express their music more creatively andbeautifully, thus creating a new love for music.In the nineteenth century, piano-makers were struggling tomeet the growing demand for pianos. This demand was partiallycaused by musicians like Frederic Chopin. Chopin’s expressivestyle, which was “distinguished by extraordinary delicacy andsubtlety of nuance” (Hollis 62). Chopin used French pianosbecause of their ability to prolong and converge notes, whichdrove Chopin to create more and more beautiful music to pleasehimself and his audiences. Chopin became one of the most famouspianists/composers of his time. His concerts were all sold out,and the people loved him. There were, however, other greatlyloved concert pianists in Chopin’s time. Franz Liszt was a crowd-pleasing artist who single-handedlypositively affected the status of a performing pianist, and drovepiano-makers to make higher quality pianos. Liszt was aromantic; he lived for music and it showed through hisperformances. Liszt would literally pound his pianos and it wasfrequent that a tuning would have to be done mid-concert. OscarBie best describes Lizst’s concerts like this:Using the full weight of his shoulders, arms and wrists hemade the instrument speak with power, drama, and evenviolence that had never been done before... Pianos suffered at his hands and it was not at all unusual forone or two strings to break and for the piano to requireretuning in the midst of one of his concerts... a sparepiano stood ready on the stage, and reports of his concerts suggest that the audience felt cheated if a pianosurvived intact. (63)Lizst’s works were all passionate and beautiful, and since hispassion was sometimes violent, pianos needed to be built strongerand more durable to sustain the blows dealt by passionateplayers. Piano-makers had to keep up with the changing times,and with Beethoven contributing to the piano’s hype, change waseminent (B...
