Music: Pleyel & Erard

When Marie Antoinette heard about the Duchess of Villeroy's fine new piano, she wanted one too. Who had built it? A certain young architect and engineer of Strasbourg named Sebastian Erard. Then let Sebastian Erard make another one for Versailles, let it be embellished with painting, gold-leaf and ivory. The instrument won the admiration of the court. Thereafter Piano-Maker Erard had more work than he and his brother could do.

Fifteen years later another man came to Paris from Strasbourg where a while before the patriots had almost guillotined him. He was the...