HISTORY AND ORIGINATORS OF KEYBOARD

Even Queen Elizabeth herself played the Virginal. Next came the Spinet, which, similarly to the Virginal, used quills to vibrate the strings. The idea of a square pianoforte was likely to have been come from the Spinet, The Harpsichord, which was of a slightly similar shape to the modern grand piano, came after the Spinet. It used crow-quills connected to a key by means of a “jack” to play the strings. It had two keyboards; with one an octave higher than the other.

He called it a “piano forte” (Italian for softloud) and was similar to the harpsichord. The piano used better materials and used a hammer to strike the strings, which improved the volume, intensity, length and emotion of the pieces. The Modern piano has seven octaves, 88 keys, made from ivory or plastic, wool covered hammers and cast iron frames. There were several styles of piano before the pianos used today. The square piano was invented in 1777 by Sebastian Erard in France.

The piano—originally known as the fortepiano or pianoforte—is one of the most globally recognized instruments in history. Its unique timbre distinguishes it from preceding keyboard instruments and even from modern keyboard instruments that attempt to imitate it. The pianoforte has made many changes and contributions to music, which can be seen through how it came to be, what composers first thought of the instrument, and how it affected orchestral music. Before the pianoforte was brought into existence, the keyboard instrument of the orchestra was the harpsichord. The timbre of the harpsichord was much different than that of the pianoforte, this being primarily because of the harpsichord’s strings being plucked, whereas the piano’s strings

Similar to a piano, the strings of a harpsichord are plucked to produce sound with no tonal variation. The harpsichord was utilized from the beginning of the Baroque period until the 19th century. With more instruments than any other category, the string section includes the violin, viola, violoncello, viol, contrabass, harp, and lute, these are very similar to the orchestral instruments we have today, except the lute which is similar to a guitar. Finally, included in the winds were the flute, oboe, bas... ... middle of paper ... ...tricate but orderly Baroque music is. Future composers would often revisit the foundational forms of the Baroque period and modify them as they wrote their own compositions.

concert middle C, on a piccolo clarinet), though some B♭ clarinets go down to E♭3 to enable them to match the range of the A clarinet. [8] On the B♭ soprano clarinet, the concert pitch of the lowest note is D3, a whole tone lower than the written pitch. Most alto and bass clarinets have an extra key to allow a (written) E♭3. Modern professional-quality bass clarinets generally have additional keywork to written C3. [9] Among the less commonly encountered members of the clarinet family, contra-alto and contrabass clarinets may have keywork to written E♭3, D3, or C3;[10] the basset clarinet and basset horn generally go to low.

In Europe flutes are often constructed of wood; silver is commonly used in the United States. 2. Oboe: The oboe is a soprano-range, double-reed woodwind instrument of length 62 cm. Its wooden tube is distinguished by a conical bore expanding at the end into a flaring bell. The modern oboe's range extends from the B-flat below middle C (B3-flat) to the A nearly three octaves higher (A6).

Harpsichord has the string which is plucked by a small plectrum, originally of quill. The variety of sound from these plucked instruments is achieved not primarily by finger pressure, but more subtly by phrasing and articulation. Variety of tonal color can be obtained, on a harpsichord by judicious choice of registration. Cristofori Pianoforte - The year 1709 is the one most sources give for the appearance of an instrument which can truly be called a "Pianoforte." The writer Scipione Maffei...

The vibrations from the strings cause the sound board to vibrate which makes the sound come through the harpsichord. There can also be different sounds produced depending on the lengths of the string on the instrument. If the harpsichord has multiple variations of strings the player has more availability to create different tones while playing. Since the harpsichord has multiple keyboards, it is easier for the player to choose which ones to play to produce the desired sound. The harpsichord has no dynamics though, so the loudness of the instrument stays the same no matter what string is plucked.

Instrumental music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras were called sonatas, concertos, and sinfonias interchangeably. The order and shape of their movements were often very similar. Works that used between five and seven violins with contino were often called sonatas and concertos, though they were more often like canzonas. Before Corelli’s concerto grosso, concerti often designated music that used both instruments and voices. However, during the last quarter of the Seventeenth Century, the concerto signified purely instrumental music, unless the title of the piece specified otherwise.

It was only in Italy that many harpsichords had three manuals. This aberration may have had something to do with the composition and style of dance and opera. The harpsichord dates back to the sixteenth century and the way it produces sound is even older. A harpsichord makes music by plucking a string; rather like a harp. Traditionally on the end of each key sat a crow, raven, or dove quill called a plectrum.