ABSTRACT
It is a fundamental precept of the early music movement that instrumental music should be performed on instruments of appropriate period and type. Use of the early piano is not, however, universally accepted. This situation arises from a number of causes. Many great piano works form an essential part of the current piano repertoire and have acquired a long and valid tradition of concert hall performances given on the modern piano. Within this tradition, even works dating from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are not regarded as "early," and in consequence are seldom thought of in terms of pianos of their own times. Performances of major works on early pianos are therefore rarely compared critically on equal terms with performances on the modern instrument.
