|
Piano is the general name given to a musical instrument classified as a keyboard, percussion, or string instrument, depending
on the system of classification used. The piano produces sound by striking steel strings with felt hammers that immediately
rebound allowing the string to continue vibrating at its resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through the
bridges to the soundboard, which amplifies them.
The piano is widely used in western music for solo performance, chamber
music, and accompaniment. It is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive,
the piano's versatility and ubiquity has made it among the most familiar of musical instruments.
The word piano is
a shortened form of the word pianoforte, which is seldom used except in formal language and derived from the original Italian
name for the instrument, gravicèmbalo col piano e forte (literally harpsichord with soft and loud). This refers to the ability
of the piano to produce notes at different dynamic levels depending on the speed and force with which a key is pressed.
Contents
[hide]
1 Early history
2 Development of the modern piano
2.1 Piano history and musical performance
3 The modern
piano
3.1 Types
3.1.1 Grand
3.1.2 Upright
3.1.3 Other Types
3.2 Keyboard
3.3 Pedals
3.4 Materials
3.5 Care and maintenance
4 The role of the piano
5 Media files
6 Notes
7 References
8 Further reading
9 See also
9.1 Related lists
9.2 Other types of pianos
9.3 Related instruments
10 External links
[edit] Early history
See also: Fortepiano
Although there were various crude earlier attempts to make stringed
keyboard instruments with struck strings,[2] it is widely considered that the piano was invented by a single individual: Bartolomeo
Cristofori of Padua, Italy. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano, but an inventory made by his employers,
the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date
from the 1720s.
Like many other inventions, the piano was founded on earlier technological innovations. The mechanisms
of keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and the harpsichord were well known. In a clavichord the strings are struck
by tangents, while in a harpsichord they are plucked by quills. Centuries of work on the mechanism of the harpsichord in particular
had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and keyboard. Cristofori, himself an expert harpsichord
maker, was well acquainted with this body of knowledge.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
image above is a candidate for speedy deletion. It will be deleted on 2007-05-13. A Cristofori piano.Cristofori's great success
was in solving, without any prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammers must strike the
string, but not remain in contact with the string (as a tangent remains in contact with a clavichord string) because this
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 followed. While Cristofori's early instruments were made with thin strings and were much quieter than the modern
piano, compared to the clavichord (the only previous keyboard instrument capable of minutely controlled dynamic nuance through
the keyboard) they were considerably louder and had more sustaining power.
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 because
of reading it. One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Silbermann's pianos were
virtually direct copies of Cristofori's, with one important addition: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper
pedal, which lifts all the dampers from the strings at once.
Silbermann showed Bach one of his early instruments in
the 1730s, but Bach did not like it at that time, claiming that the higher notes were too soft to allow a full dynamic range.
Although this earned him some animosity from Silbermann, the criticism was apparently heeded. Bach did approve of a later
instrument he saw in 1747, and even served as an agent in selling Silbermann's pianos.
Piano-making flourished during
the late 18th century in the Viennese school, which included Johann Andreas Stein (who worked in Augsburg, Germany) and the
Viennese makers Nannette Stein (daughter of Johann Andreas) and Anton Walter. Viennese-style pianos were built with wood frames,
two strings per note, and had 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 of his music. The pianos of Mozart's
day had a softer, clearer tone than today's pianos, with less sustaining power. The term fortepiano is nowadays often used
to distinguish the 18th-century instrument from later pianos.
[edit] Development of the modern piano
Interior
of an upright piano, showing the felt-covered hammers. The tuning pins can be seen at upper left. In the treble range shown,
each note has three strings.In the period lasting from about 1790 to 1860, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes,
which led to the modern form of the instrument. This revolution 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.
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 7⅓ (or even more) octaves found on modern pianos.
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
splendour 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 a range of more than five octaves: five octaves and a fifth during the 1790s, six octaves by 1810 (in time for Beethoven
to use the extra notes in his later works), and seven octaves 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.
By the
1820s, the center of innovation had shifted to Paris, where the Érard firm manufactured 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. When the invention became public, and as revised
by Henri Herz, the double escapement action gradually became the standard action for grand pianos, and is used in all grand
pianos currently produced.
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, 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 single piece cast iron frame was patented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus
Babcock, combining the metal hitch pin plate (1821, claimed by Broadwood on behalf of Samuel Hervé) and resisting bars (Thom
and Allen, 1820, but also claimed by Broadwood and Érard). Babcock later worked for the Chickering & Mackays firm which patented
the first full iron frame for grand pianos (1843). Composite forged metal frames were preferred by many European makers until
the American system was fully adopted by the early 20th century.
Felt hammer coverings, first introduced by Henri Pape
in 1826, gradually replaced skillfully layered leather hammers; the more consistent material permitted wider dynamic ranges
as hammer weights and string tensions increased.
The sostenuto pedal (see below), invented in 1844 by Jean Louis Boisselot
and improved by the Steinway firm in 1874.
The over strung scale, also called "cross-stringing"; the strings
are placed in a vertically overlapping slanted arrangement, with two heights of bridges on the soundboard, rather than just
one. This permits larger, but not necessarily longer, strings to fit within the case of the piano. Over stringing was invented
by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s, and first patented for use in grand pianos in the United States 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.Duplexes
or aliquot scales; In 1872 Theodore Steinway patented a system to control different components of string vibrations by tuning
their secondary parts in octave relationships with the sounding lengths. Similar systems developed by Blüthner (1872), as
well as Taskin (1788), and Collard (1821) used more distinctly ringing undamped vibrations to modify tone.
Today's upright,
grand, and concert grand pianos attained their present forms by the end of the 19th century. Improvements have been made in
manufacturing processes, and many individual details of the instrument continue to receive attention (see Innovations in the
Piano).
Some early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use.
The square piano had horizontal
strings arranged diagonally across the rectangular case above the hammers and with the keyboard set in the long side, it is
variously attributed to Silbermann and Frederici and was improved by Petzold and Babcock. Built in quantity through the 1890s
(in the United States), Steinway's celebrated iron framed over strung squares were more than two and a half times the size
of Zumpe's wood framed instruments that were successful a century before, their overwhelming popularity was due to inexpensive
construction and price, with performance and sonority frequently restricted by simple actions and closely spaced strings.
Main
article: square piano
The tall vertically strung upright grand was arranged with the soundboard and bridges perpendicular
to keys, and above them so that the strings did not extend to the floor. Diagonally strung Giraffe, pyramid and lyre pianos
employed this principle in more evocatively shaped cases. The term was later revived by many manufacturers for advertising
purposes.
The very tall cabinet piano introduced by Southwell in 1806 and built through the 1840s had strings arranged
vertically on a continuous frame with bridges extended nearly to the floor, behind the keyboard and very large sticker action.
The
short cottage upright or pianino with vertical stringing, credited to Robert Wornum about 1810 was built into the 20th century.
They are informally called birdcage pianos because of their prominent damper mechanism. Pianinos were distinguished from the
oblique, or diagonally strung upright made popular in France by Roller & Blanchet during the late 1820s.
The tiny spinet
upright was manufactured from the mid 1930s until recent times. It saved space by using a "drop action" arranged
below the level of the keys.
Main article: Spinet
[edit] Piano history and musical performance
Much of the
most widely admired piano repertoire — 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
Romantics, including Liszt, Chopin, Schumann, and Brahms, was written for pianos substantially different from ours. For a
discussion of some of the interpretative consequences of performing this music on modern pianos, see piano history and musical
performance.
[edit] The modern piano
A schematic depiction of the construction of a pianoforte.
[edit]
Types
Modern pianos come in two basic configurations (with subcategories): the grand piano and the upright piano.
[edit]
Grand
Grand piano action.Grand pianos have the frame and strings placed horizontally, with the strings extending away
from the keyboard. This makes the grand piano a large instrument, for which the ideal setting is a spacious room with high
ceilings for proper resonance. There are several sizes of grand piano. Manufacturers and models vary, but a rough generalisation
distinguishes the "concert grand", (between about 2.2 m to 3 m long) from the "boudoir grand" (about 1.7
m to 2.2 m) and the smaller "baby grand" (which may be shorter than it is wide). All else being equal, longer pianos
have better sound and lower inharmonicity of the strings. This is partly because the strings will be tuned closer to equal
temperament in relation to the standard pitch with less stretching (See: Piano tuning). Full-size grands are usually used
for public concerts, whereas baby grands, invented by Sohmer & Co. in 1884, are often chosen for domestic use where space
and cost are considerations.
[edit] Upright
Upright piano actionUpright 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 horizontally, rather than upward against
gravity as in a grand piano; however, the very best upright pianos now approach the level of grand pianos of the same size
in tone quality and responsiveness. However, one feature of the grand piano action always makes it superior to the vertical
piano. All grand pianos have a special repetition lever in the playing action that is absent in all verticals. This repetition
lever, a separate one for every key, catches the hammer close to the strings as long as the key remains depressed. In this
position, with the hammer resting on the lever, a pianist can play repeated notes, staccato, and trills with much more speed
and control than they could on a vertical piano. The action design of a vertical prevents it from having a repetition lever.
Because of this, piano manufacturers claim that a skilled piano player can play as many as 14 trill notes per second on grands
but only seven on uprights. For recent advances, see Innovations in the piano.
[edit] Other Types
In 1863, Henri
Fourneaux invented the player 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.
A relatively recent development is the prepared piano, which
is simply a standard grand piano which has had objects placed inside it before a performance in order to alter its sound,
or which has had its mechanism changed in some way.
Since the 1980s, digital pianos have been available, which use
digital sampling technology to reproduce the sound of each piano note. The best digital pianos are sophisticated, with features
including working pedals, weighted keys, multiple voices, and MIDI interfaces. 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 when other strings are struck as well as the unique instrument-specific mathematical
non-linearity of partials on any given unison. Since this sympathetic vibration is considered central to a beautiful piano
tone, in many experts' estimation digital pianos still do not compete with the best acoustic pianos in tone quality. Progress
is being made in this area by including physical models of sympathetic vibration in the synthesis software.
The modern
equivalent to the player piano is the Yamaha Disklavier system, which uses solenoids and midi instead of pneumatics and rolls.
Silent pianos, which silence the piano and convert it to a digital instrument are a recent innovation and are becoming more
popular.
[edit] Keyboard
For the arrangement of the keys on a piano keyboard, see Musical keyboard.
Almost
every modern piano has 88 keys (seven octaves plus a minor third, from A0 to C8). Many older pianos only have 85 keys (seven
octaves 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, one model which extends the normal range downwards to F0, with one
other model going as far as a bottom C0, making a full eight octave range. Sometimes, 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 white keys are reversed (black instead of white). The extra keys
are added primarily for increased resonance from the associated strings; 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 both down the bass to F0 and up the treble to F8 for a full eight octaves. The extra
keys are the same as the other keys in appearance.
[edit] Pedals
See also: Pedal piano
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 string on the piano, except the top two octaves,
is equipped with a damper, which is a padded device that prevents the string from vibrating. The damper is raised off the
string 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 assists the pianist in producing a legato (playing
smoothly connected notes) in passages where no fingering is available to make this otherwise possible. Second, raising the
damper pedal causes all the strings to vibrate sympathetically with whichever notes are being played, which greatly enriches
the piano's tone.
Piano pedals from left to right: una corda, sostenuto and damper.Sensitive pedaling is one of
the techniques a pianist must master, since piano music from Chopin onwards tends to benefit from extensive use of the sustaining
pedal, both as a means of achieving a singing tone and as an aid to legato. In contrast, the sustaining pedal was used only
sparingly by the composers of the 18th century, including Haydn, Mozart and in early works by Beethoven; in that era, pedalling
was considered primarily as a special coloristic effect.
The soft pedal or "una corda" pedal is placed leftmost
in the row of pedals. On a grand piano, this pedal shifts the whole action including the keyboard slightly to the right, so
that hammers that normally strike all three of the strings for a note strike only two of them. This softens the note and modifies
its tone quality. For notation of the soft pedal in printed music, see Italian musical terms.
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 pianos were manufactured with only two strings per note, just one string per note would be therefore
struck — this is the origin of the name "una corda", Italian for "one string". In modern pianos, there
are three strings per hammer and 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 hit the string of the next note.
On many upright pianos, the
soft pedal operates a mechanism which moves the hammers' resting position closer to the strings. Since the hammers have less
distance to travel this reduces the speed at which they hit the strings, and hence the volume is reduced, but this does not
change tone quality in the way the "una corda" pedal does on a grand piano.
Digital pianos often use this
pedal to alter the sound to that of another instrument such as the organ, guitar, or harmonica. Pitch bends, leslie speaker
on/off, vibrato modulation, etc. increase the already-great versatility of such instruments.
The sostenuto pedal or
"middle pedal" keeps raised any damper that was raised at the moment the pedal is depressed. This makes it possible
to sustain some notes (by depressing the sostenuto pedal before notes to be sustained are released) while the player's hands
are free to play other notes. This can be useful for musical passages with pedal points and other otherwise tricky or impossible
situations. The sostenuto pedal was the last of the three pedals to be added to the standard piano, and to this day, many
pianos are not equipped with a sostenuto pedal. (Almost all modern grand pianos have a sostenuto pedal, while most upright
pianos do not.) A number of twentieth-century works specifically call for the use of this pedal, for example Olivier Messiaen's
Catalogue d'oiseaux. This pedal is often unused in modern music.
Many uprights and baby grands have a bass sustain
in place of the sostenuto pedal, which lifts all the dampers in the bass. It works like the damper pedal, but only affects
the lowest notes.
Some upright pianos have a practice pedal or celeste 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 strings so that all the notes are greatly muted — a handy feature for those who wish to practice in domestic surroundings
without disturbing the neighbours. The practice pedal is rarely used in performance.
The rare transposing piano, of
which Irving Berlin possessed an example, uses the middle pedal as a clutch which disengages the keyboard from the mechanism,
enabling the keyboard to be moved to left or right with a lever. The entire action of the piano is thus shifted to allow the
pianist to play music written in one key so that it sounds in a different key.
[edit] Materials
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, (often maple) 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.
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 aesthetic 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. In an effort to make pianos lighter, Alcoa worked with Winter and Company piano
manufacturers to make pianos using an aluminum plate during the 1940s. The use of aluminum for piano plates, however, did
not become widely accepted and was discontinued.
The numerous grand parts and upright parts of a piano action are generally
hardwood (e.g. maple, beech. hornbeam). However, since World War II, plastics have become available. Early plastics were incorporated
into some pianos in the late 1940s and 1950s, but proved disastrous because they crystallized and lost 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. (Also Teflon is "humidity stable" whereas the wood adjacent to the Teflon will swell
and shrink with humidity changes, causing problems.) More recently, the Kawai firm has built pianos with action parts made
of more modern and effective plastics such as carbon fiber; these parts have held up better and have generally received the
respect of piano technicians.
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 made of plywood.
Piano keys
are generally made of spruce or basswood, for lightness. Spruce is normally used in high-quality pianos. Traditionally, the
black keys were made from ebony and the 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 look and feel of ivory.
The requirement of structural strength, fulfilled
with stout hardwood and thick metal, makes a piano 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).
[edit]
Care and maintenance
Main article: Care and maintenance of pianos
Pianos need regular tuning to keep them up to pitch
and produce a pleasing sound; by convention they are tuned to the internationally recognized standard concert pitch of A =
440 Hz.
The hammers of pianos are voiced to compensate for gradual hardening, and other parts also need periodic regulation.
Aged and worn pianos can be rebuilt or reconditioned. Often, by replacing a great number of their parts, they can be made
to perform as well as new pianos. It is often felt, however, that older pianos are more settled and produce a warmer tone.
[edit]
The role of the piano
See also: Social history of the piano
The piano is a crucial instrument in Western classical
music, jazz, film, television, and most other complex western musical genres. Since a large number of composers are proficient
pianists--and because the piano keyboard offers an easy means of complex melodic and harmonic interplay--the piano is often
used as a tool for composition.
Pianos were, and still are, popular instruments for private household ownership, especially
among the middle and upper classes. Hence, pianos have gained a place in the popular consciousness, and are sometimes referred
to by nicknames including: "the ivories", "the joanna", "the eighty-eight", and "the black(s)
and white(s)", "the little joe(s)". Playing the piano is sometimes referred to as "tickling the ivories".
[edit]
Media files
Shostakovich's Prelude XXI Bb Major (Allegro) - (Part of opus 87) (file info) — play in browser (beta)
Shostakovich's
Prelude XXI Bb Major (Allegro) - (Part of opus 87).).
Problems playing the files? See media help.
[edit] Notes
^
Fazioli Pianoforti (2005). FAZIOLI – Pianoforti a coda e da concerto. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
^ Pollens, 1995. chp. 1
[edit] References
Most of the information in this article can be found in the following published works:
The
authoritative New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (available online by subscription), contains a great wealth of information.
Main article: "Pianoforte".
The Encyclopædia Britannica (available online by subscription) also includes much
information on 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, Massachusetts: 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.
Giraffes, black dragons, and other pianos: a technological history from Cristofori to the modern
concert grand by Edwin M. Good (1982, second ed., 2001, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press) is a standard reference
on the history of the piano.
The Early Pianoforte by Stewart Pollens (1995, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) is
an authoritative work covering the ancestry of the piano, its invention by Cristofori, and the early stages of its subsequent
evolution.
[edit] Further reading
Banowetz, Joseph; Elder, Dean (1985). The pianist's guide to pedaling. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34494-8. — offers a history of the three piano pedals and covers the wide variety of
ways in which they are used by professional pianists.
Parakilas, James (1999). Piano roles : three hundred years of life
with the piano. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08055-7. — provides much history of the instrument.
The book is richly illustrated.
Reblitz, Arthur A. (1993). Piano Servicing, Tuning and Rebuilding: For the Professional,
the Student, and the Hobbyist. Vestal, NY: Vestal Press. ISBN 1-879511-03-7.
Carhart, Thad [2001] (2002). The Piano Shop
on the Left Bank. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-75862-3. — is a partly autobiographical exploration of the diversity
and history of the piano, and is a readable introduction by an enthusiast.
Loesser, Arthur [1954] (1991). Men, Women,
and Pianos: A Social History. New York: Dover Publications. Originally New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954, this book is an
extraordinarily wide-ranging survey of the history of the piano and its role in society.
Lelie, Christo (1995). Van Piano
tot Forte (The History of the Early Piano). Kampen: Kok-Lyra. The book is in Dutch, but contains many drawings, photographs
en numerous quotations in the original languages.
Fine, Larry; Gilbert, Douglas R (2001). The Piano Book: Buying and Owning
a New or Used Piano (4th edition). Jamaica Plain, MA: Brookside Press. ISBN 1-929145-01-2. A comprehensive work on how to
evaluate, buy and maintain a piano. Includes a great deal of information on how a piano works, and a lengthy guide to specific
pianos.
|
|
