Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina Uccellini, Marco

Upright bass.

A colloquial term for the Double bass.

Upright [vertical] pianoforte

(Fr. piano droit; Ger. Piano; It. pianoforte).

A piano with strings stretched vertically, rather than horizontally as in grand and square pianos. Upright pianos began to be made soon after Cristofori's invention. The earliest surviving instrument, signed Domenico del Mela (1683–c1760) and dated 1739, is in the Museo del Conservatorio di L. Cherubini, Florence. An unsigned, undated one ascribed to him is in Milan. Del Mela may have been associated with Cristofori; one of the latter's wills mentions bequests to a del Mela family.

Doubtless based on the vertical harpsichord (clavicytherium), the upright piano was further developed in the mid-18th century. C.E. Friderici of Gera invented a Pyramidenflügel (Ger.: ‘pyramid piano’) which was effectively a grand piano set on its head with the strings running diagonally in a symmetrical case. Three instruments ascribed to Friderici are known, two dated 1745. A few others were made later in the 18th century. In 1795 William Stodart of London patented an upright grand with a rectangular case. Behind silked doors, the space in the upper right-hand side had shelves on which books and other objects could be kept. These instruments, placed on legs, stood about 2·5 metres high. The keys passed under the wrest plank and soundboard, the hammers striking the strings from behind. German and Austrian makers such as Joseph Wachtel and Jakob Bleyer (1778–1812) began making ‘giraffe’ pianos in about 1804. These instruments were so-called on account of their shape, which followed in graceful curves the contour of the strings and ended at the upper left with a kind of scroll (see Pianoforte fig.15). Many makers, notably Franz Martin Seuffert (1773–1847) and Matthäus Andreas (André) Stein (1776–1842) of Vienna, made this form of upright grand, and a drop-action version of the Viennese action was devised for it. Many giraffes had multiple pedals, including janissary and bassoon stops.

Vertical instruments occupied wall space rather than floor space, but the pyramids, giraffes, and upright grands required high ceilings. In the early 19th century, experiments with small uprights began. In 1800 Mathias Müller of Vienna made his ‘Ditanaclasis’, standing about 154 cm high, and in the same year John Isaac Hawkins of Philadelphia patented his ‘portable grand pianoforte’ standing only about 140 cm. These were the earliest instruments in which the strings reached to the floor. Later forms were Robert Wornum's ‘cottage piano’ (the first model of which was created in 1811) and ‘piccolo piano’ (1826), the latter only 98 cm high, and the ‘piano droit’ of Johannes Roller and Nicolas Blanchet (Paris, 1827). In 1828 Jean Henri Pape (Paris) invented his ‘pianino’ or ‘piano-console’, which was the vehicle for the earliest cross-stringing. Earlier, Thomas Loud (i) had proposed oblique stringing, like that in Friderici's pyramids, for small uprights (he was granted a British patent in 1802). French makers excelled in ‘pianinos’ of the sort that Pape pioneered. All of these forms were aimed at families living in modest homes, and, as European cities grew, apartments. Some larger types were the symmetrical Lyraflügel (Ger.: ‘lyre piano’) of Johann Christian Schleip (d c1877), Berlin, which had a lyre-shaped upper case, and the ‘harp piano’ (especially by Kuhn & Ridgeway, Baltimore) which exposed the strings above the keyboard.

As compasses were extended, uprights required longer strings and taller cases. In Britain, ‘cabinet pianos’, standing perhaps 1·5 metres high with cases extending to the floor and tuning pins at the top, supplanted upright grands, and on the continent, uprights began to take on the shapes more familiar today. Steinway & Sons pioneered uprights shorter than the cabinet pianos incorporating all of the firm's innovations: cross-stringing on a single-piece iron frame, metal action frame (which helped to avoid warping of the action parts), sostenuto pedal, duplex scale, and single bridge. That form dominated the piano market until the Great Depression of the 1930s. Modifications have consisted mainly of a standardization of sizes. ‘Full’ uprights are about 120 to 130 cm. ‘Studios’ stand about 115 cm high, the ‘console’ piano about 105 cm, and the ‘spinet’ a tiny 90 cm (now almost entirely abandoned). Even the larger cases can accommodate only short, stiff strings. The solutions to the problems of the upright have by no means been solved, though Darrell Fandrich of Seattle, Washington, has completely redesigned the action, which has never been satisfactory. David Klavins of Bonn designed an enormous upright, over 3·5 metres tall, straight-strung, whose bottom string is 3 metres long. The keyboard is at the top of the instrument, and the pianist sits on a platform over 2 metres above the floor. Its sound is said to be astounding, as is its price.

EDWIN M. GOOD

Upshaw, Dawn

(b Nashville, TN, 17 July 1960). American soprano. While studying at the Manhattan School of Music, she took the title role in Hindemith's Sancta Susanna (1983), then Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Spoleto Festival (1984). She was engaged by the Metropolitan under the Development of Young Artists Program, progressing from small parts to Sophie (Werther), Sister Constance of St Denis and Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites), Ilia, Zerlina, Pamina, Susanna, Despina and Gretel. At the Salzburg Festival (from 1987) her roles have included Susanna and the Angel (Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise). She has appeared at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as Despina and Anne Trulove, one of her most vivid parts which, like several of her Mozart roles, she has recorded. Upshaw took the title role in Handel's Theodora at Glyndebourne in 1996, an interpretation recorded on video. Like all her portrayals, this was notable for its intense sincerity and conviction. With her pure, slender tone, frank manner and ease of communication she has had notable success on the recital platform, and has made delightful recordings of lieder, works by American composers and songs from musicals.

ALAN BLYTH