The vis-à-vis Ditanaklasis by Mathias Müller


The vis-à-vis Ditanaklasis by Mathias Müller at present in the Accademia Bartolome Cristofori, Firenze

The Ditanaklasis was first mentioned in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung of 1801 (III, 15, col 254-5), where it is illustrated in both the single and the double forms. It was again advertised in September 1803 in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.
Bibliography
Rosamond Harding - The Piano-forte.... - Cambridge University Press 1933 - pag.1083
Grant O'Brien - Fortepiano verticale stile impero Ditanaklasis Mathias Müller, c.1805 - final report 1996
Technical details
On one side of this upright, double piano (patented by Müller in 1801) there is a complete piano at 4' pitch (c2 is 141 mm) with black naturals and white sharps, range FF–f3. On the other there is a complete 8' piano (c2 is 275 mm) with white naturals and black sharps, range FF–g3. Other Ditanaklassis instruments (all only single upright pianos, including one in the Correr collection, one in the Nuremberg Germanisches Nationalmuseum, one in the collection in Berlin) two Hammerflügel are known by Müller, both now in Austria. The importance of the Ditanaklasis to the history of the piano is that it is one of the first upright pianos (rather than vertical grand pianos) to enter the German-speaking world. This particular type - with two instruments an octave apart and of which this is the only surviving example - was probably intended for playing piano reductions of the current music at the time. A similar instrument, if not the same one, is mentioned in the inventory of the Tuscan court as mentioned in Pierluigi Ferrari-Giuliana Montanari, Presenza del pianoforte alla corte del Granducato di Toscana, 1700-1859 in Recercare VIII 1996, 67-69