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| Thursday, July 30, 2009 |
| The Piano’s Ancestors |
The harp and the lyre were among the earliest hand-plucked stringed instruments. (Genesis 4:21) Later came the dulcimer, whose player hit the strings with small hammers. In Europe during the middle Ages, instruments were developed with a keyboard for plucking or striking the strings, the most popular being the clavichord was shaped like a rectangular box with a lid, and its strings were struck from below by little metal strips called tangents. It played expressively, but its tiny voice was easily drowned out by other instruments and buy singers. The bigger harpsichord, looking rather like the modern grand piano, long strings that were plucked by quills or plectra. It produce a strong resonant tone but without any variation of volume.
By 1700, with new dramatic, expressive music being composed, musicians wanted a keyboard instrument that played sensitively, as the clavichord did, but with the power of harpsichord.
The Piano Arrives
The Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori combined the basic design of the harpsichord; using small leather- topped wooden hammers to strike the strings. He called his invention the gravicembalo col piano e forte (harpsichord with soft and loud), shortened to the pianoforte, or piano. Here was a keyboard instrument that had a fuller, richer tone and could be played softer or louder.
Sadly, cristofori did not live to see the success of his new instrument. Because few people sowed interest in it, he went back to making harpsichords. Almost 30 year after Cristofori’s first piano, German organ builder Gottfried Silbermann took another look at the design and started making his own pianos. Craftsmen in Germany and Austria continued to experiment, conxentrating on building a smaller, lighter model called a square piano.
In England another group of piano makers were at work. They had emigrated from German in the late 1750’s. One of them, Johannes Zumpe, developed a version of the square piano that sold well. Sebastien Erard of France and other makers in Europe and America added further improvements. Astute Scottish cabinetmaker John Broadwood perceived that the piano would be ideal for the young ladies of the newly affluent middle class. Soon his company was busy turning out large numbers of both square and grand pianos.
The next challenge was to design a compact piano with the superior sound of a grand. So piano were built upward and not outward, becoming ever larger. The vertical strings of one Broadwood model rose 2.7 meters above the keyboard; but being distinctly top-heavy, it proved too dangerous to play! Another upright called the giraffe model was really a grand piano set on end with its tail in the air. John Isaac Hawkins, an Englishman, designed the firs successful upright in 1800 by placing the lower end of the strings near floor level. This eventually led to the phasing out of the square piano. |
posted by Arch Bishop, Dr J. O Faola @ 1:25 PM  |
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| About Me |
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Name: Arch Bishop, Dr J. O Faola
Home: Shibiri Ekunpa Oto-Awori LGDA, Lagos, Nigeria
About Me: His Grace Prof. Prince J. Faola (JP)., He is the Senior Pastor of the Shield Of Faith Gospel Mission Int. and the founder of the “Joel International Ministerial and Theological Academy”. He is an international Bible teacher and a passionate author and bible expositor, he is a patron and adviser for Christ Believers Ministry. He is a member of BSN and IMCGBN, the President of JECAL CLUB, The founder of the PARLEY CLUB INT, Chairman of I.M.A.T.E.B. Chairman Board of Regents Christ’s College of Theology, a well known Radio Pastor and most sought after aggressive motivational speaker.
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