Most frequently asked question:
Choosing a Piano - Acoustic or Digital?
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Cristofori, Creator of the First Piano
The piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) of Italy.
Cristofori was unsatisfied by the lack of control that musicians had over the volume level of the harpsichord. He is credited for switching out the plucking mechanism with a hammer to create the modern piano in around the year 1700.
The instrument was actually first named "clavicembalo col piano e forte" (literally, a harpsichord that can play soft and loud noises). This was shortened to the now common name, "piano."
The Structure of the Piano
What is a Piano's "Action"?
Érard's Fantastic Invention
The mechanism of the piano that causes hammers to strike the strings when a key is pressed is called the "action."
When one speaks of the history of the piano action, mentioning the repetition mechanism (double escapement) invented by Sébastien Érard of France is a must. This mechanism allows the pianist to quickly repeat a note without having to fully release the key. Up until the introduction of this mechanism, when a key was depressed, the hammer usually rose and struck the string and was not ready for the next keystroke, until it had fallen back to its at-rest position. Erard's invention made it possible to prepare for the next keystroke even though the hammer had not completely fallen back to its at-rest position.
Modern action
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It is said that Erard presented a prototype of this mechanism to Beethoven in 1803, and this helped the great composer write new works. This mechanism has also been passed down in a more refined form in today's modern actions.
Look carefully at the movement of the levers. The hammer rises up partway through its movement. This allows it to respond correctly and produce sound, even when played many times in succession. Functionally, the key can be played a maximum of 15 times per second.
Muting the Sound Is Also Important
The damper mechanism is another important part of the action. This mechanism quiets the sound instantly as soon as the finger is lifted from the key. In the photograph, the four white parts are the damper felts. When the finger is lifted from the key, the dampers touch the strings from above and stop the strings from vibrating. A damper weight is attached to the bottom of the long vertical wire.
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Why Can't There Be More Than 88 Keys on a Piano?
The piano that Bartolomeo Cristofori first invented in Italy had only 54 keys. As piano music developed and evolved, the keyboard compass was gradually expanded in response to requests from composers who sought a broader potential for expression. By the 1890s, today's modern keyboard had become established with 88 keys spanning 7¼ octaves (from 2A to C5; 27.5 Hz to 4,186 Hz*). The human ear can hear sounds in the range from approximately 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, but the upper limit of frequencies that the human brain can discriminate is at the very most around 4,000 Hz. Even if the compass were to be expanded by increasing the number of keys on the piano, to the human ear, the extra notes at the bass end would become nothing more than a rumbling noise, and the added treble notes would be heard as an unpleasant dissonant noise with no sense of being in a tonal range, and thus, musically, would be almost meaningless. Boesendorfer is making 97-key pianos with nine additional keys in the bass segment of the keyboard (2C to C5). However, the strings for these nine keys in the lowest bass segment are really only there to provide a richer sound when other keys are played by resonating with them. In reality, the extra keys themselves are almost never played directly.
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