WHAT is your favorite musical instrument? It wouldn't be surprising if your answer was the piano. Over 21 million people play this instrument in the United States alone. And this is not surprising because the piano has many properties that make it ideal as a musical expression for both the hobbyist and the seasoned professional.
The piano's eighty-eight note spectrum is the broadest of all standard instruments. Their notes can be higher than a piccolo and lower than a bass violin. Due to its construction, it is possible for a pianist to play the melody and the accompaniment at the same time. In fact, two pianists can play up to twenty-four notes at the same time in a piano duet. The piano is suitable for many different musical styles and adapts to almost any combination of instruments. However, even the beginner can quickly learn to play simple songs that sound quite enjoyable. Without a doubt, you are one of the millions of people who love to listen to piano music, or maybe play the piano.
Have you ever wondered what goes into the big wooden box when listening to piano music? What creates this beautiful sound when the player touches the long row of black and white keys? How did we get the piano?
The piano is a relatively new development in the history of music. Although there are recordings of important instruments dating from the mid-14th century, it was not until around 1700 that the first real piano was born. It was the invention of Bartolomeo Cristofori, a harpsichord maker in Florence, Italy. The harpsichord had become the most popular keyboard instrument of the time, but had the disadvantage that it could produce music at almost one volume because the mechanism only played the strings. The variation was achieved by adding multiple sets of strings, but the player still could not significantly change the sound of the way the note was played. Cristofori's invention, on the other hand, uses small hammers that strike the strings instead of pulling them. This innovation allowed the player to control the sound of each note with the force with which they hit the fret. He could stress certain notes and had his full volume from piano (piano) to viola (viola). The new instrument was called Gravicembalo con Piano e Forte ("Harpsichord with softness and strength") and was then simplified to "Piano" and finally to "Piano".
While the piano underwent many changes in the years that followed, Cristofori's instruments had the essence of the modern piano: strings, hammers, keys, dampers (small pads that rest on the string to interrupt the note when the key is pressed. is released) and a drain, a device that drops the hammer. the string while holding the belt down. Cristofori's piano, however, had little success in Italy. As a result, he recreated the harpsichord and passed on the development of the new instrument to others.
The Germans who lived in Germany, Austria, England and the United States made the most important contributions to the development of the piano in the following years. At the start of the 18th century, Gottfried Silbermann from Freiberg got acquainted with Cristofori's design and started building the piano. Later, his pupil Johann A. Stein began construction in Augsburg in southern Germany.
For the piano to evolve, musicians had to appreciate the instrument and be encouraged to write piano music. Johann Sebastian Bach, the great German composer, is said to have played the Silbermann piano, although his imagination never woke up. However, two of Bach's sons, Carl Phillipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, made significant contributions to the acceptance of the piano. C. P. E. Bach wrote the first reliable guide to piano fingering, an essay on keyboard instruments and 210 keyboard compositions. His younger brother Johann Christian awarded the first public piano performance in London in 1777. The first composer to write exclusively piano works was Muzio Clementi, who published three sonatas in 1773.
However, the Austrian Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is the one who became the most famous pianist composer of his time and contributed more than any other composer of the 18th century to the development of piano music. He wrote his first piano concerto at the age of eleven and composed many more during his life. He preferred the piano of German and Viennese producers, in particular Johann A. Stein. These pianos reached the peak of their development at the end of the 19th century.
The piano gets all its meaning
During this period, another piano school was developed in England, run by the Broadwood Company. Their piano was larger, narrower and could therefore produce a louder sound. This type of piano indicates the direction that the piano's construction would take in the early 19th century. With the development of the piano and the composition of the music, more and more demands were placed on the instrument.
Ludwig van Beethoven, who performed in Vienna in 1792 at the age of 22, had enormous technical abilities and was also known for his expressive depth and power. The music was really piano music. Many of the songs that were published before Beethoven could be played on most keyboard instruments and are often described as "for harpsichord or piano". But it was not a question of Beethoven's music. It was piano music and required the best player and instrument, often more than the piano of the time could offer. Beethoven was known for striking the piano with such force that keys, hammers and strings flew during performances.
To meet the pianists 'increasing demands, piano manufacturers have built larger and heavier frames to support the strings' desired tension. The real solution to the problem was the one-piece cast iron frame. In 1825, the idea was applied to the "square" piano (similar to harpsichord) by an American craftsman, Alpheus Babcock, and integrated into the grand piano by Jonas Chickering of Boston. It was later improved by the New York company Steinway & Sons, whose chassis, developed in 1855, served as a model for all subsequent pianos to date. In all respects, the mid-19th century piano was the instrument we know today, although many refinements are still being made.
How the piano makes music
So what do you see when you look at a modern grand piano? First, capture a large cast iron frame painted with gilded bronze. 240 steel cables of different lengths and intensities are lined up in the structure, the shortest and thinnest on the right or triple and the longest and heaviest - the serious cables - on the left. Another string is wrapped around the base strings so that they become heavier and can vibrate more slowly. The strings are held in place by "docking sticks" on the curved side of the frame and attached to the tuning sticks along the front of the piano, just in front of the player. These pins pass through holes in the frame and go into a rigid glue board or block of pins. The fighting board is made of maple or other hardwood and the pins are very tight to prevent it from slipping. The strings exert a pressure of almost twenty tons on the board.
In order for the instrument to be able to produce music, the strings must be set in motion. This is accomplished through "action." The only part of the action we usually see is the fingerboard, but when you hit the straps a perfectly balanced mechanism kicks in and you throw a small covered hammer on a string. The hammer strikes the string for just one hundredth of a second before it snaps into place and is ready to hit again. Each of these small mechanisms is called an "escape" and there are eighty-eight in a piano. The stock contains a total of more than 8000 different pieces. The guitar neck also activates "dampers", which are filter strips attached to wooden frames that rest on the strings. When you press the button, the damper rises so that the string can vibrate freely as long as the button is held down. When the key is released, the shock is activated again and stops vibrating the string.
All piece dampers can also be increased at the same time as the damper or "damper" driven by the musician's right foot. For most notes, each hammer strikes three set strings together. The lowest notes have only two or one string. The left pedal is called a "single string" or "soft" pedal. Move all action to the side so that the hammer hits fewer strings and makes a lower sound.
However, it is not enough to set the strings in motion with the aid of the action, as the vibration of the thin metal strings creates such small air waves that the sound can hardly be heard. For this reason, the piano contains a device common to all stringed instruments, a "resonance chamber". The sound box is a thin piece of spruce that covers the entire bottom of the piano (the back of the piano). In order to transfer the vibrations from the string to the sound card, the string is passed over a wooden bridge which is attached to the sound card. The vibrations pass the bridge and the sound card starts to move. The thin area you hear is due to increased air wave vibration from the sound card.
Piano builders make the piano attractive not only to the ears but also to the eyes by installing the instrument in a beautiful box that also serves as a second resonance box. Many piano cases come with beautiful veneers of mahogany, walnut or other fine woods. Some pianists prefer the simple elegance of the traditional black ebony finish. When finished, the modern piano will contain over 12,000 parts. It is a marvel of technology and design and the result of over 250 years of continuous development. As a result, it generates a lot of noise. No wonder composers have been fascinated by the seemingly endless musical possibilities, and pianists themselves never tire of playing.