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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.
(From Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia Deluxe © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc.)
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