Piano 300 ― Celebrating Three Centuries of People and Pianos

On March 8, 2000 the National Museum of American History opened Piano 300 in the Smithsonian's International Gallery in Washington, D.C. Celebrating the tricentennial of the piano's invention in Florence by Bartolomeo Cristofori, this remarkable exhibition was seen by more than 330,000 visitors from around the world during the course of a 20-month run. Part exhibition catalogue and part technical and social history of the piano, Piano 300: Celebrating Three Centuries of People and Pianos presents the exhibition's highlights: the innovative craftsmen, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, teachers, performers, and composers who helped make the piano the most popular musical instrument of modern times. Written by Smithsonian curators Cynthia Adams Hoover, Patrick Rucker, and Edwin Good, this volume presents rare composers' manuscripts and first editions tracing the wealth and diversity of music inspired by the instrument. However, pride of place is given to the pianos themselves - those complex machines encased in handsome works of decorative art - including many from the Smithsonian's own distinguished Collection of Musical Instruments. Lavishly illustrated with more than 250 photographs, many in full color, Piano 300 captures the sweep and dimension of this highly successful tribute to one of Western culture's most beloved icons.

Cynthia Adams Hoover is Curator of Musical Instruments at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. She has studied the changing intersections of technology, culture, and commerce of the piano's 300-year history and is co-editor with Edwin M. Good of the annotated diary of William Steinway, the piano company's financial wizard in the 19th century.

Patrick Rucker was Project Director and Co-curator of PIANO 300. As a pianist he has presented the 20th-century premieres of many works by Franz Liszt and has written widely on the composer.

Edwin M. Good is author of Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos (Stanford University Press), a technological history of the piano. He is co-editor with Cynthia Adams Hoover of the diary of William Steinway and lives in Eugene, Oregon, where he continues his research and plays the piano in chamber music.