A chiroplast is an instrument to guide the hands and fingers of pupils in playing on the piano, invented and patented by Johann Bernhard Logier in 1814.[1][2] The instrument was a device that placed the wrist, thumb and fingers of a hand above five consecutive white keys of a keyboard, to overcome the difficulty of retaining their proper position by beginners.[1]
The instrument was a key part of Logier's system of teaching, which was one of the first to call for the teaching of multiple students at once.[3] The use of the chiroplast caused a significant amount of criticism and controversy at the time,[1] at least part of which was due to the heavy opposition to Logier's system by musicians fearing the loss of their students to centralized institutions teaching multiple students at once.[2]
After being invented by Logier in 1814, it quickly became used by many.[4] It was very popular in London in the 1810s and 1820s.[5] In 1822, Logier was invited by the Prussian government to Germany to set up a school instructing teachers on how to teach the use of the device in the country.[4]
The device consisted of a wooden framework screwed into place over the whole length of the keyboard.[2] The user passed their wrists through two parallel wooden bars,[2] which kept the hands at the correct distance from the keys.[5] They then put their fingers into slots in two flat brass frames called "finger-guides" which could freely slide horizontally along a brass rod along the whole length of the keyboard.[2] Each finger-guide had five divisions, through which each finger was placed.[6] Each finger-guide was also attached to a stiff brass wire with a regulating screw, which kept the wrist in the proper position relative to the arm.[6][clarification needed]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Maitland, John Alexander Fuller (1888). "Eager, John". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 16. pp. 311–312.
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