The History of the Piano

The History of the Piano

Early Keyboards The piano is perhaps the world's best- known musical instrument. Its sound is easy to recognize, no matter what type of music is being played. The piano did not always sound the way it does today, though. In fact, the piano's ancestors had very different sounds. The first widely used keyboard was the clavichord. This European instrument was first used in the 1400s. As with many other early instruments, its inventor is unknown. It was a long wooden box with wire strings of different lengths stretched inside. A soundboard lay beneath the strings. The soundboard vibrated with the strings and helped project the tones. A clavichord could be 122 to 213 centimeters (4-7 ft. ) long. People set it on a table to play it.

When a player pressed a key, a tiny brass blade on a wooden lever hit a string. This made a tone. How loud the tone was depended on how hard the player pressed the key. Still, because of its design, the clavichord was not very loud. For that reason, people only played the instrument in homes.

The harpsichord was first used in the 1500s. It came in different shapes and sizes that looked very much like today's pianos. However, it worked differently from both the clavichord and the piano. When the player pressed a key, a lever with a quill at the end plucked-rather than struck--a string. This made it sound more like a harp than a piano. The harpsichord was the most popular keyboard instrument of its day. It was louder than a clavichord, but it had a problem. Players could not control or change the volume, no matter how hard or soft they pressed the keys.

The First Modern Piano Bartolomeo Cristofori (bar-toh-loh-MEH- oh kree-STAW-foh-ree) made keyboard instruments in the early 1700s. He wanted to change the harpsichord so the volume could be controlled. To do this, Cristofori had to make the instrument work more like a clavichord. The strings needed to be hit, not plucked. Cristofori changed the mechanism of the instrument and how it worked. First, he switched from a quill to a hammer. The hammer was covered in leather to create a better sound. When the player pressed a key, the hammer hit the string from below. When the player released the key, another part, called a damper, came down to rest on the string. The damper stopped the string from vibrating and ended the note.

This design made it possible to hit strings hard or touch them gently. Players could now produce both loud and soft notes. Cristofori called his instrument the pianoforte, a name made up of the Italian words for “ soft" and " loud. " In time, the name became just piano. Other instrument makers added to Cristofori's design. One, a German named Silbermann, showed his version of the piano to the famous composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach had written many pieces for the harpsichord and didn't think much of Silbermann's instrument. This made Silbermann so upset that he destroyed it with an ax!