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(Chopin’s Nocturnes playing at a low volume).
The pianoforte is the most perfect of all musical instruments: its invention was to the music what the invention of printing was to the poetry says George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright.
Today we will hear a story about the piano as we know it today.
The pianoforte was invented around 1709 by Bartolomeo Cristofori, a harpsichord builder and keeper of the royal musical instruments in Florence. The main difference between a harpsichord and the piano was that the strings of the second were struck by hammers rather than being plucked by quills, as in the harpsichord. When the piano key was pressed, the hammer struck the string and immediately came away, allowing the string to vibrate and sound until the key was released, activating a damper to silence it. (Here you can watch a video: https://youtu.be/6XDJ2O4P97I)
The square piano was first made in 1742 by Johann Sacher, a Bavarian instrument maker. Although these instruments took up less space and were cheaper to produce than grand pianos, the main problem was that the bass strings had to be short and were therefore weak in tone as well as the volume. In Britain, square pianos were made by Johannes Zumpe from 1760, and it was one of the instruments on which Bach gave his London recital. (Bach’s Piano Partita №2 In C Minor playing quietly — https://youtu.be/VNG8Jmz5zqI)
By the end of 18th century the piano had become more than just a fashionable toy and was a living force in culture and entertainment in the homes of wealthy people.
In 1811 the cottage piano appeared in London. It was over 1 m tall with diagonally arranged strings. In the 1830’s the problem of bass strings was solved with the invention of the overstrung piano, in which the shorter strings ran vertically and the bass string crossed obliquely over them allowing the sound to be larger.
At the end of 19th century there were two piano sounds. There was the light action and sensual tone of German and Austrian instruments, on which musicians like Mozart had performed, and there was the firmer action and stronger tone of English instruments, that Beethoven used, for as his deafness increased he could no longer hear what he was playing on a Viennese instrument (play Beethoven’a Moonlight Sonata: https://youtu.be/zucBfXpCA6s).
John Broadwood introduced two pedals to operate two stops. One pedal was to sustain the tone lifting the dampers so that the sound was sustained after the key had fallen back, while the other, the soft pedal, shifted the action sideways so that the hammers struck only one string for each note.
In the 19th century musicians wanted to increase the volume of sound, so the makers increased the thickness of strings. This meant that the tension also had to be increased to maintain them at the same pitch. Added tension in the string meant that the frame had to be reinforced. In the 1860s Steinway’s iron frames were first seen in Europe.
During the 1920s many new sounds and colours were brought out of the piano.
Erik Satie put sheets of paper between the strings for a performance in 1914.
John Cage altered the tone of the piano by attaching objects such as paper, nails and milk bottles to the strings.
One composer, David Bedford asked a performer to scream inside the piano to make the strings vibrate.
Monte Young asked the pianist to bring a bale of hay and a bucket of water on to the stage for the piano to eat and drink.
(show videos, laugh, speak with the children)
So by the end of the 19th century there was a piano in almost every middle-class home. Singing around the piano was an enjoyable family activity.
