Chiroplast

A drawing of a piano with a chiroplast installed on it, from French patent documents

A chiroplast is an instrument to guide the hands and fingers of pupils in playing on the piano, invented and patented by Johann Bernhard Logier in 1814. ^{[1] [2]} The instrument was a device that placed the wrist, thumb and fingers of a hand above five consecutive white keys of a keyboard, to overcome the difficulty of retaining their proper position by beginners. ^[1]

The instrument was a key part of Logier's system of teaching, which was one of the first to call for the teaching of multiple students at once. ^[3] The use of the chiroplast caused a significant amount of criticism and controversy at the time, ^[1] at least part of which was due to the heavy opposition to Logier's system by musicians fearing the loss of their students to centralized institutions teaching multiple students at once. ^[2]

After being invented by Logier in 1814, it quickly became used by many. ^[4] It was very popular in London in the 1810s and 1820s. ^[5] In 1822, Logier was invited by the Prussian government to Germany to set up a school instructing teachers on how to teach the use of the device in the country. ^[4]

Description

The device consisted of a wooden framework screwed into place over the whole length of the keyboard. ^[2] The user passed their wrists through two parallel wooden bars, ^[2] which kept the hands at the correct distance from the keys. ^[5] They then put their fingers into slots in two flat brass frames called "finger-guides" which could freely slide horizontally along a brass rod along the whole length of the keyboard. ^[2] Each finger-guide had five divisions, through which each finger was placed. ^[6] Each finger-guide was also attached to a stiff brass wire with a regulating screw, which kept the wrist in the proper position relative to the arm. ^{[6] [ clarification needed ]}

References

1. Michael Kassler, A.F.C. Kollmann's Quarterly Musical Register (1812). An annotated edition with an introduction to his life and works, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 15 Dec 2008, ISBN   0-7546-6064-8, pp. 123–31.
2. Rainbow, Bernarr (1990). "Johann Bernhard Logier and the Chiroplast Controversy" . The Musical Times. 131 (1766): 193–196. doi:10.2307/966259. ISSN   0027-4666. JSTOR   966259.
3.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Maitland, John Alexander Fuller (1888). "Eager, John". Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 16. pp. 311–312.
4. Gerig, Reginald R. (1974). Famous pianists & their technique. Internet Archive. Washington : R. B. Luce. ISBN   978-0-88331-066-3.
5. Weitzmann, Karl Friedrich; Lessmann, Otto (1897). A history of pianoforte-playing and pianoforte-literature. University of California Libraries. New York : G. Shirmer. pp. 150–151.
6. Taylor, Franklin (1900). "Chiroplast"  . A Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Vol. 1.11. pp. 346–347.