The History of the Piano

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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

acti...

... middle of paper ...

...os of today, the piano has

and always will be one of the centerpieces of all kinds of music.

Bibliography:

Bie, Oscar. A History of the Pianoforte and Pianoforte Players. trans. by E. E. Kellett

and E. W. Naylor. NewYork: Da Capo, 1966.

Grover, David S. THE PIANO-- It's story from Zither to Grand. New York: Charles

Scribner's Sons, 1978.

Heaton, Barrie. "A History of the Piano from 1706 to1990"

http://www.uk-piano.org/history/history_1.html (26 Oct. 1996)

Hollis, Helen Rice. The Piano--A Pictoral Account of It's Ancestry and

Development. New York: Hippocrene, 1975.

Swan, Annalyn. Enlightenment's Gift to the Age of Romance--How the Piano

Came to Be. in The Lives of the PIANO. ed. James R. Gaines. New

York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982.

Welton, Naomi. Personal Interview. 24 November 1998.

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