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The piano, or more completely, the pianoforte,
which today is the most popular of domestic instruments, has
been a major factor in European musical life since the early
18th century. No stringed instrument has inspired a larger
or more diverse repertoire or attracted as large a number
of both amateur and professional players.
The piano is a descendant and amalgam of two
different instruments. Its strings and hammers suggest the
dulcimer, while its keyboard mechanism recalls the harpsichord
and clavichord. In what seems an attempt to merge the clavichord's
ability to vary notes dynamically with the harpsichord's crisp
brilliance, the Italian harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori
invented an instrument he called a gravicembalo col piano
e forte, or "harpsichord with loudness and softness."
The term piano e forte had been applied to earlier keyboard
instruments. In the late 16th century and throughout the 17th,
mention was made of instruments that were capable of encompassing
a wide dynamic range.
Despite many tentative attempts by others
to develop such an instrument, it was Cristofori who, in Florence
in 1709, perfected the mechanical action that resulted in
what is now known as the piano. Replacing the harpsichord's
mechanism were hammers, usually covered with leather or felt,
that struck the strings when activated by a series of keys.
To stop the sound, the mechanism was equipped with dampers
that fell on the strings to deaden the sound as soon as the
player's fingers released the keys. Foot pedals came into
general use in the late 18th century and were perfected during
the course of the 19th, allowing the player to increase, diminish,
or sustain the sound. These innovations gave the instrument
its forceful sonority and provided the player with a high
degree of musical control.
Cristofori's idea spread, and throughout the
18th century many attempts were made to refine both the inner
workings and outer shape of the piano. The German organ builder
Johann Silbermann experimented with pianos that had a mechanical
action of his devising. A Silbermann apprentice Johannes Zumpe,
who worked in England for the Shudi firm of harpsichord makers,
is credited with popularizing, and possibly inventing, the
square piano in the late 18th century. The upright piano,
with strings running perpendicularly up from the keyboard,
was also devised in the late 1700s.
Pianos became even more forceful instruments
with the introduction in the early 19th century of the iron
frame, replacing frames of wood. The iron frame enabled strings
to be held at higher tension, making possible a stronger sound.
Whereas the original Cristofori piano had two strings to each
note, contemporary instruments have one string for the very
lowest notes, two for the large middle expanse of the keyboard,
and--because of the decreased resonance that each string produces
individually--three strings for notes at the top of the range.
The piano's soundboard serves the same function
as does the wooden body of a violin: it causes the sound to
resonate and project. It is often made of spruce or fir and
is found beneath the strings in a grand piano and behind them
in an upright.
Although pianos have been made in a variety
of shapes in the years since their invention, today there
are two standard models--the grand and the upright, each in
different sizes. Grand pianos can exceed 9 feet (3 meters)
in length but are normally approximately 6 feet (2 meters)
in length. Uprights sometimes occupy no more space than a
small bookcase or can resemble a more substantial console.
Experiments--including pianos with double keyboard, pianos
tuned in microtones, and pianos with tuning forks in place
of strings--are of historical interest but have no practical
applications. In the 20th century there was a desire to return
to the sound of the earlier piano of
the classical period, with a thinner sound at less tension.
At first it was known as a Mozart piano, but fortepiano became
the generally accepted term
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From Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1999 The
Learning Company, Inc.
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