The piano is an instrument that can be traced back through the centuries; there are no debates about that statement. Nevertheless, there are several different views on what begins the history of the piano. In his book, Pianos and their Makers, Alfred Dolge begins with the Monochord in 582 B. C., which was used by Pythagoras. However, Ernest Closson begins his History of the Piano with the clavichord and gives only five paragraphs to the influences from before. Everyone has their own interpretation of what the history of the piano is; however an instrument is just a piece of mechanical parts without the music that was played on it.
The modern piano is an odd mix of instrument types; it’s both a percussive and a string instrument. When a key is pressed, a hammer strikes a string, which produces the note. We know that percussion instruments such as drums were made as far back as we have discovered written documents and probably long before. However, it is more difficult to determine exactly what the string instruments were like. We have some documentation found in the Bible that speak of harps and lyres, but there is no concrete knowledge of tuning or the style of music played; we can only guess at it using what few written sources that survive. However, we have drawings of the lyres and harps that were used. The harps used by the Assyrians for example, were held or hung against the player’s chest while he played which also enabled him to dance or walk easily during ceremonies. Conversely, the Egyptian harps were made in a variety of sizes and were either set on the floor or a stand. The player stood or crouched to play it during more intimate settings. (Blom 8) The Greek lyre however was plucked compared to the harp’s...
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Creese, David. N.p.. Web. 28 Feb 2014. .
"Definition of Plectrum." Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Web. 13 Apr 2014. .
Ripin, Edwin M., John Barnes, Alfons Huber, Beryl Kenyon de Pascual, and Barry Kernfeld. "Clavichord." Grove Music Online. 2014.
Hanning, Barbara Russano, and Donald Jay Grout. Concise History Of Western Music. 4th. New York: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2010. print.
Bach, Johann S. "NaxosMusicLibrary.com: Not Authorized." Naxos Music Library Recent Additions. Naxos Digital Services, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Stolba, M. K. (1998) The Development of Western Music, A History, Third Edition. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 20 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1980)9: 708-709
Howard, John Tasker, and George Kent Bellows. A Short History of Music in America. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1957. 342-3. Print.
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.
" p.227. ibid. 5 "The piano is mine, it's mine." 6. Mary Paul cites A History of Private Life as discovering 2000 scenes in 19th Century literature mentioning pianos. Reading Readings.
Haskell, Harry. The Early Music Revival: a History. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1996. Google Books. Web. 10 Nov. 2011.
Sadie, Stanley. New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The. Vol. II New York: The MacMillan Company, 1928
When it comes to classic musical instrument, piano is definitely one of the names that pop up in your mind. Indeed, after its first appearance around the year of 1700, piano has never left the stage of high culture and top class performance. Till today, three hundred years have past since it was first invented. Surely, a lot of changes have been made during this long period of evolution, the designers learnt to utilize better materials but the basic inner mechanism have stayed the same. However, the outside appearance of piano did changed a few times throughout the course of time. The first piano borrowed quite a bit of its look and design from the harpsichord because it was invented by Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori, an Italian harpsichord maker. (Powers, W. 2008) Namely, a noticeable amount of improvements have been made during the evolution of the instrument base on the demand of the time and arena. In this essay, stringed instruments with keyboard which are in the
...f. Th.Reinach, La musique grecque, Payot, Paris, 1926; C.Sachs, The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, W.W.Norton & Comp. Inc. New York, 1969.
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).
In the text book America’s Musical Landscape by Jean Ferris, the book takes us through the history of the evolution of American music. The book delves into the different time periods of America’s music beginning with early North American music all the way to today’s modern music. Additionally, the book also explains how music, theater and film intertwine to provide some spectacular art. Jean Ferris finishes the book by exploring America’s concert music. Let us now take a closer look into the different time periods brought out in the book.
At first glance you may think that harp and piano look nothing alike, but you would be surprised by how similar these instruments really are. The instruments look alike in three main ways: size, shape, and structure. It is no secret that both harp and piano are unnecessarily large and bulky instruments that seem almost impossible to move. They both weigh a lot and are awkward in size when it comes to transporting them. Along with size, both harp and piano have similar shapes. If you put these instruments side by side, it would seem otherwise, but it’s all about perspective. If you look at a piano from a top view, you will see that the shape is that of a harp. Some might even say that piano is a sideways harp, not the other way around, because, in fact, harp was invented first. The structure of these two instruments is also very similar. Much like shape, it doesn’t seem like they are alike in any way when it comes to structure, but they actually are! Though the piano is played by pressing down on the keys, both
Smith, Jane Stuart and Betty Carlson. The Gift of Music: Great Composers and their Influence. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1995. Print