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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Batrolomeo Cristofori brings the piano into the musical arena around 1709 in Florence, Italy. One of Cristoforis previous instruments, the harpsichord, actually brought about the idea of the piano. Cristofori wanted to develop a more dynamic instrument, because the harpsichord had such a small dynamic range. His answer to that problem was the ‘gravicembali col piano e forte,’ which meant harpsichord with soft and loud. This long name was shortened to pianoforte, and then eventually forte was dropped, and now these modern instruments are known as pianos. As the keeper of instruments in Prince Ferdinand’s court in Florence, Cristofori reinvented the harpsichord into the piano. The actual date that he created the piano is unknown, but
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.
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This paper will explore the life of the great composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach was considered one of the greatest composers of all time. He created amazing, famous compositions that made a big impact in today’s world. He went through rough times like many people do, the loss of his parents and finding a way back to the old routine was not an easy task. Bach came from generations of musicians and was given a religious education which is something that played a big role in his life when becoming a musician. We will analyze and learn the significance of some of his great compositions, the stories and what inspired him to compose music.
School of Music, 1957. Accessed February 21, 2014. UR Research at The University of Rochester. PDF.
After years, instruments started looking more and more like the guitar. The first instrument that started to look like the guitar was around in the 1200s-1300s. It was found in Mediterranean Europe. Sources refer to this as this as the guitarra latina. Two of the earliest forms after the guitarra latina are the lute and the vihuela. The lute is a small instrument that is shaped somewhat like a pair. It had twelve strings and a very short neck. The vihuela is shaped more like a guitar. It is larger and also has twelve strings (Chapman).