Who invented the piano: date of creation, history of appearance, development and evolution of a musical instrument

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The creation of such a musical instrument as the piano made a big revolution in the European musical culture of the 18th century. Let's dive deeper into this story and take a closer look at where and when the piano was invented.

The beginning of the story

In 1709, in such a beautiful city of Italy as Florence, this first miracle of musical technology was constructed. The man who invented the piano was called Bartolomeo Cristofori. The Italian spent his whole life working on harpsichords, trying to improve them and bring something new. At this time, the musical field has long required an instrument that would have a wide and dynamic range. According to written testimonies, Bartolomeo has been working since 1698 on a harpsichord that would play softly and at the same time loudly. From the 1720s until his death at the age of 75, the Italian master created about twenty pianos with his own hands.

Name history

In what year the piano was invented, it is difficult to say exactly, since it had many previous instruments. The basisdeveloped mechanism included harpsichord and clavichord. Since Bartolomeo Cristofori designed harpsichords himself, he was well versed in this and brought his new ideas. Through trial and error, he nevertheless managed to create the world-famous return hammer mechanism. The Italian called his invention a harpsichord playing forte and piano. "Forte" means a strong and loud sound, while "piano" means a weaker and quieter one. Only later these instruments began to be called "pianoforte" or, as everyone knows now, "piano".

Tool improvement

Who and in what country invented the piano would have remained unknown until one journalist from Italy, Schipione Maffei, wrote an article in which he admired the new mechanism. He published the diagrams, and the article was widely circulated. After reading it, many inventors began their work on improving the tool. So there was another version of who invented the piano. Organ maker Gottfried Silbermann created his own instrument, very similar to the Cristofori harpsichord, but with one important difference. Zilberman invented a more modern pedal that picks up sound from all strings at the same time. In the future, this idea spread to new models of a musical instrument.

In the 1730s. Gottfried Silbermann decided to show one of his works to Bach, who initially did not like the instrument. Johann Sebastian Bach was indignant at the weak sound of the high register, and besides, he felt the difficulty of pressing the keys. Listening to the comments, the organ master introducedchanges, after which Bach not only approved the invention, but also contributed to its sale and further promotion. One thing remains certain, it's the country in which the piano was invented. Italy gave a new turn in European culture.

Industrial Revolution

For a hundred years - from 1790 to 1890 - the piano underwent many major changes that eventually shaped the modern form of the instrument. The Industrial Revolution provided the necessary resources to make pianos to suit the needs of composers. It was necessary to constantly improve the sound quality, I wanted to make it more saturated and long. Everyone who invented the piano added something new to it. Later, it was made of high quality durable steel and iron frames.

Increasing octaves

For a long time after the creation of the piano there was a problem of the difficulty of playing it. To reproduce a musical composition, a lot of muscle tension was required, and a lot of effort had to be made. The solution was found in the English company "Broadwood". The first who invented the piano with a range of five octaves in 1790 were the manufacturers of this particular company. Subsequently, they also expanded the range to six octaves in 1810 and to seven by 1820. The organization offered its improved copies to the great composers Haydn and Beethoven. By 1820, the innovation center was located in Paris at the Erard firm, which in turn produced pianos for Chopin and Liszt. Sebastian Erard created a mechanism that could repeat strikes on a string, not completelyreturning the key to its original position, only partially raising it. After his mechanics began to be used in the construction of all pianos.

Modern piano

The piano received its modern form at the beginning of the twentieth century, but since then progress has not stood still and models have been constantly improved. Now there are two main types of it: grand piano and upright piano. A grand piano consists of a body and strings that stretch horizontally beyond the keyboard. For a more accurate sound, this instrument needs a large room with high ceilings.

Types of modern harpsichord

Several categories of musical instrument can be distinguished by size.

1. A concert grand piano can weigh up to five hundred kilograms, be 1.8 meters high and 1.4 meters long.
2. The salon grand piano weighs up to three hundred and fifty kilograms, and reaches a height of 1.4 meters.
3. A cabinet grand piano weighs no more than two hundred and fifty kilograms, and is up to 1.2 meters high.

Large types of grand pianos are usually used for performances, large-scale concerts, because they have a louder and richer sound. Small tools are chosen for small spaces. The one who invented the vertical piano was counting on places that did not have a large area. This instrument is more compact due to the body and the strings, which are stretched vertically and run from the keyboard to the hammers. The sound is not as rich and beautiful asgrand piano, but modern technology brings it closer to the desired sound.

Electronic heir

Innovation in the 1990s brings digital pianos to the world. The tool produces digitized sound, and is not that easy to use. In addition to keys and pedals, it has numerous gadgets in the form of interfaces and a large number of sounds.

The piano in its modern form contains eighty-eight keys. In some models, eight octaves are made, in the lower case it starts with “fa”, and at the top it ends with “do”. Pianists who do not use these extra keys tend to cover them with a special cover. These keys were designed to have more resonance, and when you press the pedal, they vibrate with the rest of the strings, creating a richer sound.

The history of the creation of the piano begins with the harpsichord, from which the layout of the keys is inherited. Only the color scheme has changed, the black-and-white keyboard became the standard for all pianos of the late eighteenth century.

Piano Parts

Materials from which this musical instrument is constructed use only high quality. For exterior decoration take maple or beech. A flexible part of the wood is chosen so that the vibration from the sound remains inside the instrument longer. The base of the piano is made of softer wood so as not to weigh the instrument down. The strings are made of the highest quality steel so that over the years they do not deform and retain their original sound and do not allow tonal distortion. Bass strings optionalwrapped with copper wire for greater flexibility. The metal case located inside the piano is made of cast iron. Due to such a large heavy part, the instrument may turn out to be aesthetically ugly, so manufacturers try to hide this from year to year by polishing and decorating the plate with patterns. The rest of the piano parts are made of wood and plastic. However, the use of plastic in the 1950s backfired as parts lost their wear resistance after a decade of use. Only the modern company "Kawai" managed to create effective durable parts from this material.

Piano keys should be light, so they use spruce or a variety of American linden. However, the metal frame, strong wood and other details make this instrument incredibly heavy. Even the smallest piano weighs about 136 kilograms, while the largest piano of the Fazioli F308 model weighs 691 kilograms.

Although the history of the creation of the piano has about three hundred years, his invention was a real revolution in the art world. European music has radically changed its character; all great composers wrote works for this instrument. Many gained fame thanks to the piano, some even became virtuoso pianists. Until now, this important invention remains one of the main musical instruments.