Historically, the influence of keyboard design and instrumental soundon music compositional style is demonstrated by the difference between the Viennese and Anglo/German piano designs in the later half of the eighteenth century. Both distinctly different piano sounds corresponded distinctively in the piano music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Muzio Clementi. Mozart was clearly the master of clarity, precision and improvisation. Living most of his life in Vienna, his pianos were designed in the Viennese style, characterised by silvery tone and feather light smooth flowing action. ⁸⁷

Music historian, pianist Robert Levin discusses the characteristics of Mozart’s Viennese piano in his program ‘The Instrument Of Choice’⁹² . Levin describes and demonstrates the associations of the Viennese instrument’s light and fast action, a rapid decay of the tone, and a very clear tonal spectrum, in parallel with the style of Mozart’s piano music. Clementi on the other hand lived in London, playing pianos derived from Silbermann’s model, larger in size, louder, longer sustain, heavier keyboard action, more strings per note and pedals. Schonberg tells us that Clementi is the first composer toexploit the dynamic extremes of the instrument. ⁹³

⁸⁷Mary L. Boehm, ‘STEIN FAMILY,” in 6Palmieri, 372.
⁸⁸Heather Clarke, “Australian Colonial Dance” The History of Music and Dance in Australia 1788-1840.(blog) , 12 June 2013.http://www.colonialdance.com.au/piano-of-the-first-fleet-29.html#comment-8161
⁸⁹Geoffrey Lancaster, ‘The first fleet piano: a musician’s view. Vol.1 ’ (A.C.T. : ANU Press, 2015),91.
^{90     2} Clarke.
⁹¹ ibid
⁹²Robert Levin , “The Instrument Of Choice,” YouTube video ,7.48, September 14, 2007, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-DEhpPgtSY&feature=relmfu
^{93     3}Schonberg,60.