| The piano, that common instrument of school | | | | are three Cristofori pianofortes still in existence, |
| music programs, appears to be the ultimate | | | | dating back to the 1720s. |
| expression of the stringed musical instrument, | | | | Cristofori's original pianos had several differences |
| which date back to the lyre and the harp. Pianos | | | | from the modern pianos we've come to expect - |
| (a shortening of the compound term "piano-forte") | | | | for one, they only covered four octaves, rather |
| work by striking wires with felted (or leather | | | | than the modern piano's seven-and-a-half octaves. |
| headed) hammers, with a redaction mechanism | | | | Second, because of the materials used at the |
| that pulls the hammerhead away from the wire | | | | time, it was considerably softer in sound than the |
| before it can dampen out the sound. Because the | | | | modern instrument. Third, it had no damper pedals |
| force of the hammer strike is generally | | | | for lifting the dampers from the string. The |
| proportional to the stroke on the key, this allows | | | | damper pedals were an invention of Gottfried |
| a piano to play a note softly (piano) or loudly | | | | Silbermann, who made near direct copies of the |
| (forte), leading to its name. | | | | Cristofori piano otherwise, and tried to get Johann |
| The immediate predecessors of the pianoforte | | | | Sebastian Bach interested in the instrument for |
| were the clavichord and the harpsichord, both of | | | | compositions and concert performances. |
| which tried to combine the ease of play of a | | | | Bach was notably unimpressed with Silbermann's |
| traditional organ keyboard with the expressive | | | | early pianos, claiming that the upper range would |
| range (and general portability) of a large concert | | | | be too quiet to make an effective concert hall |
| harp. Of the two predecessor instruments, the | | | | instrument. While this brooked a fair bit of |
| harpsichord was the more common, and used a | | | | animosity between the instrument maker and the |
| mechanism that plucked the strings (and later | | | | reknowned composer and concert artist, in the |
| wires) of the instrument when a key was hit. This | | | | end, Bach was right. It wasn't until 40 years later |
| lead to a distinctive "plinking" or "plucking" sound, | | | | that Bach actually endorsed the creation of a |
| more like a strung harp, but lacked the ability to | | | | piano, mostly after Silbermann's apprentices |
| adjust the volume of a given note, and had only | | | | worked on variations of the design. |
| limited ability to change the duration of a note. | | | | Nearly from its inception, the main driving force in |
| While the harpsichord provided the mechanism for | | | | the evolution of the piano was to make it louder |
| tying keys to striking particular strings that was | | | | and brighter in the high notes. Several innovations |
| used to make the first pianos, the clavichord (an | | | | have been incorporated into the design to do this. |
| earlier instrument, invented in the 15th century, | | | | Among them include more precise mechanisms |
| was the first keyboard instrument to strike the | | | | for swinging the hammers, high tensile steel |
| strings by key stroke, hitting them from the side | | | | replacing the catgut strings, and changes to the |
| with a small (dull) blade called a tangent. | | | | surfaces of the hammers and their materials, plus |
| Clavichords fell out of favor in the 17th century, | | | | innovations in resonator and fretboard spaces to |
| and were virtually unheard of from roughly 1750 | | | | give the instruments a greater range, such as the |
| to 1890, when a number of musical instrument | | | | double key escarpment, which allowed a note to |
| shops began making them again as a smaller | | | | be repeated even if the hammer hadn't risen |
| complement to the piano. | | | | back to its full resting position. |
| Prior to the clavichord, the first real stringed | | | | The high point of piano evolution happened in the |
| instrument that used hammers was the dulcimer, | | | | 19th century, with the development of felted |
| with variations such as the cymbalon and the | | | | hammers (allowing higher string tension), better |
| readis spreading through the Balkan regions. All of | | | | quality steel for the wire, iron frames on the |
| these instruments relied on the player to strike | | | | sounding board, and several other innovations of |
| strings with small hammers, often times holding | | | | note; it was in the late 19th century that the |
| multiple hammers with different heads in the gaps | | | | upright piano was perfected, allowing the piano to |
| between their fingers, to get different tonal | | | | move from the concert hall to the parlors of the |
| ranges, including a felted head for dampening a | | | | middle class, where the ability to play the piano |
| string. | | | | was a sign of culture and refinement, a place that |
| The first true pianoforte was built in 1700 by | | | | it still holds today, albeit to a much reduced |
| Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy. His patrons, | | | | extent. |
| the Medicis, commissioned the first ones; there | | | | |