The History Of The Piano Essay Research

The History Of The Piano Essay, Research Paper

The History of the Piano

The piano has seen many sights and has been a part of countless

important events in the past and present, and is said to have

dominated music for the past 200 years (Welton). Throughout

history, inventions come along that “take art away from princes

and give it the people” (Swan 41). Not unlike the printing

press, the piano made what was once intangible possible: the

poorest of peasants could enjoy the same music that their beloved

rulers did. The piano can be played by “the rankest of amateurs,

and the greatest of virtuosos” (Swan 41); so even if a person is

not very intelligent, a simple tune can easily be learned. 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 harpsichord used a frame

similar to modern grand-pianos, but utilized a wooden bar and a

quill to pluck strings (the jack), which amplified the sound of a

clavichord greatly. Harpsichords were more expensive

clavichords and became a fad in sixteenth and seventeenth century

England (Rice 185).

The harpsichord was a particularly important development

leading to the invention of the piano. “Its ability to project

sound more loudly than its predecessors, and refinements in the

action of striking the keys inspired many more musicians to

compose for the keyboard and thus, to perform keyboard works”

(Grover 128). However, the harpsichord was limited to one,

unvarying volume. Its softness and loudness remained the same

while playing. Therefore, performing artists could not achieve

the degree of musical expression of most other instruments. The

artistic desire for more controlled expression led directly to

the invention of the piano, on which the artist could alter the

loudness and tone with the force of his/her fingers (129).

The first piano appeared in Italy sometime around 1693,

originally named the gravicembolo col piano e forte (“the

harpsichord with loud and soft”). An Italian harpsichord-maker

named Bartolomeo Cristofori “replaced harpsichord’s jacks with

leather covered hammers, activated by a remarkable mechanical

system” (Hollis 51). Where the harpsichord could only make a

string produce one sound, the new piano could be played loud or

soft, make dynamic accents, and could produce gradations of

sounds (52). Even though this new invention attracted little

attention at the time (because of the existing popularity of the

harpsichord), the piano would captivate the world in the years to

come.

Cristofori made only two pianos before he died in 1731, but

an article was written about the new invention, and the article

made it’s way to Germany. There, an organ-builder named

Gottfried Silbermann read the article and became fascinated with

the idea of a modified harpsichord (Hollis 54). Additionally,

Silbermann had recently seen a performance dedicated to Louis XIV

which included a piece of music played on a huge dulcimer, which

is played by striking strings with a mallet. One end of the

mallet was hard, while the other was covered with soft leather.

Fascinated and inspired, Silbermann set out to create a piano of

his own, using leather covered hammers (54).

When Silbermann’s first piano was finished in 1736, the

great composer Johannes Sebastian Bach evaluated it. “Bach

admired the tone, but complained that the action was heavy and

the upper register weak” (Hollis 55). Though slightly

discouraged, Silbermann introduced his piano to King Frederick

the Great, who was thrilled with this new instrument. It has

been rumored that the king acquired 15 of Silbermann’s pianos,

but if this is true, only three have made it into the twentieth

century. The acceptance of the piano by King Frederick began what

is known as the Twilight Era, a time of transition between the

rejection of the harpsichord and the acceptance of the piano

(56).

In the late seventeenth century, the piano had begun to shed

the reputation of an improved harpsichord, and was starting to be

recognized as an entirely new instrument. The piano’s popularity

steadily increased partially due to the standard of living at

that time. Helen Rice Hollis exemplified this by writing:

…economic and social factors influenced the increased

use of the piano. Clavichords were inexpensive but their

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