History of the Piano

tic pianos have been around for about 500 years,available, it became possible to build pianos with
giving the piano a long history of providing music.heavier strings, made of stainless steel, for a fuller,
Despite numerous attempts to create an instrumentstronger sound. The size was also amplified, making it
that involved strings and a hammer, Bartolomeopossible to have seven or more octaves, as opposed
Cristofori was the one who is credited with actuallyto the original five or the fortepiano.
inventing the first acoustic piano.Broadwood was the first company to build these
The First Pianosmore complex pianos, though the Viennese piano
Cristofori built several pianos, but no one is preciselymakers quickly followed suit. It wasn't long however,
sure of when the first was created. We do know thatbefore France got involved in the creation of bigger
the Medici family had one of the pianos in 1700, andand better pianos. In 1821, Èrard began to
evidence suggests that it was built in 1698. These earlymanufacture the pianos that would be used by the
pianos were quite different from those of the modernlikes of Chopin.
music world, but they were a truly great invention forThis is also the time when the double pilot action was
their time.invented by Sebastian Èrard and incorporated
The difficulty with pianos was that the hammerinto the grand piano, making it possible to hit a key
needed to hit the wire, then return to its original placeagain even if the hammer had not yet returned to its
without bouncing and yet be ready to go again withinplace. This mechanism is used to this day in grand
moments. This was finally achieved and Cristoforipianos.
managed to find a way to create this effect.Modern Piano Innovations
The Growing Popularity of the PianoThe modern piano uses a soundboard and a metal
Despite his hard work, Cristofori was not able to makeframe that allows for heavier string tension resulting in
his new instrument famous. Then, in 1711, a diagram ofstronger sound. This has allowed for string tension of
his design was distributed and more people began toup to a combined 20 tons, something that never would
build pianos. One of them was a man namedhave been possible in the earlier wood frame pianos.
Silbermann who added the first damper pedal toIn 1826, the usual leather covered hammers were
enhance the sound. It was he who showed Bach hisreplaced with felt covered ones by Henri Pape. This
first piano, though Bach decided he didn't like it at theallowed for more uniform sounds and the ability to
time and only showed interest much later, oncetheexperiment with different hammer types.
instrument was refined.A few years later, in 1844, Jean Louis Boisselot
In the 18th century, the Viennese began to constructintroduced the sostenuto pedal which made drastic
pianos. These were built differently, with dual strings forimprovements to the piano sound quality. Around this
the notes, leather covered hammers and eleganttime, there were experiments being done with the
wooden frames. The keys were the opposite colorsmethods of stringing the piano. Eventually, a new
of today's pianos, with the regular keys being blackmethod was developed that involved three strings per
and the others white. Mozart used these Viennesenote and a special double level soundboard to allow
pianos to compose his music at the time. These arefor the fit of longer strings.
now referred to as fortepianos, to differentiate themThe piano has come a long way in the past 500
from the modern piano.years. From a simple, soft instrument that was a
Modernization of the Pianonovelty to a strong and very popular one, the piano
As the Industrial Revolution made new technologyhas really come into its own.