This article is about the modern musical instrument. For other meanings, see piano (disambiguation). A musical instrument is a device that has been constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... The word piano has several meanings: A piano is a musical instrument. ...

An upright piano

A piano is a large musical instrument with a keyboard. Its sound is produced by strings stretched on a rigid frame. These vibrate when struck by felt-covered hammers, which are activated by the keyboard. piano This Piano is only one form of it. ... piano This Piano is only one form of it. ... A musical instrument is a device that has been constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played with a musical keyboard. ...

The word piano is an abbreviation for pianoforte, Italian for soft-loud, referring to the ability of the piano to play notes at different volumes depending on how hard its keys are pressed.

As a keyboard stringed instrument, the piano is similar to the clavichord and harpsichord. The three instruments differ in the mechanism of sound production. In a harpsichord, strings are plucked by quills or similar material. In the clavichord, strings are struck by tangents which remain in contact with the string. In a piano, the strings are struck by hammers which immediately rebound, leaving the string to vibrate freely. Image:Clavichord. ... Harpsichord in Flemish style; for more info, click the image. ... A tangent mechanism, when referred to in a tangent piano, strikes the string and remains in contact with that string to set the pitch at which it vibrates, unlike the hammer of the modern pianoforte which is padded and is designed to rebound off of the string it strikes. ...

Early history

The piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence, Italy. When he built his first piano is not entirely clear, but an inventory made by Cristofori's employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of an early Cristofori instrument by the year 1700. Cristofori built only about twenty pianos before he died in 1731; the three that survive today date from the 1720s. Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco (May 4, 1655 - January 27, 1732) was an Italian maker of musical instruments, generally regarded as the inventor of the piano. ... Founded 59 BC as Florentia Region Tuscany Mayor Leonardo Domenici (Democratici di Sinistra) Area  - City Proper  102 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 356,000 almost 500,000 3,453/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Latitude Longitude 43°47 N 11°15 E www. ... The Medici family was a powerful and influential Florentine family from the 13th to 17th century. ... Events January 1 - Russia accepts Julian calendar. ... Events 10 Downing Street becomes the official residence of the United Kingdoms Prime Minister when Robert Walpole moves in. ... Events and Trends Manufacture of the earliest surviving pianos. ...

Like many other inventions, the piano was founded on earlier technological innovations. In particular, it benefited from centuries of work on the harpsichord, which had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, the soundboard, the bridge, and the keyboard. Cristofori was himself a harpsichord maker and well acquainted with this body of knowledge. Harpsichord in Flemish style; for more info, click the image. ...

Cristofori's great success was to solve, without any prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammers must strike the string but not continue to touch it once they have struck (which would damp the sound). 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 were to follow.

Cristofori's early instruments were made with thin strings and were much quieter than the modern piano. However, in comparison with the clavichord (the only previous keyboard instrument capable of dynamic nuance) they were considerably louder, with greater sustain.

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. This article was widely distributed, and most of the next generation of piano builders started their work as a result of reading it. // Events February 24 - The London premiere of Rinaldo by George Friderich Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage. ...

One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Silbermann's pianos were virtually direct copies of Cristofori's, but with an important exception: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper pedal (also known as the sustaining pedal or loud pedal), which permits the dampers to be lifted from all the strings at once. Virtually all subsequent pianos incorporated some version of Silbermann's idea. This article or section should be merged with Pipe organ The Casavant pipe organ at Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, Montreal The organ is a type of keyboard musical instrument, distinctive because the sound is not produced by a percussion action, as on a piano or celesta, or by...

Silbermann showed Bach one of his early instruments in the 1730s. Bach did not like it at that time, claiming that the higher notes were too soft to allow a full dynamic range. Though this earned him some animosity from Silbermann, the latter did apparently heed the criticism. Bach did approve of a later instrument he saw in 1747, and apparently even served as an agent to help sell Silbermann's pianos. The 1748 Haussmann portrait of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach (21 March 1685 – 28 July 1750)[1] was a German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and keyboard drew together almost all of the pre-existing strands of the baroque style and brought it to... Events and Trends The Great Awakening - A Protestant religious movement active in the British colonies of North America Sextant invented (probably around 1730) independently by John Hadley in Great Britain and Thomas Godfrey in the American colonies World leaders Louis XV King of France (king from 1715 to 1774) George... // Events January 31 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Dock Hospital April 9 - The Scottish Jacobite Lord Lovat was beheaded by axe on Tower Hill, London, for high treason; he was the last man to be executed in this way in Britain May 14 - First battle of Cape...

Piano-making flourished during the late 18th century in the work of the Viennese school, which including Johann Andreas Stein (who worked in Augsburg, Germany) and the Viennese makers Nannette Stein (daughter of Johann Andreas) and Anton Walter. The Viennese-style pianos were built with wooden frames, two strings per note, and leather-covered hammers. It was for such instruments that Mozart composed his concertos and sonatas, and replicas of them are built today for use in authentic-instrument performance. The piano of Mozart's day had a softer, clearer tone than today's pianos, with less sustaining power. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Johann Andreas Stein, (1728-1792), German maker of keyboard instruments and a friend of Mozart. ... Augsburg is a city in south-central Germany. ... W. A. Mozart, 1790 portrait by Johann Georg Edlinger Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) is among the most significant and enduringly popular composers of European classical music. ... A piano concerto is a concerto for solo piano and orchestra. ... A piano sonata is a sonata written for unaccompanied piano. ... The authentic performance movement is an effort on the part of musicians and scholars to perform works of classical music in ways similar to how they were performed when they were originally written. ...

The term fortepiano is nowadays often used to distinguish the 18th-century style of instrument from later pianos. For further information on the earlier part of piano history, see fortepiano. Fortepiano designates the early version of the piano, as it existed from its invention by Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century. ...

The development of the modern piano

In the lengthy period lasting from about 1790 to 1890, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes which ultimately led to the modern form of the instrument. This evolution was in response to a consistent preference by composers and pianists for a more powerful, sustained piano sound. It was also a response to the ongoing Industrial Revolution, which made available technological resources like high-quality steel for strings (see piano wire) and precision casting for the production of iron frames. 1790 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1890 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Industrial Revolution was the major technological, socioeconomic and cultural change in the late 18th and early 19th century resulting from the replacement of an economy based on manual labor to one dominated by industry and machine manufacture. ... Piano wire is a specialized type of wire made for use in piano strings, as well as many other purposes. ...

Over time, piano playing became a more strenuous and muscle-taxing activity, as the force needed to depress the keys, as well as the length of key travel, was increased. The tonal range of the piano was also increased, from the five octaves of Mozart's day to the 7 1/3 (or even more) octaves found on modern pianos. For the numerical computation software, see GNU Octave. ...

In the first part of this era, technological progress owed much to the English firm of Broadwood, which already had a strong reputation for the splendor and powerful tone of its harpsichords. Over time, the Broadwood instruments grew progressively larger, louder, and more robustly constructed. The Broadwood firm, which sent pianos to both Haydn and Beethoven, was the first to build pianos with range of more than five octaves: five octaves and a fifth during the 1790s, six by 1810 (in time for Beethoven to use the extra notes in his later works), and seven by 1820. The Viennese makers followed these trends. The two schools, however, used different piano actions: the Broadwood one more robust, the Viennese more sensitive. Franz Joseph Haydn, (March 31 or April 1, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of the Classical period, called the Father of the Symphony and Father of the String Quartet. Although he has come to be popularly known as Franz Joseph Haydn (with many published scores and recordings... Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827) was a German composer of classical music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. ... Events and Trends French Revolution ( 1789 - 1799). ... 1810 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1820 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

By the 1820s, the centre of innovation had shifted to the Érard firm of Paris, which built pianos used by Chopin and Liszt. 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, a great benefit for rapid playing. As revised by Henri Herz about 1840, the double escapement action ultimately became the standard action for grand pianos, used by all manufacturers. Events and Trends Nationalistic independence movements helped reshape the world during this decade: Greece declares independence from the Ottoman Empire (1821). ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... This article is about Frédéric Chopin, the composer. ... Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a virtuoso pianist and composer. ... 1821 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Henri Herz (January 6, 1803–January 5, 1888) was an Austrian pianist and composer. ... 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Some other important technical innovations of this era include the following:

• use of three strings rather than two for all but the lower notes

• the iron frame. The iron frame, also called the "plate", sits atop the soundboard, and serves as the primary bulwark against the force of string tension. The iron frame was the ultimate solution to the problem of structural integrity as the strings were gradually made thicker, tenser, and more numerous (in a modern grand the total string tension can approach 20 tons). The iron frame was invented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus Babcock, culminating an earlier trend to use ever more iron parts to reinforce the piano. Babcock later worked for the Chickering firm, where the first iron frame in grand pianos (1840) was developed.

• felt hammers. The harder, tauter steel strings required a softer hammer type to maintain good tone quality. Hammers covered with compressed felt were introduced by the Parisian maker Jean-Henri Pape in 1826, and are now universally used.

• the sostenuto pedal (see below), invented in 1844 by Jean Louis Boisselot and improved by the Steinway firm in 1874.

• the overstrung scale, also called "cross-stringing". This is a special arrangement of strings within the case: the strings are placed in a vertically overlapping slanted arrangement, with two bridges on the soundboard instead of just one. The purpose of the overstrung scale was to permit longer strings to fit within the case of the piano. Overstringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s, and first applied to the grand by Henry Steinway Jr. in 1859.

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.

• duplex scaling, invented by Theodore Steinway in 1872, permits the parts of the string near its ends, which otherwise would be damped with cloth, to vibrate freely, thus increasing resonance and adding to the richness of the sound. Aliquot stringing, which serves a similar purpose in Blüthner pianos, was invented by Julius Blüthner in 1873.

The modern concert grand achieved essentially its present form around the beginning of the 20th century, and progress since then has been only incremental. For some recent developments, see Innovations in the piano. 1825 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... City nickname: Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe), Athens of America Location Location in Massachusetts Government Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas Menino (Dem) Physical characteristics Area      Land      Water 89. ... Chickering and Sons was an American piano manufacturer located in Boston, known for producing award-winning instruments of superb quality and design. ... 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1826 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1844 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Steinway & Sons is a piano manufacturing firm, currently based in New York and Hamburg, Germany. ... 1874 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Events and Trends Nationalistic independence movements helped reshape the world during this decade: Greece declares independence from the Ottoman Empire (1821). ... 1859 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 429 KB)Digital photograph taken by User:Opus33. ... Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 429 KB)Digital photograph taken by User:Opus33. ... 1872 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Aliquot stringing is the use of extra unstruck strings in the piano for the purpose of enriching the tone. ... Bluthner was a piano-manufacturing company founded by Julius Bluthner in 1853 in Leipzig. ... 1873 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... This article covers a number of innovations from recent times in the building of pianos. ...

Some early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The once-popular square piano had the strings and frame on a horizontal plane, but running across the length of the keyboard rather than away from it. It was similar to the upright piano in its mechanism. Square pianos were produced through the early 20th century; the tone they produced is widely considered to be inferior. Most had a wood frame, though later designs incorporated increasing amounts of iron. The giraffe piano, by contrast, was mechanically like a grand piano, but the strings ran vertically up from the keyboard rather than horizontally away from it, making it a very tall instrument. These were uncommon. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...

Piano history and musical performance

The huge changes in the evolution of the piano have somewhat vexing consequences for musical performance. The problem is that much of the most widely admired music for piano—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. Even the music of the early Romantics, such as Chopin and Schumann, was written for pianos substantially different from ours. Franz Joseph Haydn, (March 31 or April 1, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of the Classical period, called the Father of the Symphony and Father of the String Quartet. Although he has come to be popularly known as Franz Joseph Haydn (with many published scores and recordings... W. A. Mozart, 1790 portrait by Johann Georg Edlinger Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) is among the most significant and enduringly popular composers of European classical music. ... Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827) was a German composer of classical music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. ... This article is about Frédéric Chopin, the composer. ... Robert Schumann (June 8, 1810 – July 29, 1856) was a German composer and pianist. ...

One view that is sometimes taken is that these composers were dissatisfied with their pianos, and in fact were writing visionary "music of the future" with a more robust sound in mind. This view is perhaps more plausible in the case of Beethoven, who composed at the beginning of the era of piano growth, than it is in the case of Haydn or Mozart.

Others have noted that the music itself often seems to require the resources of the early piano. For example, Beethoven sometimes wrote long passages in which he directs the player to keep the damper pedal down throughout (a famous example occurs in the last movement of the "Waldstein" sonata, Op. 53). These come out rather blurred on a modern piano if played as written but work well on (restored or replicated) pianos of Beethoven's day. Similarly, the classical composers sometimes would write passages in which a lower violin line accompanies a higher piano line in parallel; this was a reasonable thing to do at a time when piano tone was more penetrating than violin tone; today it is the reverse. Ludwig van Beethovens Piano Sonata No. ...

Current performance practice is a mix. A few pianists simply ignore the problem; others modify their playing style to help compensate for the difference in instruments, for example by using less pedal. Finally, participants in the authentic performance movement have constructed new copies of the old instruments and used them in performance; this has provided important new insights and interpretations of the music. The authentic performance movement is an effort on the part of musicians and scholars to perform works of classical music in ways similar to how they were performed when they were originally written. ...

The modern piano

Types of piano

Modern pianos come in two basic configurations and several sizes: the grand piano and the upright piano. A grand piano is the concert form of a piano. ...

Grand pianos have the frame and strings placed horizontally, with the strings extending away from the keyboard. This avoids the problems inherent in an upright piano, but takes up a large amount of space and needs a spacious room with high ceilings for proper resonance. Several sizes of grand piano exist. Manufacturers and models vary, but as a rough guide we can distinguish the "concert grand", approx. 3 m; the "grand", approx. 1.8 m; and the smaller "baby grand", which may be a bit shorter than it is wide. All else being equal, longer pianos have better sound and lower inharmonicity of the strings (so that the strings can be tuned closer to equal temperament in relation to the standard pitch with less stretching), so that full-size grands are almost always used for public concerts, whereas baby grands are only for domestic use where space and cost are crucial considerations. Equal temperament is a scheme of musical tuning in which the octave is divided into a series of equal steps (equal frequency ratios). ...

Upright pianos, also called vertical pianos, are more compact because the frame and strings are placed vertically, extending in both directions from the keyboard and hammers. It is considered harder to produce a sensitive piano action when the hammers move sideways, rather than upward against gravity; however, the very best upright pianos now approach the level of grand pianos of the same size in tone quality and responsiveness. For recent advances, see Innovations in the piano. This article covers a number of innovations from recent times in the building of pianos. ...

In 1863, Henri Fourneaux invented the player piano, a kind of piano which "plays itself" from a piano roll without the need for a pianist. Also in the 19th century, toy pianos began to be manufactured. 1863 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The player piano is a type of piano that plays music without the need for a human pianist to depress the normal keys or pedals. ... Example of a piano roll being punched. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pooh Poppin Piano -- a diatonic one octave toy piano The toy piano is a musical instrument, made as a childs toy, but which has also been used in more serious musical contexts. ...

A relatively recent development is the prepared piano, which is a piano adapted in some way by placing objects inside the instrument, or changing its mechanism in some way. A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects (preparations) between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers. ...

Since the 1980s, digital pianos have been available, which use digital sampling technology to reproduce the sound of each piano note. Digital pianos have become quite sophisticated, with standard pedals, weighted keys, multiple voices, MIDI interfaces, and so on in the better models. 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 with the struck strings. Since this sympathetic vibration is considered central to a beautiful piano tone, digital pianos are still not considered by most experts as competing with the best acoustic pianos in tone quality. Progress is now being made in this area by including physical models of sympathetic vibration in the synthesis software. // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... A digital piano is a modern electronic musical instrument that is intended to function as a standard piano, often adding other features. ... Digital sampling is the recording, playback, looping and editing of sound in a musical context using a computer to convert the sound into a series of numbers representing the measurement of the amplitude of the sound. ... Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is a system designed to transmit information between electronic musical instruments. ... Sympathetic strings are strings on musical instruments which begin resonating, not due to any external influence such as picking or bowing, but due to another note (or frequency). ... In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to absorb more oscillatory energy when the frequency of the oscillations matches the systems natural frequency of vibration (its resonant frequency) than it does at other frequencies. ... Physical modelling synthesis is the synthesis of sound by using a set of equations and algorithms to simulate a physical source of sound. ...

Keyboard

Almost every modern piano has 88 keys (seven octaves and a bit, from A0 to C8). Many older pianos only have 85 (from A0 to A7), while some manufacturers extend the range further in one or both directions. The most notable example of an extended range can be found on Bösendorfer pianos, some of which extend the normal range downwards to F0, with others going as far as a bottom C0, making a full eight octave range. On some models these extra keys are hidden under a small hinged lid, which can be flipped down to cover the keys and avoid visual disorientation in a pianist unfamiliar with the extended keyboard; on others, the colours of the extra keys are reversed (black instead of white and vice versa) for the same reason. The extra keys are added primarily for increased resonance; 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. On their instruments, the range is extended up the treble for a full eight octaves. The extra keys are the same as the other keys in appearance. Photo of a piano keyboard. ... Photo of a piano keyboard. ... In music, an octave (sometimes abbreviated 8ve or 8va) is the interval between one musical note and another with half or double the frequency. ... Bösendorfer (L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH) is a piano manufacturer, a wholly owned subsidiary of the BAWAG PSK Gruppe, and is based in Vienna, Austria. ... Stuart and Sons are a manufacturer of pianos based in Maryville, Australia. ...

For the arrangement of the keys on a piano keyboard, see Musical keyboard. This arrangement was inherited from the harpsichord without change, with the trivial exception of the color scheme (white for naturals and black for sharps) which became standard for pianos in the late 18th century. Roland EXR-3 Keyboard The musical keyboard, also known as the piano keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers on a musical instrument which produce notes. ... Harpsichord in Flemish style; for more info, click the image. ...

Pedals

Pianos have had pedals, or some close equivalent, since the earliest days. (In the 18th century, some pianos used levers pressed upward by the player's knee instead of pedals.) The three pedals that have become more or less standard on the modern piano are the following.

The damper pedal (also called the sustaining pedal or loud pedal) is often simply called "the pedal," since it is the most frequently used. It is placed as the rightmost pedal in the group. Every note on the piano, except the top two octaves, is equipped with a damper, which is a padded device that prevents the strings from vibrating. The damper is raised off the strings of its note whenever the key for that note is pressed. When the damper pedal is pressed, all the dampers on the piano are lifted at once, so that every string can vibrate. This serves two purposes. First, it permits notes to be connected (i.e., played legato) when there is no fingering that would make this possible. More important, raising the damper pedal causes all the strings to vibrate sympathetically with whatever notes are being played, which greatly enriches the tone. In musical notation, legato indicates that musical notes are played smoothly. ... This article is about resonance in physics. ...

Piano music starting with Chopin tends to be heavily pedaled, as a means of achieving a singing tone. In contrast, the damper pedal was used only sparingly by the composers of the 18th century, including Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven; in that era, pedaling was considered primarily as a special coloristic effect. This article is about Frédéric Chopin, the composer. ... Franz Joseph Haydn, (March 31 or April 1, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of the Classical period, called the Father of the Symphony and Father of the String Quartet. Although he has come to be popularly known as Franz Joseph Haydn (with many published scores and recordings... W. A. Mozart, 1790 portrait by Johann Georg Edlinger Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) is among the most significant and enduringly popular composers of European classical music. ... Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827) was a German composer of classical music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. ...

The soft pedal or "una corda" pedal is placed leftmost in the row of pedals. On a grand piano, this pedal shifts the action to one side slightly, so that hammers that normally strike all three of the strings for a note strike only two of them. This softens the note and also modifies its tone quality. For notation of the soft pedal in printed music, see Italian musical terms. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Musical terminology. ...

The soft pedal was invented by Cristofori and thus appeared on the very earliest pianos. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the soft pedal was more effective than today, since it was possible at that time to use it to strike three, two or even just one string per note—this is the origin of the name "una corda", Italian for "one string". In modern pianos, the strings are spaced too closely to permit a true "una corda" effect—if shifted far enough to strike just one string on one note, the hammers would also strike the string of the next note over.

On upright pianos, the soft pedal is replaced by a mechanism for moving the hammers' resting position closer to the strings. This reduces volume, but does not change tone quality as a true "una corda" pedal does.

Digital pianos often use this pedal to alter the sound of other instuments like organs, guitars, and harmonicas. Pitch bends, leslie speaker on/off, vibrato modulation, etc. increase the already-great versatility of such instruments.

The sostenuto pedal or "middle pedal" maintains in the raised position any damper that was raised at the moment the pedal was depressed. It makes it possible to sustain some notes (depress the sostenuto pedal before releasing the notes to be sustained) while the player's hands have moved on to play other notes, which can be useful for musical passages with pedal points and other tricky situations. The sostenuto pedal was the last of the three pedals to be added to the standard piano, and to this day many cheap pianos—and even a few good ones— do not have a sostenuto pedal. (Almost all modern grand pianos have a sostenuto; most upright pianos do not.) A number of twentieth-century works call for the use of this pedal. Pedal point (also pedal tone, organ point, or just pedal) is a musical term describing any sustained or repeated note, usually in the bass, with changing harmonies in the other voices. ...

Over the years, the middle pedal has served many different functions. Some upright pianos have a practice pedal in place of the sostenuto. This pedal, which can usually be locked in place by depressing it and pushing it to one side, drops a strip of felt between the hammers and the keys so that all the notes are greatly muted— a handy feature for those who wish to practice at odd hours without disturbing others in the house. The practice pedal is rarely used in performance. Other uprights have a bass sustain as a middle pedal. It works the same as the damper pedal except it only lifts the dampers for the low end notes.

Irving Berlin's famed Transposing Piano used the middle pedal as a clutch to shift the keyboard with a lever. The entire action of the piano would shift to allow the operator to play in any key.

The materials of the piano

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." 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 pinblock, which holds the tuning pins in place, is another area of the piano where toughness is important. It is made of hardwood, and generally is laminated (built of multiple layers) for additional strength and gripping power.

Piano strings (also called piano wire), which must endure years of extreme tension and hard blows, are made of high quality steel. 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 wire is a specialized type of wire made for use in piano strings, as well as many other purposes. ... Piano acoustics is an exploration of how physical science, particularly acoustics, can help to explain a number of important properties of the piano. ...

The plate, or metal frame, of a piano is usually made of cast iron. 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 esthetic handicap. Piano makers overcome this handicap by polishing, painting, and decorating the plate; often plates include the manufacturer's ornamental medallion and can be strikingly attractive. Cast iron usually refers to grey cast iron, but can mean any of a group of iron-based alloys containing more than 2% carbon (alloys with less carbon are carbon steel by definition). ...

The numerous grand parts and upright parts of a piano action are generally hardwood (e.g. maple, beech. hornbeam). World War II brought about plastics which were originally incorporated into some pianos in the 1940s and 1950s, but were clearly disastrous, crystallizing and losing 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. More recently, the Kawai firm has built pianos with action parts made of more modern and effective plastics such as nylon; these parts have held up better and have generally received the respect of piano technicians. Beech is a typical temperate zone hardwood The term hardwood designates wood from angiosperm trees. ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons like the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th-century conflict that engulfed much of the globe... The term plastics covers a range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic condensation or polymerization products that can be molded or extruded into objects or films or fibers. ... Steinway & Sons is a piano manufacturing firm, currently based in New York and Hamburg, Germany. ... Teflon is the brand name of a polymer compound discovered by Roy J. Plunkett (1910-1994) of DuPont in 1938 and introduced as a commercial product in 1946. ... The Kawai Musical Instruments Mfg. ... This article covers the material nylon. ...

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 part of the piano where materials probably matter more than anywhere else is the soundboard. In quality pianos this is made of solid spruce (that is, spruce boards glued together at their edges). 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 laminated; i.e. made of plywood. Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 336 KB)View of soundboard, braces, and ribs of a grand piano. ... Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 336 KB)View of soundboard, braces, and ribs of a grand piano. ... Species About 35; see text. ... Plywood was the first type of engineered wood to be invented. ...

Piano keys are generally made of spruce or basswood, for lightness. Spruce is normally used in high-quality pianos. Traditionally, the sharps (black keys) were made from ebony and the flats (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. 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 feel and/or look of ivory on the player's fingers. Basswood is the common name of timbers of Tilia species. ... This article is about a type of timber. ... Ivory is a hard, white, opaque substance that is the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth, etc. ... The Yamaha Corporation (ヤマハ株式会社) (TYO: 7951) is a Japanese company with a large number of product areas. ...

The requirement of structural strength, fulfilled with stout hardwood and thick metal, makes pianos 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).

Care and maintenance of pianos

Main article: Care and maintenance of pianos

Pianos are regularly tuned to keep them up to pitch and produce a pleasing sound; they are, ideally, tuned to the internationally recognised standard concert pitch of A = 440 hz. The hammers of pianos are voiced to compensate for gradual hardening. Top-quality but aged pianos can be restored, replacing a great number of their parts to produce an instrument closely similar to a new one. The piano requires various forms of maintenance to produce its best sound. ...

The role of the piano

The piano is a crucial instrument in Western classical music, jazz, film, television and electronic game music, and most other complex musical genres. A large number of composers are pianists, and they frequently use the piano as a tool for composition. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Jazz master Louis Armstrong was one of the best loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ... A film score is the background music in a film, generally specially written for the film and often used to heighten emotions provoked by the imagery on the screen or by the dialogue. ...

Pianos were and are extremely popular instruments for private household ownership, especially among the middle- and upper-class. As such, pianos have gained a place in the popular consciousness, and are sometimes referred to by nicknames, including: "the eighty-eight," "the ivories," and "the black(s) and white(s)."

See also: Social history of the piano This social history article treats the role of the piano in the home, from its invention in the early 18th century to the present day. ...

Famous piano makers

• Baldwin (1890)
• Bechstein (1853)
• Blüthner (1853)
• Bösendorfer (1828)
• Broadwood (1783)
• Érard (1777)
• Fazioli (1978)
• Feurich (1851)
• Gaveau (1847)
• Grotrian(1835)
• Kawai (1930)
• Mason and Hamlin (1854)
• Petrof (1864)
• Pleyel (1807)
• Samick (1958)
• Sauter (1819)
• Schimmel (1885)
• Steinway & Sons (1853)
• Stuart and Sons
• Yamaha (1889)
• Young Chang (1956)
• Wurlitzer
• Steingraeber and Sohne (1852)

Baldwin can refer to: // Place Baldwin is the name of some places in Canada: Baldwin (community), Ontario Baldwin, Ontario Baldwin, Quebec Baldwin Mills, Quebec Baldwin Road, Prince Edward Island Baldwins Bridge, Ontario Baldwinton, Saskatchewan Baldwin is the name of some places in the United States of America: Baldwin, Florida Baldwin... 1890 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... There are several people named Bechstein: Johann Matthäus Bechstein (1757 - 1822) was a German naturalist and forester. ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Bluthner was a piano-manufacturing company founded by Julius Bluthner in 1853 in Leipzig. ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Bösendorfer (L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH) is a piano manufacturer, a wholly owned subsidiary of the BAWAG PSK Gruppe, and is based in Vienna, Austria. ... 1828 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... John Broadwood & Sons is the oldest and one of the most prestigious piano companies in the world. ... 1783 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1777 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Fazioli is a piano manufacturing company founded in 1978 in Sacile, Italy by Paolo Fazioli and a small team of his friends. ... 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... 1851 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Friedrich Grotrian (1803-1860) was the founder of the Grotrian familys piano building tradition since 6 generations until up to this day. ... 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Kawai Musical Instruments Mfg. ... 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... One of the outstanding piano manufacturers of all time, this company was founded by Henry Mason and Emmons Hamlin in Boston during the mid-1800s. ... 1854 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Petrof is a Czech piano maker. ... 1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Ignaz Pleyel (June 18, 1757–November 14, 1831) was an Austrian composer of the Classical music era. ... 1807 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Korean manufacturer, Samick, is one of the largest musical instrument manufacturers in the world. ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1819 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Steinway & Sons logo Steinway & Sons is a piano manufacturing firm, currently based in New York and Hamburg, Germany. ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Stuart and Sons are a manufacturer of pianos based in Maryville, Australia. ... The Yamaha Corporation (ヤマハ株式会社) (TYO: 7951) is a Japanese company with a large number of product areas. ... 1889 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Young Chang (including Bergmann, Pramberger, and Kurzweil Music System) is a famous Korean piano maker. ... 1956 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Wurlitzer is the common name for band organs or orchestrions, vintage band organs, jukeboxes and most notably theatre organs produced by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. ... 1852 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Further reading

• The authoritative New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (available in libraries and online as a fee site), contains a wealth of information on the piano. Main article: "Pianoforte".
• The Encyclopedia Britannica (available in libraries and online as a fee site) also includes a great deal of information about the piano. In the 1988 edition, the primary article can be found in "Musical Instruments".
• The Piano Book by Larry Fine (4th ed. Jamaica Plain, MA: 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.
• The pianist's guide to pedaling by Joseph Banowetz (Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1985) offers a history of the three piano pedals and covers the wide variety of ways in which they are used by professional pianists.
• Piano roles : three hundred years of life with the piano by James Parakilas (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999) provides much history of the instrument.

The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is a dictionary of music and musicians, generally considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. ... 1913 advertisement for the 11th edition, with the slogan When in doubt - look it up in the Encyclopædia Britannica The Encyclopædia Britannica (properly spelt with æ, the ae-ligature) is the oldest English-language general encyclopedia. ...

See also

• pianist
• Piano key frequencies (in equal temperament)
• Musical tuning
• Innovations in the piano
• string piano
• prepared piano
• Piano acoustics
• Social history of the piano
• Player piano
  • Piano roll
• Tangent piano
• Lists of solo piano pieces
• Piano practice

A pianist is a person who plays the piano. ... This is a virtual piano with 88 keys tuned to A440, showing the frequencies, in cycles per second (Hz), of each note. ... Equal temperament is a scheme of musical tuning in which the octave is divided into a series of equal steps (equal frequency ratios). ... This page is about musical systems of tuning, for the musical process of tuning see tuning. ... This article covers a number of innovations from recent times in the building of pianos. ... String piano is a term coined by American composer-theorist Henry Cowell to collectively describe those pianistic techniques in which sound is produced by direct manipulation of the strings, rather than by striking of the pianos keys. ... A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects (preparations) between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers. ... Piano acoustics is an exploration of how physical science, particularly acoustics, can help to explain a number of important properties of the piano. ... This social history article treats the role of the piano in the home, from its invention in the early 18th century to the present day. ... The player piano is a type of piano that plays music without the need for a human pianist to depress the normal keys or pedals. ... Example of a piano roll being punched. ... The tangent piano is a very rare keyboard instrument that resembles a harpsichord and early pianos in design. ... 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 major instrument of music. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wikibooks. ...

Other types of pianos

With the exception of the toy piano, these instruments are called "piano" by virtue of being keyboard instruments but are electric or electronic in nature, not acoustic. The article on electrical energy is located elsewhere. ... Look up Electronic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Electronic can refer to many things: Objects related to electronics The band Electronic. ... Look up Acoustic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary For the study of sound, a branch of physics, see acoustics. ...

• Electric piano
• Stage piano
• Rhodes piano
• Digital piano
• Toy piano

An electric piano (e-piano) is an electric musical instrument of the 1960s or 1970s, which was built to replace a (heavy) piano on stage. ... Roland RD-700 - a typical digital stage piano Yamaha P-250 - a digital stage piano with built-in speakers Casio AP-38 - a typical digital piano- notice the integrated modesty panel & pedals A stage piano is a digital piano that reproduces sound electronically by the use of sampled or digitally... A Rhodes piano is a musical instrument. ... A digital piano is a modern electronic musical instrument that is intended to function as a standard piano, often adding other features. ... Pooh Poppin Piano -- a diatonic one octave toy piano The toy piano is a musical instrument, made as a childs toy, but which has also been used in more serious musical contexts. ...

Related instruments

• Hammered dulcimer
• Harpsichord
• Clavichord

Hammered dulcimers have two or sometimes three bridges, and are played by striking the strings with small hammers. The hammers are sometimes covered with leather to create a softer sound. ... Harpsichord in Flemish style; for more info, click the image. ... Image:Clavichord. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

Pianos

• UK Piano Page, Piano History
• The Frederick Historical Piano Collection
• Technical information page from the Piano Technicians Guild
• "Caring for your Steinway" from Steinway and Sons
• Maintenance advice from the Schimmel piano company
• 88 Keys to Freedom: Segues Through the History of American Piano Music by 'Blue' Gene Tyranny
• An essay on soundboards by piano designer Delwin Fandrich (PDF)
• List of musical instruments software
• Multilingual advice on professional piano practicing techniques
• Piano Society A site dedicated to classical piano music, featuring a lot of recordings presented in MP3 format.
• history of the grand piano - photoarchive