The piano, created by Bartolomeo Christofori in 1709, has impacted our society by becoming a popular instrument and a popular medium for musicians to create musical masterpieces. Also called the pianoforte, the piano is one of the most beautiful sounding instruments that can range in sound from as low as a gust of wind, to as high as the shrill sound of a bird. It has evolved over time and become an amazing instrument. The piano was accepted very well in history and it has generated many changes in the music industry. The piano was also used a lot in society and has had many applications grow from it. Without it, many classical masterpieces as well as modern songs wouldn’t have been possible.
There were many instruments that led to the invention of the piano. The first was the zither. Located in Africa and Southeast Asia, the zither was a stringed instrument found around 3,000 B.C. during the Bronze Age. There were many different kinds of zithers including the ground zither, the bar zither, and the board zither. All zithers were plucked. After the zither came the monochord. It was a scientific instrument in the sixth century B.C. It was used by the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who used it to try to prove that all laws of music are based on ratios. Originally, it only had one string, but more were added over time. When many strings were added, the monochord became the polychord. These two instruments were also plucked (Crombie 4-5).
The first instrument with strings meant for hitting was the dulcimer. It was trapezoidal in shape and was played with two padded hammers. It is still played today in folk music. The hurdy-gurdy, or the organistrum, was the earliest stringed instrument with a keyboard. It was created in the tenth ce...
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Since the first person heard the wind whistle through the trees or the sea in a seashell humans have been drawn to sound. Being the oppressive and ingenious species that we are we felt the need to capture these sounds and any others that we could to keep for our own. Eventually people like Pythagoras and gods such as Apollo found that by stretching materials and picking/plucking them that they would produce sounds and that the tighter you stretched these strings the higher the sound would go. These were the early beginnings of the pianoforte.
Susskind, Pamela. "Clara Schumann." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Ed. Stanley Sadie and George Grove. 1980. Print.
Due to the different eras between the Harpsichord and the Piano, a significant difference in their design, function and role is presented. In order to understand how each instrument developed, an analysis of each era needs to be provided first.
Sadie, Stanley. New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The. Vol. II New York: The MacMillan Company, 1928
It is believed that the Irish brought to the region the fiddle and the pipes. It is believed that the first stringed instrument, the dulcimer was brought by the Germans, Norwegians, Swedish and French. The dulcimer became known as the 1“Hog Fiddle” or “Music Box”.
- Norris, Jeremy Paul. The development of the Russian piano concerto in the nineteenth century. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1988. Print.
August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, tells a story of a family haunted by the pain of their past and their struggle to find peace to move forward. The story begins with character Boy Willie coming up from the south visiting his sister Bernice. Boy Willie introduces the idea of selling the family’s heirloom, a piano, to raise enough money to buy the land on which his ancestors were enslaved. However, both Boy Willie and his sister Berniece own half a half of the piano and she refuses to let Boy Willie sell it. Through the use of symbolism, Wilson uses his characters, the piano and the family’s situation to provide his intended audience with the lesson of exorcising our past in order to move forward in our lives. Our past will always be a part of our lives, but it does not limit or determine where we can go, what we can do, or who we can become.
Initially, the piano itself is a symbol of Berniece and Boy Willie’s past. The piano was from the family’s time in slavery. The piano was bought because their
Grove, George. The Musical Times Volume 47. United Kingdom: Musical Times Publications Ltd. 1906, Print.
To begin, the piano acts as an artifact. It essentially exists as a passageway back in time into the lives of Berniece, Doaker, and Boy Willie’s ancestors. First, I would like to discuss what the piano means to Berniece. At the end of the book, the exorcism takes
Music has shaped the lives of people throughout history. Even in its earliest forms, music has included use of instruments. One of the oldest musical instruments known is a variation of the flute; the original flute is thought to date back nearly 67,000 years ago. Tonight we are going to move throughout the eras with a history of instrumental music. This concert will begin with the Renaissance Era and continue through time until we have reached modern instrumental music.
Bie, Oscar. A History of the Pianoforte and Pianoforte Players. trans. by E. E. Kellett
Before the guitar was even thought of, there were instruments that showed some similarities. The first stringed instruments were around about 4000 years ago. The first few instruments were called tanburs and bowl harps. These instruments are made by taking a tortoise shell and attaching a stick to it, usually a bent one. After that, a few gut or silk strings were run from the stick to the middle of the shell. One of the oldest guitar-like instruments is about 3500 years old. This instrument belonged to an Egyptian singer named Har-Mose. He owned a tanbur, but his had three strings instead of just one or two. It was also made out of rawhide and cedar (Guy).