Piano Instruments
Piano Fast Facts
An electric piano is an electrified piano, in other words sounds are produced by some form of conventional hammer action, and then amplified. An electronic piano is one that produces piano-type tones purely through electronics. And it used to be as simple as that: electric pianos were worth buying since they retained one of the piano’s prime features – touch sensitivity – and electronic pianos, blessed with floppy actions and nasty, buzzing, ‘electronic’ tones, were generally to be given a wide berth. Today, thanks to advanced digital technology almost the reverse is true.
A Brief History of Pianos
Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) is popularly credited with the invention of a hammer mechanism which he built into a harpsichord shaped cabinet, but many musicologists suggest that only the earliest extant pianos are by Cristofori, because his mechanism was too accomplished and advanced not to have trial-and-error precursors. Whether the hammer mechanism was invented in Italy or not, the fact is that after Cristofori the Italians took no further part in the development of the piano, the centers for its advance being first Germany, then France and England, and finally the U.S.
From its beginning the history of the piano is one of intense commercial rivalry, abounding in names that are familiar today: Broadwood, established in England in 1723, Erard, established in France in 1779, Chickering, established in Massachusetts in 1823, Bechstein, established in Germany in 1853, the same year as Steinway in the U.S. These are a mere five names out of more than a thousand firms producing pianos at the beginning of the century. The piano was almost as common then as the ubiquitous TV set today.
Gottfried Silberman (1683-1753) was the first successful maker and his instruments were nearly all bought by Frederick the Great and housed at Sans Souci, where Quantz, J.S. Bach and C.P.E. Bach regarded and played them with interest and enthusiasm. The piano was introduced into England just after the middle of the 18th century by yet another son of J.S. Bach, Johann Christian. Two acute problems faced the early makers. First, what sort of sound were they trying to produce? Second, how are they to devise a reliable and fluent hammer action that would rival the action of the perfected harpsichord?
The first hammers were covered in leather, producing in some cases a reflection of harpsichord timbre. In fact some nervous early makers incorporated harpsichord and dulcimer timbres in their instruments. These faint-hearted designers were soon overtaken by those who strove to develop the small tinkle into something more robust. A plethora of patents from the 1770’s onwards bears witness to the international scramble for an action that allowed of rapid repetition over a wide range of dynamics.
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