News Release
November 2000
Payne Gallery celebrates the 300th anniversary of the
invention of the piano and commemorates the 300th anniversary of the
birth of Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf, founder of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
with an exhibition of regional square pianos from the late 18th and
early 19th centuries.
On display are ten square pianos made in Bethlehem and
the surrounding areas, along with one made in London, that was found
in Easton; portraits of their makers and owners; original manuscripts
of music played on the pianos; and objects related to the Bethlehem
Seminary for Young Ladies, a center of piano instruction.
The exhibition also features the monumental history painting,
by the American artist Sidney Tillim, Count Zinzendorf Spared by the
Indians by the Indians (1972), as first shown at the Edmonton Art Gallery,
Alberta, in a retrospective of the artist’s history and narrative
paintings.
Although the square piano may appear unfamiliar, even
exotic, today, it was a popular domestic instrument from the late 18th
through the 19th centuries. Developed in London in the 1760’s,
the compact and portable instrument was soon a success. Its tone was
very sweet; its price was very low. This style of piano spread from
England to North America, where Philadelphia and the Moravian communities
in Bethlehem and Nazareth became early centers for the making of square
pianos.
This hands-on exhibition invites viewers to examine square
pianos from the outside in, to play fully restored pianos 200 years
old, and to hear the sounds heard by our Victorian ancestors. At the
opening reception pianist Michael Toth will demonstrate an 1833 square
piano built in Bethlehem.
The curator of the exhibition is Paul Larson, assisted
by Carol Traupman-Carr of Moravian College. The exhibition is held in
conjunction with the 4th Biennial Bethlehem Conference on Moravian Music,
sponsored by the Music Department, Moravian College. Contact: Art Department
Office 610-861-1680
Payne Gallery is located in the Priscilla Payne Hurd Center
for Music and Art, on the Church Street Campus of Moravian College in
Historic Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Gallery is open 11:00 a.m. to
4:00 p.m. daily, except Mondays and major holidays. Bethlehem is sixty
miles north of Philadelphia and ninety miles west of New York City.
