Piano History Essay

The harpsichord is particularly effective in performing contrapuntal music—that is, music that consists of two or more melodies played at the same time, such as that of the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Construction and Mechanism The harpsichord usually has a wing-shaped body, or case, like a grand piano; however, its proportions are narrower and longer, and the case and its inner bracing are normally lighter. Harpsichords have also been built in other shapes. These include the virginal, or virginals, a small oblong instrument; the spinet, a small polygonal harpsichord; and the less common clavicytherium, an upright harpsichord. From the 16th to 19th century the terms spinet and virginal were often used interchangeably, and in England during that era any harpsichord was called a virginal.

Baroque composers preferred the crisp, sharp, and pointed sound of the harpsichord that cut through the sound of the rest of the orchestra. According to an article on the early pianoforte, Bartolomeo Cristofori knew of the flawed sound of his new instrument, and so he altered the surface of the hammers and their positioning so that the pianoforte’s sound would not become “tiresome” (Sutherland 341). Baroque composers disinterest in the pianoforte is understandable considering that the Baroque era of music was winding down as the pianoforte was becoming popular, ushering in the Classical

In addition to being a key factor in almost all western music styles, the piano has had a rich and eventful history. The piano can be directly linked to two instruments of centuries past. The first is the clavichord, a box-like structure in which strings are stretched, and struck by metal blades to produce notes and pitches. The clavichord could be manipulated to produce different chords, but even at it's best, could barely be heard by anyone other than the player (Swan 42). Intent upon creating a superior to the clavichord, musical engineers created the harpsichord.

The instrument has many keys which were created from ebony and ivory. The harpsichord has chords which were made from brass wire, that are vertical to the instruments keyboards. The harpsichord has a piece called the ‘jack,’ that is attached to another piece that plucks the strings which causes a vibration and produces a sound. The way a harpsichord player can tune the instrument is with the tuning pin, that is located near the player. The harpsichord strings are wrapped around the tuning pin and to tune the instrument, the player has to adjust the tension with a wrench.

Gottfried Silbermann, a German keyboard builder who was already famous for his accomplished work on the clavichord, took Cristofori’s design and improved it. Although Silbermann and Cristofori were both keyboard makers, Silbermann had further knowledge of mechanical systems which allowed him to advance Cristofori’s design. Silbermann was friends with J. S. Bach, who would deliver critiques on the newest mechanical tests Silbermann was working on at the time. Bach thought that the keys were too heavy to the touch, and that the high notes were too quiet (Sartorius). Piano designs up until this point resembled the harpsichord which are now called grand pianos.

In addition, other string instruments also begin to vibrate, becoming a secondary source of sound. The right pedal is used for two purposes: to make a recoverable sequence of sounds inextricable (play legato) and enrich the sound of new overtones. The left pedal is used to attenuate sound. In grand pianos it achieved a shift to the right of the hammers, so that instead of three strings choir they hit only two (in the past sometimes only one). In piano hammers closer to the strings.

The speaker of the poem is the player piano itself, tracing the steps of a player piano while playing tunes already recorded on its paper rolls. Equally cheerful and entertaining the poem gives the reader a fascinating perspective into the humanistic qualities of this machine. Although the player piano is performing a normally human type task without the assistance of a human, the playing of piano composition is usually composed and played by a physical human. Therefore, the machine’s perception of its tasks are unique in comparison to an actual human musician. By using diction to communicate his ideas, Updike successfully introduces the reader to the essence of a "Player Piano”.

The hammer size graduates from bass to treble in order to produce the range of pitch available on a piano along with the string size. The harpsichord has different sized strings, but generally uses the same size jacks. When playing Baroque pieces on the piano, I generally discard any pedal use, since no keyboard instrument in the baroque era had any pedals. Ornamentations is a necessity due to the popularity as well as the expression you can achieve out of them. A limited the dynamic range is also essential, due to the terraced dynamics of the harpsichord.

I believe the piano has adapted over the years more so than other instruments. Reviewing how and when the piano changed as well as the modern piano is a great way to appreciate its worth and uniqueness. Like everything else in existence, the piano has an origin. Stringed instruments had been around for a while, but to put such chords in a box was a different story. At around 1700, a man by the name of Bartolomeo Christofori from Padua, Italy ("Piano").

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.