Book // Beethoven's French Piano

A Tale of Ambition and Frustration

Book Square

Tom Beghin

Published by The University of Chicago Press

July 2022

Table of Contents

  • Introduction - Parallel Tales
  • Chapter One - Aspirations and Entanglements (→)
  • Vignette 1 - The Letter (by Tilman Skowroneck)
  • Chapter Two - The Psychology of Waiting (→)
  • Chapter Three - Malleability of Tone (→)
  • Chapter Four - The Lure of una corda (→)
  • Vignette 2 - Two Visitors in Paris (with Robin Blanton, Michael Pecak, and Tilman Skowroneck)
  • Chapter Five - The Perfect Instrument
  • Chapter Six - An Unlikely Competitor (→)
  • Chapter Seven - Continuous Sound (→)
  • Vignette 3 - A Gift Not a Given (with Robin Blanton)
  • Chapter Eight - The Vertical/Horizontal Paradox (→)
  • Chapter Nine - A Grand Sonata (→)
  • Chapter Ten - A Prize-winning Teacher (→)
  • Vignette 4 - Building a Replica (Chris Maene in conversation with Robin Blanton) (→)
  • Chapter Eleven - Revisiting the Revisions (→)
  • Chapter Twelve - Mixing Sound (→)
  • Epilogue - Time and Resonance (→)

Bonus Material

  • Vignette 5: Faster and Faster (by Charles Shrader) (→)
  • Louis Adam, Piano Method of the Conservatoire (Paris: Naderman, 1804–05), translated by Tom Beghin, with Mikayla Jensen-Large (2021) (→)
  • Original Quotations (→)

Lecture-documentary

Featuring Tom Beghin, Robert Adelson, Chris Maene, Jeanne Roudet, Jacques-Oliver Boudon, and Stephan Gschwendtner.

Spoken in English, Dutch, French, and German, with English subtitles.