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Gottfried Silbermann (January 14, 1683 – August 4, 1753) was a German builder of keyboard instruments. He built
harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...
s,
clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to compositi ...
s, organs, and
fortepiano A fortepiano , sometimes referred to as a pianoforte, is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1698 up to the early 19th century. M ...
s; his modern reputation rests mainly on the latter two.


Life

Very little is known about Silbermann's youth. He was born in Kleinbobritzsch (now a part of
Frauenstein, Saxony Frauenstein () is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the eastern Ore Mountains, southeast of Freiberg, and southwest of Dresden. Frauenstein Castle is located northeast of the town centre. Notable ...
) as the youngest son of the carpenter Michael Silbermann. They moved to the nearby town of Frauenstein in 1685, and it is possible that Gottfried also learnt carpentry there. He moved to
Straßburg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label= Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
in 1702, where he learnt organ construction from his brother and came in touch with the French-Alsatian school of organ construction. He returned to Saxony as a master craftsman in 1710, and opened his own organ workshop in
Freiberg Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany. It is a so-called ''Große Kreisstadt'' (large county town) and the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district. Its historic town centre has been placed under heritage ...
one year later. His second project in Germany was the "Grand Organ" in the
Freiberg Cathedral The Freiberg Cathedral or Cathedral of St Mary (german: Dom St. Marien) is a church of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony in Freiberg in Saxony. The term Dom, a German synecdoche used for collegiate churches and cathedrals alike, is ofte ...
of St. Mary, finished in 1714. In 1723 he was bestowed the title ''Königlich Polnischen und Churfürstlich Sächsischen Hof- und Landorgelmachers'' ("Honorary Court and State Organ Builder to the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony") by Frederick Augustus I. Silbermann died in
Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth lar ...
in 1753, probably as the result of a tin-lead poisoning, while still working on the organ at the Hofkirche.


Silbermann's organs

The organs that Silbermann and his brother
Andreas Silbermann Andreas Silbermann (16 May 1678 – 16 March 1734) was a German organ builder, who was involved in the construction of 35 organs, mostly in Alsace. Andreas also established the Silbermann family tradition of organ building, training his brother Go ...
built show a clear and distinctive style, both in architecture and in their music qualities. Gottfried Silbermann never deviated from this style. His ability to earn money with organ construction was remarkable, leading him to uncommon wealth, and his economic operation and slow consolidation of his position eventually created a near monopoly. His apprentices had to pledge never to work in Central Germany. Silbermann's non-negotiable style was not welcome everywhere, an important example of an opponent being
Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
, who, unlike Silbermann who tuned in
meantone temperament Meantone temperament is a musical temperament, that is a tuning system, obtained by narrowing the fifths so that their ratio is slightly less than 3:2 (making them ''narrower'' than a perfect fifth), in order to push the thirds closer to pure. Mea ...
, preferred a more flexible tuning. Silbermann designed and built approximately 50 organs, 35 of which are identified as extant by the Gottfried Silbermann Society, including the organ in the Hofkirche in Dresden. The Hofkirche organ and that of
Freiberg Cathedral The Freiberg Cathedral or Cathedral of St Mary (german: Dom St. Marien) is a church of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony in Freiberg in Saxony. The term Dom, a German synecdoche used for collegiate churches and cathedrals alike, is ofte ...
are considered his greatest works. The organ in Freiberg Cathedral has three manuals, or keyboards, and 41
stops Stop may refer to: Places *Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Facilities * Bus stop * Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck dri ...
divided between the ''Oberwerk'', ''Hauptwerk'', ''Brustwerk'' and Pedal divisions. (A division is a section of pipes in the same place within an organ, played from one manual; there generally one manual for each division, and the pedal has its own division.) Silbermann's organs are characterised by the use of strong reeds, a broad range of stops, and pipes with a high tin content, which adds a distinctive brightness to the tone.


Silbermann and the piano

Silbermann was also a central figure in the history of the
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
. He transmitted to later builders the crucial ideas of
Bartolomeo Cristofori Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco (; May 4, 1655 – January 27, 1731) was an Italian maker of musical instruments famous for inventing the piano. Life The available source materials on Cristofori's life include his birth and death recor ...
(the inventor of the piano), ensuring their survival, and also invented the forerunner of the
damper pedal A sustain pedal or sustaining pedal (also called damper pedal, loud pedal, or open pedal) is the most commonly used pedal in a modern piano. It is typically the rightmost of two or three pedals. When pressed, the sustain pedal "sustains" all ...
. Evidence from the '' Universal-Lexicon'' of
Johann Heinrich Zedler Johann Heinrich Zedler (7 January 1706 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) – 21 March 1751 in Leipzig) was a bookseller and publisher. His most important achievement was the creation of a German encyclopedia, the '' Grosses Universal-Lexicon (Gre ...
indicates that Silbermann first built a piano in 1732, only a year after Cristofori's death. Silbermann may have found out about Cristofori's invention as follows. In 1709,
Scipione Maffei Francesco Scipione Maffei (; 1 June 1675 – 11 February 1755) was a Italian writer and art critic, author of many articles and plays. An antiquarian with a humanist education whose publications on Etruscan antiquities stand as incunables of ...
did research on the newly invented piano, including an interview with Cristofori, and published his findings (with a ringing endorsement of the instrument) in a 1711 Italian journal article. In 1725, this article was translated into German by the
Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth lar ...
court
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
Johann Ulrich König Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name '' Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious ...
, who was almost certainly a personal acquaintance of Silbermann. In his mature pianos, Silbermann scrupulously copied the complex action found in Cristofori's last instruments, failing only to produce a correct copy of the
back check The human back, also called the dorsum, is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral column run ...
. Silbermann also copied another ingenious Cristofori invention, the inverted wrest plank. In other respects (case construction, choice of
wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
species, string diameters and spacing, keyboard design), Silbermann relied on his own experience as a harpsichord builder. During the 1740s, King
Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...
of Prussia became acquainted with Silbermann's pianos and bought a number of them (the early-19th-century musicologist
Johann Nikolaus Forkel Johann Nikolaus Forkel (22 February 1749 – 20 March 1818) was a German musicologist and music theorist, generally regarded as among the founders of modern musicology. His publications include '' Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work ...
claims this number was 15, though Stewart Pollens (reference below) believes this to be "certainly exaggerated"). Two of Silbermann's pianos are still located in Frederick's palaces in
Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of ...
today; they stand out for their elegant but plain and sober design amid the elaborate splendor of their surroundings. There is a Silbermann original in the
Germanisches Nationalmuseum The Germanisches National Museum is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, it houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day. The Germanisches National ...
. The famous
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and sec ...
was employed by Frederick the Great in Potsdam and was playing Silbermann fortepianos (also accompanying Frederick on the traverso flute), so in this way Silbermann pianos are connected with the CPE Bach name and his music, which was written for this particular fortepiano model. Two of Silbermann's pianos are still located in Frederick's palaces in
Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of ...
today. There is also an original Silbermann piano in the
Germanisches Nationalmuseum The Germanisches National Museum is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, it houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day. The Germanisches National ...
. In recent years Gottfriend Silbermann 1749 instrument was used as a model for making modern piano copies.


The forerunner of the damper pedal

Silbermann invented a device by which the player could lift all of the dampers off the strings, permitting them to vibrate freely, either when struck or sympathetically when other notes were played. This is the function in later pianos of the
damper pedal A sustain pedal or sustaining pedal (also called damper pedal, loud pedal, or open pedal) is the most commonly used pedal in a modern piano. It is typically the rightmost of two or three pedals. When pressed, the sustain pedal "sustains" all ...
. Silbermann's device was different from the modern damper pedal in two respects. First, it was not actually controlled by a pedal, but rather was a hand stop, which required the player to cease playing on the keys for a moment in order to change the damper configuration. Thus, it was a device for imparting an unusual tonal color to whole passages, rather than a means of nuanced expression as the pedal is today. Second, Silbermann's device was bifurcated, permitting the dampers of the treble and bass sections to be lifted separately. This latter feature has recently been reintroduced to the piano, in the form of the fourth and fifth pedals of pianos made by the Borgato firm; see
Innovations in the piano Piano construction is by now a rather conservative area; most of the technological advances were made by about 1900, and indeed it is possible that some contemporary piano buyers might actually be suspicious of pianos that are made differently fro ...
. There are at least two possible reasons for why Silbermann invented his damper-lifting mechanism. First, as an organ builder, he may have favored the idea of providing the player with a variety of tonal colors. The same impulse led German harpsichord builders of the time occasionally to include two-foot (two octaves higher than normal pitch) and sixteen-foot (one octave lower) choirs of strings in their instruments. In addition, Silbermann had until 1727 built very large
hammer dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...
s, called
pantaleon Pantaleon, also known as Panteleimon, (Greek: ) was a Greek king who reigned some time between 190–180 BC in Bactria and India. He was a younger contemporary or successor of the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius, and is sometimes believed to hav ...
s, on behalf of Pantaleon Hebenstreit, who achieved a sensational career with virtuosic playing on this demanding instrument. The pantaleon, like any other hammered dulcimer, had no dampers and thus created a wash of sound. Silbermann later had a falling out with Hebenstreit and was blocked by a royal writ from building any further pantaleons. Stewart Pollens conjectures that in adding the damper-raising stop to the piano, Silberman may have been attempting to partially circumvent this restriction.


Silbermann and Bach

The 18th-century musician
Johann Friedrich Agricola Johann Friedrich Agricola (4 January 1720 – 2 December 1774) was a German composer, organist, singer, pedagogue, and writer on music. He sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Flavio Anicio Olibrio. Biography Agricola was born in Dobitschen, Thur ...
tells a story about the relationship of Silbermann,
Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
, and pianos. Christoph Wolff. Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician.  . p. 413 After Silbermann had completed two instruments, Agricola says, he showed them to Bach, who replied critically, saying that the tone was weak in the treble and the keys were hard to play even though the tone was pleasant. Silbermann was stung and angered by the criticism, but ultimately took it to heart and was able to improve his pianos (exactly how is not known, but it may have been the result of Silbermann's encountering Cristofori's most mature instruments). The improved Silbermann pianos met with Bach's "complete approval" ("völlige Gutheißung"), and indeed a preserved sales voucher dated May 8, 1749 shows that Bach acted as an intermediary for Silbermann in the sale of one of his pianos. Bach also endorsed Silbermann's organs as well, as borne out by the fact that he was asked by both the church and Silbermann to give the inaugural concert of his new instrument on 1 December 1736 for the
Frauenkirche Dresden The Dresden Frauenkirche (german: Dresdner Frauenkirche, , ''Church of Our Lady'') is a Lutheran church in Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. Destroyed during the Allied firebombing of Dresden towards the end of World War II ...
.


Silbermann's pupils

Silbermann's most important contribution to the piano may have been as the teacher of other builders. His nephew and pupil
Johann Andreas Silbermann Johann Andreas Silbermann, also known as Jean-André Silbermann (26 June 1712, in Strasbourg – 11 February 1783, in Strasbourg) was an 18th-century organ-builder, as were his father Andreas Silbermann and his paternal uncle Gottfried Silberman ...
was the teacher of
Johann Andreas Stein Johann (Georg) Andreas Stein (16 May 1728 in Heidelsheim – 29 February 1792 in Augsburg) was an outstanding German maker of keyboard instruments, a central figure in the history of the piano. He was primarily responsible for the design of the ...
, who perfected the so-called "Viennese action", found in the pianos used by
Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led ...
,
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
, and
Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
. Another group of Silbermann pupils were the so-called the "twelve apostles". These builders fled Germany during and after the time of chaos created by the
Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754– ...
(1756-1763), migrating to England, where economic prosperity was creating new opportunities for instrument builders. The "twelve apostles" included
Johannes Zumpe Johannes (Johann Christoph) Zumpe (pronounced ''zumpy''; 14 June 1726 in Fürth, Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, modern Germany – buried 5 December 1790 in London, UK) was a leading maker of early English square pianos, a form of rectangula ...
, whose invention of an affordable small
square piano The square piano is a type of piano that has horizontal strings arranged diagonally across the rectangular case above the hammers and with the keyboard set in the long side, with the sounding board above a cavity in the short side. It is variously ...
greatly popularized the instrument. They also included
Americus Backers Americus Backers (died 1778), sometimes described as the father of the English grand pianoforte style, brought the hammer striking action for keyboard instruments from his master Gottfried Silbermann's workshop in Freiburg to England in the mid-18 ...
, one of the inventors of the "English action", which was a modified version of the Cristofori action. Silbermann's role was crucial because, unlike other builders of his day, he refused to compromise on the quality of the action. Cristofori's action was complex and hard to build, leading many builders (e.g. Zumpe) to use instead a simplified, but clumsier action. Through Backers and others, the original conception of a complex but effective action survived. The English action was later modified and improved further by
Sébastien Érard Sébastien Érard (born Sebastian Erhard, 5 April 1752 – 5 August 1831) was a French instrument maker of German origin who specialised in the production of pianos and harps, developing the capacities of both instruments and pioneering the mod ...
and
Henri Herz Henri Herz (6 January 1803 – 5 January 1888) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and piano manufacturer, Austrian by birth and French by nationality and domicile. He was a professor in the Paris Conservatoire for more than thirty years. Among his ...
to yield the action used in all grand pianos today. With the advent of industrial methods of manufacture, it ultimately became economical to include the complex modern action even in inexpensive pianos, thus vindicating Silbermann's original decision. Silbermann's fame as a builder and teacher was such that for many decades he was regarded as the inventor of the piano; it was only with nineteenth-century scholarship that this honor was restored to Cristofori.


See also

*
List of historical harpsichord makers This page presents a graphical timelines, listing historical makers of the harpsichord and related instruments such as the virginal, spinet and clavicytherium. The makers are grouped according to which regional building tradition they belong. Gra ...


Notes


References

* The organ portion of this article is based on a translation from the German Wikipedia. The original is located
here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a ...
. * For the piano portion, the following two reference works were relied on: ** **


External links


www.silbermann.org
Gottfried-Silbermann-Society *


Potsdam

Germanische National Museum in Nuremberg
*
www.silbermannorgel-crostau.de
Silbermann organ at Crostau {{DEFAULTSORT:Silbermann, Gottfried 1683 births 1753 deaths People from Frauenstein, Saxony German pipe organ builders Harpsichord makers Piano makers