Erard

Robert Adelson is Professor of Organology and Music History at the Conservatoire de Nice-Université Côte d'Azur. Between 2005 and 2016 he was curator of the collection of historical musical instruments at the Musée du Palais Lascaris in Nice and since 2017 he is curator of the Camac collection of historical harps. His numerous publications explore the history of the piano and the harp, opera and the sociology of music. In 2019, he received the Frances Densmore Prize, awarded by the American Musical Instrument Society.

• FiguresAbbreviationsEditorial noteErard family treeIntroductionAcknowledgements 1. Making a harpsichord sound like a piano2. Founding a workshop3. Square pianos and piano-organs4. A modern business5. Harps, the Revolution and London6. The French grand piano7. Gifts for Haydn, Beethoven and many others8. Financial struggles9. Faster and louder: the double-escapement action10. Liszt and the introduction of the new piano11. Piano wars12. Family strains and secrets13. Mendelssohn and the Erards14. Passing the flame15. Camille Erard and the end of the Erard Empire AfterwordNotesBibliography

The infusion of new perspectives and insights into the lives of the Erard brothers and their immediate family does much to position Adelson's new book as a meaningful and valuable contribution to Erard scholarship...Adelson's book, meticulously researched, is an accessible and enticing chronicling of the Erard family and their firm's history. Integrating the contents of a previously undiscovered archive with an already sizeable body of documentary evidence is no small feat. Adelson has produced a work that is deeply informative, yet flows with ease. With this wide appeal, it stands to become the go to volume for gaining understanding of the people and pianos behind the formidable Erard firm.