Fascinating facts about pianos
February 6th 2009 08:05
Pianos are called "the king of musical instruments" because they cover the tonal range of every other instrument in the orchestra, from below the lowest note of the double bassoon to above the top note of the piccolo, and because they are the largest musical instrument, excluding the pipe organ.
The piano was invented in 1698 by Bartolomeo Cristofori, an Italian instrument maker who had little interest in pianos. Cristofori spent most of his working life building and working with harpsichords.
The first piano was basically a modified harpsichord. Cristofori invented the escapement mechanism, which allows the hammers to recoil from the strings and the mechanism to reset between each key press. This minor design change had major consequences, allowing the instrument to be played at different volumes according to how hard a key is struck.
Cristofori named his new instrument "gravicèmbalo col piano e forte", which translates to "harpsichord with soft and loud". This was subsequently shortened to pianoforte, which means soft and loud.
The piano took some time to become popular, but by 1783 it had begun to overtake the harpsichord in popularity.
The first upright piano appeared in 1800.
By 1850, the piano had moved from having four octaves (in 1709) through six octaves (in the late 18th and early 19th centuries) to seven full octaves.
Liszt and Chopin helped to popularise the instrument through the 19th century, composing works which relied on the piano's dynamic and expressive range.
The modern piano has 88 keys (36 black and 52 white) about 230 strings and a total of about 12,000 parts, 10,000 of which are moving.
A piano works by pressing a key which operates a lever attached to a felt hammer. The hammer strikes strings and immediately recoils, allowing the strings to vibrate at their resonant frequency, producing a note. Notes are then transferred via a bridge to a soundboard, which amplifies them. Volume is controlled by depressing the keys with more or less force, making the hammer strike the strings harder or softer. The strings also have a pad on them to dampen vibrations.
Each note in a grand piano has more than 35 points of adjustment, offering more than 3,080 adjustments for the entire piano.
There are about 18 tons of pressure being exerted by the stretched steel piano strings. In a concert grand, it is close to 30 tons.
A grand piano is superior in many ways to a vertical piano, a crucial one being that keys can be repeated more quickly.
If all of the strings on a piano were of the same thickness and under the same tension, with high C being the usual two inches, low C would have to be about 10 metres (30 feet) long. For this reason, lower strings are weighted by wrapping copper or iron wire around the core wire.
Steinway & Sons pianos are made in two factories, one in the US and one in Germany.
About 70% of a piano is made of wood. The keys are made of plastic. The hammers and other parts are made of wood, paper, iron, copper, steel and felt, amongst others.
Different-sized pianos have different names. A spinet is 36-38", console 42", vertical 36-51", upright 51" and up, baby grand 5"8", living room grand 5'10", professional grand 6', drawing room grand 6'4", parlour grand 6'8", half concert grand 7'4", concert grand 8'11" and up.
The world's largest piano is made by the Challen company. The concert grand is 11'8" long and weighs more than one ton.
A new Model D (top-of-the-range) Steinway concert grand costs about US$150,000. That may be the cheap way to get one. Christie's recently sold a Victorian-era Steinway grand for US$1.2 million.
A new piano should be tuned four times the first year, with the change of seasons, and at least twice a year after that.
www.associatedcontent.com, www.pianotom.com, www.kenfoster.com, www.pianoworld.com, www.pianos.co.uk. Image: www.sell.com
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