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We see them in homes,
restaurants, stores, concert
halls and stages, and a myriad of places too numerous and diverse to
mention. The repertoire of music written for it far surpasses that of
any other instrument, and is far larger than any virtuoso could ever
even have time to sample, let alone master. The modern piano is still
at the center of nearly every form of modern musical expression despite
the sensations of the electronic age that have tried to take its place.
It has even been a regular inhabitant and performer at the White House,
in the form of spectacular and often ornate "presidential pianos." The
instrument is so common, in fact, that most people, even most "piano
fans," never stop to consider what a marvellous creation the piano
really is.
"Whoever invented this
thing must really have been a genius," the piano
teacher or technician often hears. Yet like many other "inventions"
around us, the ingenuity of the piano cannot be credited to just one
genius. It has, in fact, been referred to as "a very clever bundle of inventions."
EARLY FORERUNNERS
The
piano is, all at once, (1) a keyboard
instrument (activating the sound-producing mechanism by means of
depressing a movable key); (2) a stringed
instrument (producing its sound by means of a vibrating string),
and
(3) a percussion instrument
(producing sound by means of a striking action, as opposed to plucking,
bowing, or blowing air). Examples of all three of these
instruments existed in some form even in ancient times. The
monochord (below left) is
an example of a very basic stringed
instrument, and the hammer dulcimer
(below right) is an ancient
stringed instrument which activated the strings by striking them with
mallets, thus using a percussive
action.
THE RENAISSANCE
During the European
Renaissance, beginning around the 1500's, the piano
began a period of rapid development. The clavichord (below left) was an instrument
(usually box-shaped) with
keys, strings, and a soundboard, and produced
its sound by means of a brass pin (called a tangent or clavicle), on each
key, hitting the string. Volume could be varied by the intensity of the
blow given to the key. Yet its mechanics were so primitive, and its
sound so soft, that the clavichord was avoided by most serious
musicians.
The virginal
(below
center) and harpsichord
(below right), both produced
their sound by plucking the string rather than striking it. Most
virginal, however, were rather small and rectangular (unlike the one
pictured here), and thus had the same sound limitations of the
clavichord. Thus, they were usually confined to the home where
they were the keyboard instrument most used by young women -- thus, the
name virginal.
THE RENAISSANCE
The Harpsichord was the instrument of
J.S. Bach, Handel, and
other Baroque composers. (1600's and 1700's). It
consisted of a keyboard; a set of strings stretched across a board that
amplified their sound (thus the term "soundboard"); and, for each
string, a tiny "quill" which plucked the string as the key was
depressed. But while the sound of this instrument was quite beautiful,
the harpsichord lacked one major thing: volume control . No matter how
hard one hit the key, the volume and quality of sound, generally
speaking, were the same. But the greatest harpsichords, which
contained multiple sets of strings which could be turned on or off (an
entire "choir" of strings at a time) by shifting a lever, were at least
able to produce enough volume for concert purposes, but what was
lacking was the ability to control volume one key at a time. (The
above photo at right pictures the "Flemish single"
Harpsichord containing two sets of jacks and strings, an 8' and a 4'
"choir." built from a kit by Zuckermann
Harpsichords.)
EARLY PIANOS
The harpsichord was
wing-shaped and thus, in
that regard, the forerunner of the modern grand piano. But what was to be the great benefit of the
piano over these earlier instruments was the musician's ability to
control the volume. It was the percussive action, and not
plucking, that was to allow this feature. It was first presented,
in the early 1700's, as an instrment that could play "piano e forte" --
"soft and loud" -- the name which survives to this day in the name piano.
The
Cristofori Piano:
The earliest
"piano" is generally agreed to be the one produced by an Italian named
Cristofori in 1711. It's action was quite primitive by modern
standards, and provided no "escapement mechanism" to get the hammer
away from the string after being struck, but he added this feature in
his improved instrument of 1720.
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The great composers
of the late baroque and classical eras wrote beautiful music for an
instrument that was still, in many respects, still primitive when
compared to modern standards. The pianos of J.S. Bach (below left), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(below center) and Ludwig van
Beethoven (below right) would
not satisfy any great pianist of our day, for various reasons, but we
can assume that they would have discarded them in a moment for the
chance to play on the marvellous instrument which the modern concert
piano has become.
THE MODERN PIANO
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The modern piano evolved as the result of a series
of improvements.
Jonas Chickering, for example, was granted the first patent in 1837 for
his metal
frame, the strength of which allowed for much heavier strings, which in
turn
gave the instrument a "larger" tone. The first plates (as in
illustration to left)
were a rather primitive arrangement of metal bars attached to
each other; Later plates, like the modern Steinway plate in the
illustration to the right
(courtesty Steinway & Sons), were forged marvels of modern
design and engineering. |
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In 1855, the Steinway
company, in 1855,
found a way to make the piano smaller without sacrificing sound ("more
bang
for the buck," if you will) by crossing the bass strings over top of
the
treble strings (this was called the overstrung
scale and is shown below:
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Modern grand partially strung, shown
before the installation of the the bass strings.
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A similar modern grand piano with the bass
strings installed over the treble strings.
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Throughout the 19th
century,
continual improvements were made in the design and manufacture of piano
actions
(the moving parts of the piano), hammers, strings, frames, and
soundboards, resulting
in the emergence of the "modern" piano by around 1900. By this time,
the instrument had reached such a degree of perfection that no major
change has
occurred since.
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