Possibly the most easily recognizable musical instrument, save the guitar, is the piano. They’re literally everywhere; homes, businesses, schools, even street corners. They’re the first instrument many people begin their formal musical education with, and even those with absolutely no experience with music at all can’t help but sit down and noodle with the keys when they come across an unoccupied piano. Pianos have managed to become simply a part of everyday life in Western culture. But how did it get that way? The history of the piano is long and full of interesting and wonderful stories. We can’t possibly cover every detail of this magnificent instrument’s past, but let’s take a look at the broad strokes.
Invention
The invention of the very first piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori, Keeper of the Instruments for Ferdinando de- Medici, the Grand Prince of Tuscany. Cristofori had a long and extensive knowledge of all manner of stringed keyboard instruments, with particular expertise as a harpsichord maker. It was precisely this knowledge that allowed him to first imagine the mechanisms and actions that would become the piano. No one can really be sure when exactly Cristofori created his first piano, but an inventory made by this boss, the Medici family, shows that there was at least one piano around the time of 1700. Cristofori’s name for this instrument was a bit of a mouthful: “un cimbalo di cipresso di piano e forte,” which literally means “a keyboard of cypress with soft and loud.” Over time it was shortened to “pianoforte,” “fortepiano,” and eventually to the familiar “piano.”
The clavichord, a small keyboard instrument that predates the piano, allowed performers a fair amount of expressive control over volume and note sustain, but it was still too quiet for bigger performance hall. On the other hand, the harpsichord could create a loud enough sound for those bigger halls, but it didn’t have the dynamic and accent-based expressive control over the notes. It was Cristofori’s intention to solve these problems with his new instrument. And in fact, the piano offered the very best features of each of these instruments, combining the ability to play loudly with the performance of sharp accents. The piano could project sound better, had far better dynamic control, allowing for a huge range of dynamics including playing quite softly, while also playing in much larger venues.
Cristofori’s most amazing achievement was his design for a stringed keyboard instrument in which the notes are produces by a hammer striking the string, and immediately moving away. This had never been done before, and presented a lot of problems. If the hammer doesn’t move away fast enough it dampens the sound, if the hammer bounces too much is can negatively impact the sound, the hammer must return to its resting position quickly so the note can be repeated rapidly, etc. In solving all these problems Cristofori’s piano action became the model for piano actions to follow for the next one hundred years.
Early Pianos
Unfortunately, despite his incredible achievements, Cristofori’s new instrument wasn’t widely known for a few years, until an enthusiastic article written in 1711 changed things. The next generation of piano makers would use the article’s detailed descriptions and diagrams of Cristofori’s mechanisms to design their own pianos, with a few notable additions. One such builder, Gottfried Silbermann, added one feature which would evolve into the modern sustain pedal, which lifts all the string dampers off all the strings at once. This allows the performer to sustain notes even after they lift their fingers off the keys. This addition gives pianists the ability to play a loud chord with both hands in the lower register, sustain the chord with the pedal, and, with the chord sting ringing in the air, move their hands to a different register to prepare for the next musical section. A small, but important addition to the instruments.
Silbermann showed one of his earliest innovations to Johann Sebastian Bach in 1730. Bach didn’t like it, giving Silbermann a list of complaints. Although this caused some friction between them, apparently Silbermann took them to heart, and when he showed an improved version to Back in 1747, he loved it! And not only did he love it, he worked with Silbermann to sell his pianos.
Piano-making found great success throughout the late 18th century, especially in Vienna. Viennese-style pianos were made with wooden frames, two strings per note, and used hammers covered with leather. Interestingly, some of these style pianos also used a reversed colour coding for the keys, with the natural keys black, and the accidental keys white. These pianos were a bit softer and had less sustaining power, but also had a somewhat more ethereal quality than modern pianos. It was on one of these that Mozart composed his concertos and sonatas.
Modern Pianos
The piano went though the majority of the changes that turned it into the instrument that we all recognize today between 1790 and 1860. Composers and pianists alike wanted more a powerful, sustained sound, and the Industrial Revolution provided the means to do it. New materials were developed, like high-quality piano wire for strings, and much more precise casting for making gigantic iron frames that could stand up to the incredible strain the new strings could create. Over time, and through many slight improvements, the tonal range of the piano increased from 5 octaves in Mozart’s day, to 7 or more in modern pianos.
Other improvements would come over the years, including the repetition lever, or balancier, which allowed for repeating a note even if the key hadn’t yet returned to it’s resting position, as well as felt coverings for the hammers, and the sostenuto pedal, which allowed for a wider range of effects.
Since the mid-19th century there have been all sorts of little changes and improvements, but the modern acoustic piano was essential created at that time.
Arguably the most important new development for the piano in modern time would be the advent of the electric keyboard. Until recently, learning to play the piano, and indeed performing, required a giant piece of equipment. Even the smallest acoustic pianos can’t be described as “portable.” All that changed with the electric keyboard. Smaller, significantly less expensive, and available in different sizes and qualities, learning to play the piano has never been so accessible!