after the man who created it as a reproduction of the instruments in use around 1802. According to Wenger, "The music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and their contemporaries would have used an instrument like this. Hearing their compositions on a fortepiano lets us know what they heard as they played and composed."

"Haydn’s first compositions would have been written for harpsichord," Wenger says, "and as you play the pieces in chronological order, you hear how he took advantage of the increased capacity of instruments over that of earlier instruments."

Another stop on Wenger’s journey to bring the music she loves to others took her to the St. Louis Art Museum. That performance served the dual purpose of exposing music lovers to art and art fans to music.

Links:

Janice Wenger
School of Music