I am looking for an old machine which was used to teach children the piano. It looks awful and it's meant to control every little finger. The children were put in there and the machine controlled their arms and fingers.
Looks more like a torture machine, but I heard Clara Schuhmann was raised with one. I am looking for a picture of it, since I want to show it to a friend who doesn't believe me. It was build by one man in the 18th or 19th century.
I try to search the web, but all I find are "Best apps to learn the piano" and stuff.
Anybody here knows what I am talking about?
You are sure you don't mean one of the "finger strengthening" devices of the time? There's a gallery of them here, and they do look quite brutal. Clara Schumann's husband Robert famously messed up his fingers trying to use one- or perhaps one he'd made himself.
If not, likely it was the Chiroplast of Johann Berhard Logier, of which a number were made in London circa 1814. But I regret I can't dig out much about it in my sources- no photos. Perhaps they were all scrapped as useless after 1860, and none survive. Though I notice there's been a reprint of the Chiroplast manual and some of the music exercises intended for it.
EDIT If you can find the 2nd edition of Groves Dictionary of Music ( not the later ones) there's apparently a description of the Chiroplast ,and the controversy around it , by Franklin Taylor, under the heading Gymnastics.
There has been a few finger stretching devices aimed towards improving dexterity for musicians. The more popular of these was the Dactylion.
If speaking specifically about Clara Schumann. Robert Schumann, Clara’s spouse, apparently designed his own machine but it’s seems to be largely based on the Dactylion previously mentioned.