( b Kassel, 9 Feb 1777; d Dublin, 27 July 1846). German pianist, teacher,author and composer. A piano teacher and music seller in Dublin from 1810, he developed and patented the chiroplast or ‘hand-director’ mechanism, a laterally sliding frame for the hands fitted above the keyboard, which though controversial had success in Britain and Germany (it was adopted by Kalkbrenner and defended by Spohr). His method, described in his writings (1814-27), also involved group piano teaching and his System der Musik-Wissenschaft (1827) marks the earliest known use of the now standard German word for ‘musicology’.

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.