A piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with felt hammers. A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified for the purpose of making Music. A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a Musical keyboard. Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting condensing and pressing fibers The hammers immediately rebound allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their resonant frequency. In Physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to Oscillate at maximum Amplitude at certain frequencies, known as the system's ^[1] These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies them. A bridge is a device for supporting the strings on a Stringed instrument and transmitting the Vibration of those strings to some other structural component The sounding board or soundboard is the part of a String instrument that transmits the vibrations of the strings to the air greatly increasing the Loudness

The piano is widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment. Western music is the genres of Music originating in the Western world (Europe and its former colonies including Western classical music, American Chamber music is a form of Classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber In Music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with a soloist or ensemble, often known as the Lead, in a Supporting manner It is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Musical composition is an original piece of Music the structure of a musical piece the process of creating a new A rehearsal is a preparatory event in Music and Theatre (and in other contexts that is performed before the official public Performance, as a form of Although not portable and often expensive, the piano's versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the most familiar musical instruments. It is sometimes classified as both a percussion and a stringed instrument. At various times and in various different cultures various schemes of Musical instrument classification have been used A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a Musical instrument that produces Sound by means of Vibrating strings In the Hornbostel-Sachs According to the Hornbostel-Sachs method of music classification, it is grouped with Chordophones. Hornbostel-Sachs (or Sachs-Hornbostel) is a system of Musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs A Chordophone is any Musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points

The word piano is a shortened form of the word pianoforte, which is seldom used except in formal language and derived from the original Italian name for the instrument, clavicembalo [or gravicembalo] col piano e forte (literally harpsichord with soft and loud). Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. A harpsichord is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This refers to the instrument's responsiveness to keyboard touch, which allows the pianist to produce notes at different dynamic levels by controlling the speed with which the hammers hit the strings. A pianist (/'piənɪst/ is a Musician who plays the Piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces play with an ensemble or Orchestra

History

Early history

See also: Fortepiano and Bartolomeo Cristofori

Early piano replica by the modern builder Paul McNulty, after Walter & Sohn, 1805

Although there were earlier attempts to make stringed keyboard instruments with struck strings,^[2] most notably hammered dulcimers such as the santur and santoor,^[3] the invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Prince Ferdinand de Medici as the Keeper of the Instruments. Fortepiano designates the early version of the Piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco ( May 4, 1655 - January 27, 1731) was an Italian maker of musical instruments generally regarded The hammered dulcimer is a stringed Musical instrument with the strings stretched over a Trapezoidal sounding board The Santoor is an Indian hammered dulcimer similar to the Persian santur. The Santur is a Persian hammered dulcimer similar to the Indian santoor. Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco ( May 4, 1655 - January 27, 1731) was an Italian maker of musical instruments generally regarded Padua ( Padova 'padova Latin: Patavium, Padoa) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.

Like many other inventions, the piano was founded on earlier technological innovations. The mechanisms of keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and the harpsichord were well known. The clavichord is a European stringed Keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical A harpsichord is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. In a clavichord the strings are struck by tangents, while in a harpsichord they are plucked by quills. Centuries of work on the mechanism of the harpsichord in particular had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and keyboard. Cristofori, himself an expert harpsichord maker, was well acquainted with this body of knowledge.

Cristofori's great success was in solving, without any prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammers must strike the string, but not remain in contact with the string (as a tangent remains in contact with a clavichord string) because this would damp the sound. Damping is any effect either deliberately engendered or inherent to a system that tends to reduce the amplitude of Oscillations of an oscillatory system Moreover, the hammers must return to their rest position without bouncing violently, and it must be possible to repeat a note rapidly. Cristofori's piano action served as a model for the many different approaches to piano actions that followed. The action of a Piano is the mechanical assembly which translates the depression of the piano keys into a Felt hammer striking the strings While Cristofori's early instruments were made with thin strings and were much quieter than the modern piano, compared to the clavichord (the only previous keyboard instrument capable of minutely controlled dynamic nuance through the keyboard) they were considerably louder and had more sustaining power.

Cristofori's new instrument remained relatively unknown until an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei, wrote an enthusiastic article about it (1711), including a diagram of the mechanism. Francesco Scipione marchese di Maffei {{IPA|ʃ}}i'pjone mar'keze di maf'f{{IPA|ɛ}}i ( Verona, 1 June 1675 — 11 February 1755) was This article was widely distributed, and most of the next generation of piano builders started their work because of reading it. One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Gottfried Silbermann ( January 14, 1683 - August 4, 1753) was an influential German constructor of keyboard instruments The organ (from Greek όργανον – organon "organ instrument tool" is a Keyboard instrument of one or more divisions each Silbermann's pianos were virtually direct copies of Cristofori's, with one important addition: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper pedal, which lifts all the dampers from the strings at once. A sustain or sustaining pedal (also damper pedal or loud pedal) is the most commonly used pedal in a modern Piano.

Silbermann showed Johann Sebastian Bach one of his early instruments in the 1730s, but Bach did not like it at that time, claiming that the higher notes were too soft to allow a full dynamic range. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section.2 This article is written in British English including maximised use of "-ise" Events and trends The Great Awakening - A Protestant religious movement active in the British colonies of North America Although this earned him some animosity from Silbermann, the criticism was apparently heeded. Bach did approve of a later instrument he saw in 1747, and even served as an agent in selling Silbermann's pianos.

Piano making flourished during the late 18th century in the Viennese school, which included Johann Andreas Stein (who worked in Augsburg, Germany) and the Viennese makers Nannette Streicher (daughter of Johann Andreas Stein) and Anton Walter. The First Viennese School is a name mostly used to refer to three classical music composers who wrote in the Classical music era late Eighteenth century Johann (Georg Andreas Stein, ( Heidesheim, 16 May 1728 - Augsburg, 29 February 1792 was an outstanding German maker of keyboard instruments a central Augsburg is an independent City in the south-west of Bavaria. Johann (Georg Andreas Stein, ( Heidesheim, 16 May 1728 - Augsburg, 29 February 1792 was an outstanding German maker of keyboard instruments a central Viennese-style pianos were built with wood frames, two strings per note, and had leather-covered hammers. Some of these Viennese pianos had the opposite coloring of modern-day pianos; the natural keys were black and the accidental keys white. ^[4] It was for such instruments that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his concertos and sonatas, and replicas of them are built today for use in authentic-instrument performance of his music. A piano concerto is a work written for Piano and Orchestra.See also Harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano The Baroque keyboard sonata In the Baroque era the use of the term "sonata" generally referred to either the Sonata da chiesa ( Church sonata The historically informed performance, period performance, or authentic performance movement is an approach by musicians and scholars to research and perform works The pianos of Mozart's day had a softer, clearer tone than today's pianos or English pianos, with less sustaining power. The term fortepiano is nowadays often used to distinguish the 18th-century instrument from later pianos. Fortepiano designates the early version of the Piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century

Development of the modern piano

For more details on this topic, see Innovations in the piano. This article covers a number of innovations from recent times in the building of Pianos Piano construction is by now a rather conservative area most of the technological advances were

In the period lasting from about 1790 to 1860, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes that led to the modern form of the instrument. This revolution was in response to a consistent preference by composers and pianists for a more powerful, sustained piano sound, and made possible by the ongoing Industrial Revolution with technological resources such as high-quality steel, called piano wire, for strings, and precision casting for the production of iron frames. The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture manufacturing and transportation had a profound effect on the Piano wire is a specialized type of Wire made for use in Piano and other musical instrument strings as well as many other purposes A string is the vibrating element that is the source of vibration in String instruments such as the Guitar, Harp, Piano, and members Casting is a manufacturing process by which a liquid material is (usually poured into a mold which Cast iron usually refers to grey cast iron, but identifies a large group of Ferrous Alloys which solidify with a Eutectic. Over time, the tonal range of the piano was also increased from the five octaves of Mozart's day to the 7⅓ or more octaves found on modern pianos. In Music, an octave ( is the the use of which is "common in most musical systems

Broadwood grand square action

Early technological progress owed much to the English firm of Broadwood, who already had a reputation for the splendour and powerful tone of its harpsichords. Broadwood and Sons is the oldest piano company in the world named after its founder John Broadwood. A harpsichord is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. Broadwood constructed instruments that were progressively larger, louder, and more robustly constructed. They sent pianos to both Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, and were the first firm to build pianos with a range of more than five octaves: five octaves and a fifth during the 1790s, six octaves by 1810 (Beethoven used the extra notes in his later works), and seven octaves by 1820. Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. The Viennese makers similarly followed these trends, however the two schools used different piano actions: Broadwoods were more robust, Viennese instruments were more sensitive. Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria.

Erard double pilot action

By the 1820s, the center of innovation had shifted to Paris, where the Érard firm manufactured pianos used by Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city In 1821, Sébastien Érard invented the double escapement action, which permitted a note to be repeated even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position. Sébastien Érard (born Sébastien Erhard 5 April 1752 - 5 August 1831) was a French instrument maker of German origin who specialised The action of a Piano is the mechanical assembly which translates the depression of the piano keys into a Felt hammer striking the strings This facilitated rapid playing. When the invention became public, as revised by Henri Herz, the double escapement action gradually became standard in grand pianos, and is still incorporated into all grand pianos currently produced. Henri Herz ( Vienna, 6 January 1803 &ndash Paris, 5 January 1888) was a pianist and composer Austrian

One of the major technical innovations that helped to create the sound of the modern piano was the use of a strong iron frame. Also called the "plate", the iron frame sits atop the soundboard, and serves as the primary bulwark against the force of string tension. The sounding board or soundboard is the part of a String instrument that transmits the vibrations of the strings to the air greatly increasing the Loudness In Physics String Tension is the magnitude of the pulling force exerted by a string cable chain or similar object on another object The increased structural integrity of the iron frame allowed the use of thicker, tenser, and more numerous strings. In a modern grand the total string tension can approach 20 tons. The single piece cast iron frame was patented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus Babcock, combining the metal hitch pin plate (1821, claimed by Broadwood on behalf of Samuel Hervé) and resisting bars (Thom and Allen, 1820, but also claimed by Broadwood and Érard). A patent is a set of Exclusive rights granted by a State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an Alpheus Babcock (1785-1842 was a Piano and music instrument maker in Boston Massachusetts and Philadelphia Pennsylvania during the early 1800s Babcock later worked for the Chickering & Mackays firm who patented the first full iron frame for grand pianos in 1843. Chickering and Sons was an American Piano manufacturer located in Boston, known for producing award-winning instruments of superb quality and design Composite forged metal frames were preferred by many European makers until the American system was fully adopted by the early 20th century.

Other innovations for the mechanism included the use of felt hammer coverings instead of layered leather hammers. Felt hammers, which were first introduced by Henri Pape in 1826, were a more consistent material, permitting wider dynamic ranges as hammer weights and string tension increased. The sostenuto pedal (see below), invented in 1844 by Jean Louis Boisselot and improved by the Steinway firm in 1874, allowed a wider range of effects. In Music, sostenuto is a term from Italian which means "sustained" and occasionally also implies a slowing of Tempo. Steinway & Sons (often called Steinway) is a Piano maker since 1853 in New York City, USA.

Other important technical innovations of this era included changes to the way the piano was strung, such as the use of a "choir" of three strings rather than two for all but the lower notes, and the use of different stringing methods. With the over strung scale, also called "cross-stringing", the strings are placed in a vertically overlapping slanted arrangement, with two heights of bridges on the soundboard instead of just one. Cross-stringing (sometimes called overstringing) is a method of arranging piano strings inside the case of a Piano so that the strings are placed in a vertically overlapping Cross-stringing (sometimes called overstringing) is a method of arranging piano strings inside the case of a Piano so that the strings are placed in a vertically overlapping A bridge is a device for supporting the strings on a Stringed instrument and transmitting the Vibration of those strings to some other structural component This permits larger, but not necessarily longer, strings to fit within the case of the piano. Over stringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s, and first patented for use in grand pianos in the United States by Henry Steinway Jr. in 1859. Jean-Henri Pape (Johann Heinrich Pape 1787 &ndash February 2, 1875) was a distinguished French Piano maker in the early 19th century The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Henry E Steinway ( February 17, 1797 &ndash February 7, 1871) was a German Piano manufacturer and the founder of

Duplex scaling: Treble strings of a 182 cm. grand piano. From lower left to upper right: dampers, main sounding length of strings, treble bridge, duplex string length, duplex bridge (long bar perpendicular to strings), hitchpins.

With duplexes or aliquot scales, which was patented in 1872 by Theodore Steinway, the different components of string vibrations are controlled by tuning their secondary parts in octave relationships with the sounding lengths. Aliquot stringing is the use of extra unstruck strings in the Piano for the purpose of enriching the tone Similar systems developed by Blüthner (1872), as well as Taskin (1788), and Collard (1821) used more distinctly ringing undamped vibrations to modify tone. Blüthner, formally Julius Blüthner Pianofortefabrik GmbH, is a Piano -manufacturing company founded by Julius Blüthner in 1853

Some early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The square piano had horizontal strings arranged diagonally across the rectangular case above the hammers and with the keyboard set in the long side. The square piano is a Piano that has horizontal strings arranged diagonally across the rectangular case above the hammers and with the keyboard set in the long side This design is variously attributed to Silbermann and Frederici and was improved by Guillaume-Lebrecht Petzold and Alpheus Babcock. Guillaume-Lebrecht Petzold was a piano maker in Paris in the early 1800s Alpheus Babcock (1785-1842 was a Piano and music instrument maker in Boston Massachusetts and Philadelphia Pennsylvania during the early 1800s Built in quantity through the 1890s (in the United States), Steinways celebrated iron framed over strung squares and were more than two and a half times the size of Zumpe's wood framed instruments that were successful a century before. Their overwhelming popularity was due to inexpensive construction and price, with performance and sonority frequently restricted by simple actions and closely spaced strings.

The mechanism in upright pianos is perpendicular to the keys.

The tall, vertically strung upright was arranged with the soundboard and bridges perpendicular to keys, and above them so that the strings did not extend to the floor. Diagonally strung Giraffe, pyramid and lyre pianos employed this principle in more evocatively shaped cases. The term was later revived by many manufacturers for advertising purposes.

The very tall cabinet piano introduced by Southwell in 1806 and built through the 1840s had strings arranged vertically on a continuous frame with bridges extended nearly to the floor, behind the keyboard and very large sticker action. The short cottage upright or pianino with vertical stringing, credited to Robert Wornum around 1815, was built into the 20th century. Robert Wornum (1780-1852 was a piano maker working in London during the first half of the 19th century They are informally called birdcage pianos because of their prominent damper mechanism. Pianinos were distinguished from the oblique, or diagonally strung upright made popular in France by Roller & Blanchet during the late 1820s. The tiny spinet upright was manufactured from the mid-1930s until recent times. A spinet is a smaller type of Harpsichord or other keyboard instrument such as a Piano or organ. The low position of the hammers required the use of a "drop action" to preserve a reasonable keyboard height.

Modern upright and grand pianos attained their present forms by the end of the 19th century. Improvements have been made in manufacturing processes, and many individual details of the instrument continue to receive attention.

History and musical performance

Main article: Piano history and musical performance

Much of the most widely admired piano repertoire, for example, that of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, was composed for a type of instrument that is rather different from the modern instruments on which this music is normally performed today. The Piano has evolved technologically more than any other musical instrument giving rise to difficult issues involving the performance of music written for earlier pianos The following are lists of solo Piano pieces, where "solo pieces" here are defined as those either intentionally composed for solo piano or where the piano is the Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. Even the music of the Romantics, including Liszt, Chopin, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms, was written for pianos substantially different from ours. Robert Schumann, sometimes given as Robert Alexander Schumann (June 8 1810 &ndash July 29 1856 was a German Composer, Aesthete and influential Music critic Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and generally known as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3 1809 &ndash November 4 1847 was a German Composer Johannes Brahms ( pronounced ˈbʁaːms (May 7 1833 &ndash April 3 1897 was a German Composer

Modern piano

A schematic depiction of the construction of a pianoforte.

Types

Modern pianos come in two basic configurations (with subcategories): the grand piano and the upright piano.

Grand

Grand piano

Grand pianos have the frame and strings placed horizontally, with the strings extending away from the keyboard. This makes the grand piano a large instrument, for which the ideal setting is a spacious room with high ceilings for proper resonance. There are several sizes of grand piano. Manufacturers and models vary, but a rough generalization distinguishes the "concert grand", (between about 2. 2 m to 3 m long) from the "parlor grand" (about 1. 7 m to 2. 2 m) and the smaller "baby grand" (which may be shorter than it is wide).

All else being equal, longer pianos with longer strings have better sound and lower inharmonicity of the strings. In music inharmonicity is the degree to which the frequencies of Overtones (known as partials partial tones or Harmonics depart from whole Inharmonicity is the degree to which the frequencies of overtones (known as partials, partial tones, or harmonics) depart from whole multiples of the fundamental frequency. Frequency is a measure of the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit Time. An overtone is a natural resonance or vibration frequency of a system In Acoustics and Telecommunication, the harmonic of a Wave is a component Frequency of the signal that is an Integer Pianos with shorter, thicker, and stiffer strings (e. g. , baby grands) have more inharmonicity. The longer strings on a concert grand can vibrate more freely than the shorter, thicker strings on a baby grand, which means that a concert grand's strings will have truer overtones. This is partly because the strings will be tuned closer to equal temperament in relation to the standard pitch with less "stretching" in the piano tuning (See: Piano tuning). Equal temperament is a Musical temperament, or a system of tuning in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical Frequency ratio. Piano tuning is the act of making minute adjustments to the tensions of the strings of a Piano to properly align the intervals between their tones so that the instrument is Full-size grands are usually used for public concerts, whereas smaller grands, introduced by Sohmer & Co. in 1884, are often chosen for domestic use where space and cost are considerations. Sohmer & Co. was a Piano manufacturing company founded in New York in 1872

Upright

Upright piano

Upright pianos, also called vertical pianos, are more compact because the frame and strings are vertical, extending in both directions from the keyboard and hammers. It is considered harder to produce a sensitive piano action when the hammers move horizontally, as the vertical hammer return is dependent on springs which are prone to wear and tear. The grand piano hammers return by gravity, hence their return will always remain more consistent than the vertical hammers, thus giving pianists better control of their playing. However, a well-regulated vertical piano will probably play smoother than a grand piano that has not been regulated for years, and the very best upright pianos now approach the level of some grand pianos of the same size in tone quality and responsiveness.

One noticeable advantage that the grand piano action has over the vertical action is that all grand pianos have a special repetition lever in the playing action that is absent in all verticals. This repetition lever, a separate one for every key, catches the hammer close to the strings as long as the keys are played repeatedly and fairly quickly. In this position, with the hammer resting on the lever, a pianist can play repeated notes, staccato, and trills with much more speed and control than is possible on a vertical piano. The trill is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes of a scale (compare Mordent and Tremolo) For recent advances, see Innovations in the piano. This article covers a number of innovations from recent times in the building of Pianos Piano construction is by now a rather conservative area most of the technological advances were

Other types

Player piano

Toy pianos began to be manufactured in the 19th century. The toy piano is a Musical instrument, made as a child's Toy, but which has also been used in more serious Musical contexts In 1863, Henri Fourneaux invented the player piano, which "plays itself" from a piano roll without the need for a pianist. The player piano is a self-playing Piano, containing a pneumatic mechanism that plays on the piano action pre-programmed Music via perforated paper rolls A piano roll is the music Storage medium used to operate the Player piano, pianola or a Reproducing piano. The player piano is a piano that records a performance using rolls of paper with perforations, and then replays the performance using pneumatic devices. The player piano is a self-playing Piano, containing a pneumatic mechanism that plays on the piano action pre-programmed Music via perforated paper rolls A modern equivalent for the player piano is the Yamaha Disklavier system, which uses solenoids and midi instead of pneumatics and rolls. A Disklavier (pronounced as ˈdɪskləˌviə is the brand name for a group of Piano -related products made by the Yamaha Corporation. Silent pianos, which allow a regular piano to be used converted to a digital instrument, are a recent innovation and are becoming more popular. A silent piano is an acoustic piano where there is an option to silence the strings by means of an interposing hammer bar

Irving Berlin played a special piano called the transposing piano, which was invented in 1801 by Edward Ryley. Irving Berlin (11 May 1888 &ndash 22 September 1989 was a Russian-born American Composer and Lyricist, and one of the most prolific American songwriters It had a lever under the keyboard used to alter the music to any key. One of Berlin's pianos is in the Smithsonian Museum. For much of his career, Berlin only knew how to play the black keys. But with his 'trick piano' he was no longer limited to the key of F-sharp.

A relatively recent development is the prepared piano, which is used in contemporary art music. A prepared piano is a Piano which has had its sound altered by placing objects (preparations between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers A prepared piano is a standard grand piano which has had objects placed inside it before a performance in order to alter its sound, or which has had its mechanism changed in some way. The scores for music for prepared piano often instruct the pianist to insert pieces of rubber or small pieces of metal (screws or washers) in between the strings. These added items either mute the strings or create unusual vibrating sounds.

Since the 1980s, digital pianos have been available, which use digital sampling technology to reproduce the sound of each piano note. A digital piano is a modern Electronic musical instrument designed to serve primarily as an alternative to a traditional Piano, both in the way it feels to play In Signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a Continuous signal to a Discrete signal. The best digital pianos are sophisticated, with features including working pedals, weighted keys, multiple voices, and MIDI interfaces. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers However, with current technology, it remains difficult to duplicate a crucial aspect of acoustic pianos, namely that when the damper pedal (see below) is depressed, the strings not struck vibrate sympathetically when other strings are struck, as well as the unique instrument-specific mathematical non-linearity of partials on any given unison. Sympathetic strings or resonance strings are auxiliary strings found on many Indian musical instruments as well as some Western Baroque instruments and a variety Since this sympathetic vibration is considered central to piano tone, many digital pianos do not sound the same as the best acoustic pianos. In Physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to Oscillate at maximum Amplitude at certain frequencies, known as the system's Progress is being made in this area by including physical models of sympathetic vibration in the synthesis software. In Sound synthesis, physical modelling synthesis refers to methods in which the Waveform of the Sound to be generated is computed by using a Mathematical Some higher end digital pianos, such as the Yamaha Clavinova series, produced in the last few years incorporate string resonance technology to overcome this limitation. The Clavinova is a long-running line of Digital pianos created by the Yamaha Corporation.

Keyboard

Further information: Musical keyboard

Keyboard

Almost every modern piano has 36 black keys and 52 white keys for a total of 88 keys (seven octaves plus a minor third, from A0 to C8). A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a Musical instrument, particularly the piano In Music, an octave ( is the the use of which is "common in most musical systems Many older pianos only have 85 keys (seven octaves from A0 to A7), while some manufacturers extend the range further in one or both directions.

Some Bösendorfer pianos extend the normal range downwards to F0, with one other model going as far as a bottom C0, making a full eight octave range. Bösendorfer (L Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH) is an Austrian Piano manufacturer now a Wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha. These extra keys are sometimes hidden under a small hinged lid that can be flipped down to cover the keys in order to avoid visual disorientation in a pianist unfamiliar with the extended keyboard. On others, the colours of the extra white keys are reversed (black instead of white).

The extra keys are added primarily for increased resonance from the associated strings; that is, they vibrate sympathetically with other strings whenever the damper pedal is depressed and thus give a fuller tone. Only a very small number of works composed for piano actually use these notes. More recently, the Stuart and Sons company has also manufactured extended-range pianos. Stuart and Sons is a manufacturer of handcrafted Grand pianos based in Maryville a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. On their instruments, the range is extended both down the bass to F0 and up the treble to F8 for a full eight octaves. The extra keys are the same as the other keys in appearance.

Small studio upright acoustical pianos with only 65 keys have been manufactured for use by roving pianists. Known as "gig" pianos and still containing a cast iron harp, these are comparatively lightweight and can be easily transported to and from engagements by only two men. As their harp is longer than that of a spinet or console piano, they have a stronger base sound that to some pianists is well worth the trade-off in range that a reduced key-set offers.

Pedals

Standard pedals

Piano pedals from left to right: una corda, sostenuto, and damper. The soft pedal (or una corda pedal) is one of the standard pedals on a Piano, generally placed leftmost among the pedals In Music, sostenuto is a term from Italian which means "sustained" and occasionally also implies a slowing of Tempo. A sustain or sustaining pedal (also damper pedal or loud pedal) is the most commonly used pedal in a modern Piano.

Main article: Piano pedals

Pianos have had pedals, or some close equivalent, since the earliest days. Piano pedals are foot-operated Levers at the base of a Piano which change the instrument's sound in various ways (In the 18th century, some pianos used levers pressed upward by the player's knee instead of pedals. ) Most grand pianos have three pedals: soft pedal (una corda), sostenuto, and sustain pedal (from left to right, respectively). Most modern upright pianos, have three pedals: soft pedal, practice pedal and sustain pedal, though older or cheaper models may lack the practice pedal.

The sustain pedal (or, damper pedal) is often simply called "the pedal", since it is the most frequently used. A sustain or sustaining pedal (also damper pedal or loud pedal) is the most commonly used pedal in a modern Piano. It is placed as the rightmost pedal in the group. It lifts the dampers from all keys, sustaining all played notes, and altering the overall tone.

The soft pedal or una corda pedal is placed leftmost in the row of pedals. The soft pedal (or una corda pedal) is one of the standard pedals on a Piano, generally placed leftmost among the pedals In grand pianos, it shifts the entire action, including the keyboard, to the right, so that the hammers hit only one of the three strings for each note (hence the name una corda, or 'one string'). The effect is to soften the note as well as to change the tone. In uprights, this action is not possible, and so the pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings, allowing the hammers to hit the strings with less force and produce a softer sound.

On grand pianos, the middle pedal is a sostenuto pedal. This pedal keeps raised any damper that was already raised at the moment the pedal is depressed. This makes it possible to sustain some notes (by depressing the sostenuto pedal before notes to be sustained are released) while the player's hands are free to play other notes. This can be useful for musical passages with pedal points and other otherwise tricky or impossible situations. In tonal music, a pedal point (also pedal tone pedal note organ point or pedal is a Sustained tone typically in the bass, during which at least one

On many upright pianos, there is a middle pedal called the 'practice' or celeste pedal. This drops a piece of felt between the hammers and strings, greatly muting the sounds.

There are also non-standard variants. On vertical pianos, the middle pedal can be a bass sustain pedal: that is, when it is depressed, the dampers lift off the strings only in the bass section. This pedal would be used only when a pianist needs to sustain a single bass note or chord over many measures, while playing the melody in the treble section. On the largest Fazioli piano, there is a fourth pedal to the left of the principal three. Fazioli (fatsi'ɔli is a Piano manufacturing company based in Sacile, Italy. This fourth pedal works in the same way as the soft pedal of an upright piano, moving the hammers closer to the strings. ^[5]

Unusual pedals

An upright pedal piano

The rare transposing piano, of which Irving Berlin possessed an example, had a middle pedal that functioned as a clutch which disengages the keyboard from the mechanism, enabling the keyboard to be moved to the left or right with a lever. A transposing piano is a special Piano with a mechanism activated by the player (e Irving Berlin (11 May 1888 &ndash 22 September 1989 was a Russian-born American Composer and Lyricist, and one of the most prolific American songwriters A clutch is a mechanism for transmitting rotation which can be engaged and disengaged The entire action of the piano is thus shifted to allow the pianist to play music written in one key so that it sounds in a different key. The pedal piano, or pedalier piano, is a rare type of piano that includes a pedalboard, enabling bass register notes to be played with the feet, as is standard on the organ. The pedal piano (or pedalier piano) is a kind of Piano that includes a pedalboard, enabling bass register notes to be played with the feet as is standard A pedalboard (also called a pedal keyboard pedal clavier or with electronic instruments a bass pedalboard is a keyboard played with the feet that is usually used to The pipe organ is a Musical instrument that produces sound when pressurized air (wind is driven through a series of pipes, controlled by a keyboard There are two types of pedal piano: the pedal board may be an integral part of the instrument, using the same strings and mechanism as the manual keyboard, or, less frequently, it may consist of two independent pianos (each with its separate mechanics and strings) which are placed one above the other, a regular piano played by the hands and a bass-register piano played by the feet.

Construction

Many parts of a piano are made of materials selected for extreme sturdiness. In quality pianos, the outer rim of the piano is made of a hardwood, normally maple or beech. According to Harold A. Conklin, the purpose of a sturdy rim is so that "the vibrational energy will stay as much as possible in the soundboard instead of dissipating uselessly in the case parts, which are inefficient radiators of sound. "

View from below of a 182-cm grand piano. In order of distance from viewer: softwood braces, tapered soundboard ribs, soundboard. The metal rod at lower right is a humidity control device.

The rim is normally made by laminating flexible strips of hardwood to the desired shape, a system that was developed by Theodore Steinway in 1880. The thick wooden braces at the bottom (grands) or back (uprights) of the piano are not as acoustically important as the rim, and are often made of a softwood, even in top-quality pianos, in order to save weight. The requirement of structural strength, fulfilled with stout hardwood and thick metal, makes a piano heavy; even a small upright can weigh 136 kg (300 lb), and the Steinway concert grand (Model D) weighs 480 kg (990 lb). The largest piano built, the Fazioli F308, weighs 691 kg (1520 lb). Fazioli (fatsi'ɔli is a Piano manufacturing company based in Sacile, Italy.

The pinblock, which holds the tuning pins in place, is another area of the piano where toughness is important. It is made of hardwood, (often maple) and generally is laminated (built of multiple layers) for additional strength and gripping power. Acer ( maple) is a Genus of Trees or Shrubs They are variously classified in a family of their own the Aceraceae, or Piano strings (also called piano wire), which must endure years of extreme tension and hard blows, are made of high quality steel. Piano wire is a specialized type of Wire made for use in Piano and other musical instrument strings as well as many other purposes They are manufactured to vary as little as possible in diameter, since all deviations from uniformity introduce tonal distortion. The bass strings of a piano are made of a steel core wrapped with copper wire, to increase their flexibility. For the acoustic reasons behind this, see Piano acoustics. Piano acoustics are those physical properties of the Piano which affect its Acoustics.

The plate, or metal frame, of a piano is usually made of cast iron. Cast iron usually refers to grey cast iron, but identifies a large group of Ferrous Alloys which solidify with a Eutectic. It is advantageous for the plate to be quite massive. Since the strings are attached to the plate at one end, any vibrations transmitted to the plate will result in loss of energy to the desired (efficient) channel of sound transmission, namely the bridge and the soundboard. Some manufacturers now use cast steel in their plates, for greater strength. The casting of the plate is a delicate art, since the dimensions are crucial and the iron shrinks by about one percent during cooling.

The inclusion in a piano of an extremely large piece of metal is potentially an aesthetic handicap, which piano makers overcome by polishing, painting and decorating the plate. Plates often include the manufacturer's ornamental medallion and can be strikingly attractive. In an effort to make pianos lighter, Alcoa worked with Winter and Company piano manufacturers to make pianos using an aluminum plate during the 1940s. Alcoa Inc ( is the world's third largest producer of Aluminum, behind Rio Tinto Alcan and Rusal. A Piano with an aluminum piano plate called the Alumatone plate was created in the late 1940s by Winter and Company piano manufacturers and Alcoa, a manufacturer of The use of aluminum for piano plates, however, did not become widely accepted and was discontinued.

The numerous grand parts and upright parts of a piano action are generally hardwood (e. The term hardwood is used to describe Wood from broad-leaved angiosperm Trees mostly Deciduous, but not necessarily in the case of tropical g. maple, beech. hornbeam). However, since World War II, plastics have become available. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic organic solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products Early plastics were incorporated into some pianos in the late 1940s and 1950s, but proved disastrous because they crystallized and lost their strength after only a few decades of use. The Steinway firm once incorporated Teflon, a synthetic material developed by DuPont, for some grand action parts in place of cloth, but ultimately abandoned the experiment due to an inherent "clicking" which invariably developed over time. In Chemistry, poly(tetrafluoroethene or poly(tetrafluoroethylene ( PTFE) is a synthetic Fluoropolymer which finds numerous applications E I du Pont de Nemours and Company (,) is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a Gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée (Also Teflon is "humidity stable" whereas the wood adjacent to the Teflon will swell and shrink with humidity changes, causing problems. ) More recently, the Kawai firm has built pianos with action parts made of more modern and effective plastics such as carbon fiber; these parts have held up better and have generally received the respect of piano technicians. The Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co Ltd (河合楽器製作所 Kawai Gakki Seisakusho) of Japan is best known for its pianos electronic keyboards

Ivorite and ebony keys on a modern Steinway & Sons concert grand piano.

The part of the piano where materials probably matter more than anywhere else is the soundboard. The sounding board or soundboard is the part of a String instrument that transmits the vibrations of the strings to the air greatly increasing the Loudness In quality pianos, this is made of solid spruce (that is, spruce boards glued together at their edges). Spruce refers to Trees of the genus Picea, a genus of about 35 species of Coniferous Evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae Spruce is chosen for its high ratio of strength to weight. The best piano makers use close-grained, quarter-sawn, defect-free spruce, and make sure that it has been carefully dried over a long period of time before making it into soundboards. In cheap pianos, the soundboard is often made of plywood. Plywood is a type of Engineered board made from thin sheets of Wood, called plies or veneers

Piano keys are generally made of spruce or basswood, for lightness. Tilia is a Genus of about 30 species of Trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, in Asia (where the greatest Spruce is normally used in high-quality pianos. Traditionally, the black keys were made from ebony and the white keys were covered with strips of ivory, but since ivory-yielding species are now endangered and protected by treaty, plastics are now almost exclusively used. Ebony ( Diospyros ebenum) also known as India Ebony or Ceylon Ebony depending on its origin is a Tree in the genus Diospyros Ivory is formed from Dentine and constitutes the bulk of the Teeth and Tusks of animals such as the Elephant, Hippopotamus, Also, ivory tends to chip more easily than plastic. Legal ivory can still be obtained in limited quantities. At one time, the Yamaha firm innovated a plastic called "Ivorine" or "Ivorite", since imitated by other makers, that mimics the look and feel of ivory.

Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037, a documentary from Steinway and Sons, describes the entire process of making one of their pianos. Note by Note The Making of Steinway L1037 is a documentary that follows the construction of a Steinway piano over a year from the search for wood in Alaska Steinway & Sons (often called Steinway) is a Piano maker since 1853 in New York City, USA.

Care and maintenance

Main articles: Care and maintenance of pianos and Piano tuning

A piano tuner

Pianos need regular tuning to keep them up to pitch, which is usually the internationally recognized standard concert pitch of A4 = 440 Hz. The Piano requires various forms of maintenance to produce its best sound Piano tuning is the act of making minute adjustments to the tensions of the strings of a Piano to properly align the intervals between their tones so that the instrument is A440 is the 440 Hz tone that serves as the standard for musical pitch. The hammers of pianos are voiced to compensate for gradual hardening, and other parts also need periodic regulation. Aged and worn pianos can be rebuilt or reconditioned. Often, by replacing a great number of their parts, they can be made to perform as well as new pianos. It is often felt, however, that older pianos are more settled and produce a warmer tone.

Piano moving should be done by trained piano movers using adequate manpower and the correct equipment for any particular piano's size and weight. Pianos are heavy yet delicate instruments. Over the years, professional piano movers have developed special techniques for transporting both grands and uprights which prevent damages to the case and to the piano's mechanics. The wikibook on packing and moving household goods mentioned here has a section devoted to piano moving with a section regarding the risks and dangers of DIY piano moving.

Role

See also: Social history of the piano

The piano at the social center in the 19th century (Moritz von Schwind, 1868)

The piano is a crucial instrument in Western classical music, jazz, film, television, and most other complex western musical genres. The Social history of the Piano is the history of the instrument's role in society The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar Moritz von Schwind ( January 21, 1804 - February 8, 1871) was an Austrian painter born in Vienna. Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and Secular music Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States A film score is a broad term referring to the music in a film which is generally categorically separated from songs used within a film Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Since a large number of composers are proficient pianists – and because the piano keyboard offers an easy means of complex melodic and harmonic interplay – the piano is often used as a tool for composition. A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance

Pianos were, and still are, popular instruments for private household ownership, especially among the middle and upper classes. Hence, pianos have gained a place in the popular consciousness, and are sometimes referred to by nicknames including: "the ivories", "the joanna", "the eighty-eight", and "the black(s) and white(s)", "the little joe(s)". Playing the piano is sometimes referred to as "tickling the ivories".

See also

References

• The authoritative New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (available online by subscription), contains a wealth of information. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an Encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians Main article: "Pianoforte".
• The Encyclopædia Britannica (available online by subscription) also includes much information on the piano. The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc In the 1988 edition, the primary article can be found in "Musical Instruments".
• The Piano Book by Larry Fine (4th ed. Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts: Brookside Press, 2001; ISBN 1-929145-01-2) gives the basics of how pianos work, and a thorough evaluative survey of current pianos and their manufacturers. It also includes advice on buying and owning pianos.
• Giraffes, black dragons, and other pianos: a technological history from Cristofori to the modern concert grand by Edwin M. Good (1982, second ed. , 2001, Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press) is a standard reference on the history of the piano.
• The Early Pianoforte by Stewart Pollens (1995, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) is an authoritative work covering the ancestry of the piano, its invention by Cristofori, and the early stages of its subsequent evolution.

Further reading

• Banowetz, Joseph; Elder, Dean (1985). The pianist's guide to pedaling. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34494-8.  
• Parakilas, James (1999). Piano roles : three hundred years of life with the piano. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08055-7.  
• Reblitz, Arthur A. (1993). Piano Servicing, Tuning and Rebuilding: For the Professional, the Student, and the Hobbyist. Vestal, NY: Vestal Press. ISBN 1-879511-03-7.  
• Carhart, Thad [2001] (2002). The Piano Shop on the Left Bank. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-75862-3.  
• Loesser, Arthur [1954] (1991). Men, Women, and Pianos: A Social History. New York: Dover Publications.  
• (Dutch) Lelie, Christo (1995). Van Piano tot Forte (The History of the Early Piano). Kampen: Kok-Lyra.  
• Fine, Larry; Gilbert, Douglas R (2001). The Piano Book: Buying and Owning a New or Used Piano (4th edition). Jamaica Plain, MA: Brookside Press. ISBN 1-929145-01-2.  

External links

Information

• Grand Piano information and images
• The Piano Page Lots of information from the Piano Technicians Guild
• WikiRecording's Guide to Recording Pianos
• Pictured list of common piano chords

History

• History of the Piano Forte, Association of Blind Piano Tuners, UK
• The Frederick Historical Piano Collection

Piano manufacturers

• Mason & Hamlin
• Steinway Pianos
• Baldwin Pianos
• Bechstein Pianos
• Stuart & Sons Piano