piano
A musical instrument that is classified as a keyboard, percussion, or string instrument.
Playing the piano is wide spread in western music for solo performances, chamber music, and accompaniment, and is also popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal.
The piano produces sound by striking steel strings with felt hammers. Vibrations are transmitted through the bridges to the soundboard.
The word piano is a shortened from the word pianoforte, seldom used except in formal language and derived from the original Italian name for the instrument, gravicèmbalo col piano e forte literally meaning harpsichord with soft and loud.
This refers to an ability of the piano to produce notes at different volumes depending on how hard the keys are pressed.
The piano is similar to a clavichord and
harpsichord as a keyboard instrument. These instruments differ in mechanisms of
sound production. In a harpsichord, strings are plucked by quills or similar items.
In the clavichord, strings are struck by tangents, which remain in contact with
the string. In piano, the strings are struck by hammers which immediately rebound,
leaving the string to vibrate.
Cristofori of Florence, Italy, invented the
first pianoforte. He called it a gravicèmbalo con piano e forte. It is
not entirely clear when he constructed the instrument, but an inventory made by
Cristofori's employers, the Medici family, indicates an existence of early an
Cristofori instrument by the year 1701. Cristofori built only about twenty pianofortes
before he died in 1731; the three that have survived until today date from the
1720s.
Like many other inventions, the pianoforte was founded on earlier
technological ideas..In the 18 th century keyboard instruments were evolving on
a rapid rate. Since first appearing in the middl 16th century, the harpsichord
with its mechanically plucked strings held at low tension became ubiquitous. By
adding keyboards and other devices to modify sound, the harpsichord became more
versatile, but composers and performers were increasingly looking for ideas to
derive more expression in performing music, specifically in the touch of the keyboard.
In particular, it benefited from centuries of work on the harpsichord, which had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and keyboard. Cristofori, himself a harpsichord maker, was well acquainted with the body of knowledge.
Cristofori's great success was in solving, without any prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design the hammers must strike the string, but not touch it once they have struck. Moreover, the hammers must return to their rest position without bouncing violently, and it must be possible to repeat a note rapidly. Cristofori's piano action served as a model for the many approaches to piano actions. Cristofori's early instruments were made with thin strings and were much quieter than the modern piano. Compared to the clavichord, however, they were considerably louder and had more sustaining power.
During the 1700s, Cristofori's ideas were taken up especially by German organ builders such as Silbermann, and by the middle of the century, a number of hybrid instruments had appeared: 'compound' keyboards which combined plucked - string and hammer action pianos with stops to produce a harpsichord effect.
For example, the Italian word 'cembalo' is a shortened form of
'clavicembalo' which means 'harpsichord'; but when Mozart writes 'cembalo' in
a concerto score, he means 'fortepiano' - the latest stage in the evolution of
the hammered as opposed to plucked keyboard instrument.
Cristofori's new instrument remained relatively unknown until an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei, wrote an enthusiastic article about it (1711), including a diagram of the idea. This article was widely distributed, and most of the next generation of piano builders started their work as a result of reading it. One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Silbermann's pianos were virtually direct copies of Cristofori's, with one important addition: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper pedal (also known as the sustaining pedal or loud pedal), which lifts all the dampers from the strings at once. Virtually all subsequent pianos incorporated some version of Silbermann's idea.
Silbermann
showed Bach one of his early instruments in the 1730s, who did not like it at
that time, claiming that the higher notes were too soft to allow a full dynamic
range. Although this earned him some animosity from Silbermann, the criticism
was apparently heeded. Bach did approve of a later instrument he saw in 1747,
and even served as an agent in selling Silbermann's pianos.
In the lengthy period lasting from about 1790 to 1890, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes which led to the modern form of the instrument. This evolution was in response to a consistent preference by composers and pianists for a more powerful, sustained piano sound. It was also a response to the ongoing Industrial Revolution, which made available technological resources like high-quality steel for strings (see piano wire) and precision casting for the production of iron frames.
Over time, piano playing became a more strenuous and muscle-taxing activity, as the force needed to depress the keys, as well as the length of key travel, was increased. The tonal range of the piano was also increased, from the five octaves of Mozart's day to the 7 1/3 (or even more) octaves found on modern pianos.
In the first part of this era, technological progress owed much to the English firm of Broadwood, which already had a strong reputation for the splendour and powerful tone of its harpsichords. Over time, the Broadwood instruments grew progressively larger, louder, and more robustly constructed. The Broadwood firm, which sent pianos to both Haydn and Beethoven, was the first to build pianos with a range of more than five octaves: five octaves and a fifth during the 1790s, six octaves by 1810 (in time for Beethoven to use the extra notes in his later works), and seven octaves by 1820. The Viennese makers followed these trends. The two schools, however, used different piano actions: the Broadwood one more robust, the Viennese more sensitive.
By the 1820s, the center of innovation had shifted to Paris, where the Érard firm manufactured pianos used by Chopin and Liszt. In 1821, Sébastien Érard invented the double escapement action, which permitted a note to be repeated even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position, a great benefit for rapid playing.
Some other important technical innovations of this era include the following:
use
of three strings rather than two for all but the lower notes
the iron frame.
The iron frame, also called the "plate", sits atop the soundboard, and
serves as the primary bulwark against the force of string tension. The iron frame
was the ultimate solution to the problem of structural integrity as the strings
were gradually made thicker, tenser, and more numerous The single piece cast iron
frame was patented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus Babcock, culminating an earlier
trend to use ever more iron parts to reinforce the piano. Babcock later worked
for the Chickering & Mackays firm, where the first iron frame in grand pianos
(1843) was developed.
felt hammers. The harder, tauter steel strings required
a softer hammer type to maintain good tone quality. Hammers covered with compressed
felt were introduced by the Parisian maker Jean-Henri Pape in 1826, and are now
universally used.
the sostenuto pedal , invented in 1844 by Jean Louis Boisselot
and improved by the Steinway firm in 1874.
the overstrung scale, also called
"cross-stringing". The strings are placed in a vertically overlapping
slanted arrangement, with two heights of bridges on the soundboard, rather than
just one. This permits larger, but not necessarily longer, strings to fit within
the case of the piano. Overstringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the
1820s, and first patented for use in grand pianos in the United States by Henry
Steinway Jr. in 1859.
Duplex scaling: Treble strings of a 182 cm. grand
piano. From lower left to upper right: dampers, main sounding length of strings,
treble bridge, duplex string length, duplex bridge (long bar perpendicular to
strings), hitchpins.duplexes or aliquot scales. In 1872 Theodore Steinway patented
a system to control different components of string vibrations by tuning their
secondary parts in octave relationships with the sounding lengths. Similar systems
developed by Blüthner (1872), as well as Taskin (1788), and Collard (1821)
used more distinctly ringing undamped vibrations to modify tone.
Today's
upright, grand, and concert grand pianos attained their present forms by the end
of the 19th century. Improvements have been made in manufacturing processes, and
many individual details of the instrument continue to receive attention (see Innovations
in the Piano).
Some early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use.
The square piano had horizontal strings arranged diagonally across rectangular case above hammers and with keyboard set in t long side, it is variously attributed to Silbermann and Frederici and was improved by Petzold and Babcock. Built in quantity through the 1890s (in the United States), Steinway's celebrated iron framed overstrung squares were more than two and a half times the size of Zumpe's wood framed instruments that were successful a century before, their overwhelming popularity was due to inexpensive construction and price, with performance and sonority frequently restricted by single actions and double stringing.
The tall vertically strung upright grand was arranged with the soundboard and bridges perpendicular to keys, and above them so that the strings did not extend to the floor. Diagonally strung Giraffe, pyramid and lyre pianos employed this principle in more evocatively shaped cases.
The very tall cabinet piano introduced by Southwell in 1806 and built through the 1840s had strings arranged vertically on a continuous frame with bridges extended nearly to the floor, behind the keyboard and very large sticker action.
The short cottage upright or pianino with vertical stringing, credited to Robert Wornum about 1810 was built into the 20th century. They are informally called birdcage pianos because of their prominent damper mechanism. Pianinos were distinguished from the oblique, or diagonally strung upright made popular in France by Roller & Blanchet during the late 1820s.
The tiny overstrung spinet upright had a compact full iron frame and a so-called drop action arranged below the level of the keys. Spinet pianos were first manufactured in the mid-1930s. These smaller pianos are well-suited for people who live in smaller houses or apartments, and their lighter weight makes them easier to move. Spinet pianos, however, have their drawbacks. The drop-action and shorter keys make it harder for a pianist to have dynamic control while playing, and the shorter strings result in a less wide range of harmonics. A few piano technicians will not even service spinet pianos as their drop-action design makes them difficult to work on. Presently, very few companies are making spinet pianos.
Modern pianos produce a rich but cloudy sound in the bass region. What makes the fortepiano ideal for the performance of Mozart's music is the clarity it offers in these lower registers, where Mozart would often make use of the 'Alberti' bass figure of oscillating notes. A fortepiano is used by Ronald Brautigam in the recording of Piano Concerto No 20 featured in this television series. The delicate fortepiano sound and feel comes from the low depth of key strike and the low pressure required to depress the key.
As well as the Walter instrument, Mozart used a piano by Franz Jakob Späth, but we know from a well-known letter to his father Leopold, of 17 October 1777, that Mozart's favourite instrument at the time was made in Augsburg by Johann Andreas Stein. In the letter, Mozart explains the musical qualities which he's looking for in the piano.
A Grand piano is the most famous type of piano.
Foreign names
Klavier = German
Piano = Spain
Piano = France
Piano = Dutch
Pianoforte = Italian
Klavieres - Latviešu (Latvia)
Anagrams
'Piano player'' = Irony appeal
'Piano
keys' = 'Noisy peak.
Hoshi Sato a character in Star Trek enterprise who is the communications and linguist officer, on board the star ship enterprise. For a moment, loses all hope in the mission and wishes that she should have taken her mother's advice to stay home and learn to play the piano. Later discovers Degra's hidden message with the databanks of an Aquatic escape pod.
In Star Trek Deep space nince Vic Fontaine is a fictional holographic entertainer appearing in a program run in one of Quark's holosuites on the space station Deep Space Nine. In one scene he plays Piano with Odo.
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