playing as a teenager.

"I was 13 then, and I became fascinated by it. Little did I know that the piano would eventually become a lifelong commitment."

Today Palmieri is a professor emeritus at Kent State, where he was chairman of its keyboard division, and is also a research associate at Western Washington University. During his long career, he has performed at home and abroad, been an adjudicator, published scholarly books and articles, and lectured on Russian musical studies (his specialty is Russian piano literature, particularly Sergei Rachmaninoff).

Along the way, he has also learned a lot about the piano's evolution, which led to his popular encyclopedia, very possibly the authority on the subject. None other than Billy Joel and André Watts have sung its praises, and for good reason: Thevolume contains more than 600 articles on everything having to do with the instrument, from piano-makers, players, and composers to major events in pianistic history to research discoveries and speculations on its future.

The first pianoforte, the author tells us, was built between 1698 and 1700 by the Italian instrument-maker Bartolomeo Cristofori, whose compatriots generally remained indifferent to the new instrument, preferring vocal music. But the Germans, Palmieri notes, quickly embraced it and dominated its development as alliances sprang up between manufacturers and artists.

Beethoven, for instance, favored the pianos of Johann Andreas Stein and his heirs, the Streichers. The instrument went through a dynamic period of improvements and refinements during the composer's day, particularly between 1783 and 1825--and his piano compositions reflect this change, Palmieri says: Beethoven's early works