Demonstrating the close link between the two important piano-making dynasties of the period, the Stein-Streicher and Scheidmayer families, De Silva (emerita music, Scripps College and music Claremont Graduate U., California) presents two published, closely related 19th-century German fortepiano manuals, and a related unpublished workshop notebook from approximately 1778-1821. She also includes essays about the families, their link by marriage, the move from Augsberg to Vienna, and further development of keyboard mechanisms there. She has completely revised and expanded her 1983 translation of Andreas Streicher's Brief Remarks. The notebook, by Johan David Scheidmayer and his son Johann Lorenze, provided further links to the two manuals, and sheds light on the three keyboard makers from a period about which many questions persist. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)