Piano

''This article is about the modern musical instrument. For other meanings, see piano (disambiguation).'' A piano is a large musical instrument with a keyboard instrument. Its sound is produced by strings stretched on a rigid frame. These vibrate when struck by felt-covered hammers, which are activated by the keyboard. The word ''piano'' is an abbreviation for ''pianoforte'', Italian language for ''soft-loud'', referring to the ability of the piano to play notes at different volumes depending on how hard its keys are pressed. As a keyboard stringed instrument, the piano is similar to the clavichord and harpsichord. The three instruments differ in the mechanism of sound production. In a harpsichord, strings are plucked by quills or similar material. In the clavichord, strings are struck by tangent mechanism which remain in contact with the string. In a piano, the strings are struck by hammers which immediately rebound, leaving the string to vibrate freely. The hammered dulcimer is loosely related in that it has no keyboard, but has strings that vibrate when struck with a (handheld) hammer. The piano has been a crucial instrument in the tradition of Western classical music. A large number of composers were also pianists, and they frequently used the piano as a tool for composition. A person who performs music on the piano is a pianist. == History == The pianoforte was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence, Italy. When he built his first pianoforte is not entirely clear, but Franceso Mannucci wrote in his diary that Cristofori was working on an ''"arcicembal che fa il piano e il forte"'' ("harpsichord that plays both softly and loudly") as early as 1698. All of his surviving instruments date from the 1720s. Cristofori built only about 20 pianofortes before he died at age 75 in 1731, roughly 21 years after he invented the first pianoforte. The instrument was founded on earlier technological innovations. In particular, it benefited from centuries of work on the harpsichord, which had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, the soundboard, the bridge, and the keyboard. Cristofori was himself a harpsichord maker and well acquainted with this body of knowledge. Cristofori's great success was to solve, without any prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammers must strike the string but not continue to touch it once they have struck (which 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 were to follow. Cristofori's early instruments were made with thin clavichord strings and were much quieter than the modern piano. However, they could produce a wider range of dynamics than the clavichord, and the sound sustained longer. Cristofori's new instrument remained relatively unknown until an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei, wrote an enthusiastic article about it, complete with diagrams of the mechanism. This article was widely distributed, and most of the next generation of piano builders started their work as a result of reading it. One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ (instrument) builder. Silbermann's pianos were virtually direct copies of Cristofori's, but with an important exception: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper pedal, which permits the dampers to be lifted from all the strings at once. In Cristofori's pianos, this was done not by depressing a pedal, but by pulling on an organ-style draw-stop. Virtually all subsequent pianos incorporated some version of Silbermann's idea. Silbermann showed Johann Sebastian Bach one of his early instruments in the 1730s. Bach did not like it at that time, claiming that the higher notes were too soft to allow a full dynamic range. Though this earned him some animosity from Silbermann, the latter did apparently heed the criticism. Bach did approve of a later instrument he saw in 1747, and apparently even served as an agent to help sell Silbermann's pianos. Piano-making flourished during the late 18th century in the work of the Viennese school, which including Johann Andreas Stein (who worked in Augsburg, Germany) and the Viennese makers Nannette Stein (daughter of Johann Andreas) and Anton Walter. The Viennese-style pianos were built with wooden frames, two strings per note, and leather-covered hammers. It was for such instruments that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his concertos and sonatas, and replicas of them are built today for use in authentic-instrument performance. The piano of Mozart's day had a softer, clearer tone than today's pianos, with less sustaining power. The word "tinkling" is unfair when applied to the lovely sound of these instruments, but it does perhaps suffice to convey roughly how they differ in tone from modern pianos. The term fortepiano is often used to distinguish the 18th-century style of instrument from later pianos. In the lengthy period lasting from about 1790 to 1890, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes which ultimately led to the modern form of the instrument. This evolution 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 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 7 1/3 (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 pianos, which already had a strong reputation for the splendor 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 Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, was the first to build pianos with range of more than five octaves: five octaves and a fifth during the 1790s, six by 1810 (in time for Beethoven to use the extra notes in his later works), and seven 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 centre of innovation had shifted to the �rard firm of Paris, which built pianos used by Chopin and Liszt. In 1821, S�bastien �rard 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. As revised by Henri Herz about 1840, the double escapement action ultimately became the standard action for grand pianos, used by all manufacturers. 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. 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 iron frame was invented in 1825 in Boston, Massachusetts by Alpheus Babcock, culminating an earlier trend to use ever more iron parts to reinforce the piano. The first iron frame in grand pianos (1840) was the work of the Chickering And Sons firm, at which Babcock was employed. *felt hammers. The harder, tauter steel strings required a softer hammer type to maintain good tone quality. Hammers covered with compressed felt were introduced by the Parisian maker Jean-Henri Pape in 1826, and are now universally used. *the sostenuto pedal (see below), invented in 1844 by Jean Louis Boisselot and improved by the Steinway firm in 1874. *the overstrung scale, also called "cross-stringing". This is a special arrangement of strings within the case: the strings are placed in a vertically overlapping slanted arrangement, with two bridges on the soundboard instead of just one. The purpose of the overstrung scale was to permit longer strings to fit within the case of the piano. Overstringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s, and first applied to the grand by Henry Steinway Jr. in 1859. * duplex scaling, invented by Theodore Steinway in 1872, permits the parts of the string near its ends, which otherwise would be damped with cloth, to vibrate freely, thus increasing resonance and adding to the richness of the sound. Aliquot stringing, which serves a similar purpose in Bl�thner pianos, was invented by Julius Bl�thner in 1873. The modern concert grand achieved essentially its present form around the beginning of the 20th century, and progress since then has been only incremental. Some early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The once-popular square piano had the strings and frame on a horizontal plane, but running across the length of the keyboard rather than away from it. It was similar to the upright piano in its mechanism. Square pianos were produced through the early 20th century; the tone they produced is widely considered to be inferior. Most had a wood frame, though later designs incorporated increasing amounts of iron. The giraffe piano, by contrast, was mechanically like a grand piano, but the strings ran vertically up from the keyboard rather than horizontally away from it, making it a very tall instrument. These were uncommon. === Piano history and musical performance === The huge changes in the evolution of the piano have somewhat vexing consequences for musical performance. The problem is that much of the most widely admired music for piano—for example, that of Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven was composed for a type of instrument that is rather different from the modern instruments on which this music is normally performed today (for example, tuning for A was set to 422 Hz). Even the music of the early Romantics, such as Chopin and Robert Schumann, was written for pianos substantially different from ours. One view that is sometimes taken is that these composers were dissatisfied with their pianos, and in fact were writing visionary "music of the future" with a more robust sound in mind. This view is perhaps more plausible in the case of Beethoven, who composed at the beginning of the era of piano growth, than it is in the case of Haydn or Mozart. Others have noted that the music itself often seems to require the resources of the early piano. For example, Beethoven sometimes wrote long passages in which he directs the player to keep the damper pedal down throughout (a famous example occurs in the last movement of the Waldstein piano sonata, Op. 53). These come out rather blurred on a modern piano if played as written but work well on (restored or replicated) pianos of Beethoven's day. Similarly, the classical composers sometimes would write passages in which a lower violin line accompanies a higher piano line in parallel; this was a reasonable thing to do at a time when piano tone was more penetrating than violin tone; today it is the reverse. Current performance practice is a mix. A few pianists simply ignore the problem; others modify their playing style to help compensate for the difference in instruments, for example by using less pedal. Finally, participants in the authentic performance movement have constructed new copies of the old instruments and used them in performance; this has provided important new insights and interpretations of the music. == The modern piano == === Types of piano === Modern pianos come in two basic configurations and several sizes: the grand piano and the upright piano. Grand pianos have the frame and strings placed horizontally, with the strings extending away from the keyboard. This avoids the problems inherent in an upright piano, but takes up a large amount of space and needs a spacious room with high ceilings for proper resonance. Several sizes of grand piano exist. Manufacturers and models vary, but as a rough guide we can distinguish the "concert grand", approx. 3 m; the "grand", approx. 1.8 m; and the smaller "baby grand", which may be a bit shorter than it is wide. All else being equal, longer pianos have better sound, so that full-size grands are almost always used for public concerts, whereas baby grands are only for domestic use where space and cost are crucial considerations. Upright 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 sideways, rather than upward against gravity; however, the very best upright pianos now approach the level of grand pianos of the same size in tone quality and responsiveness. For recent advances, see Innovations in the piano. In 1863, Henri Fourneaux invented the player piano, a kind of 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 a piano adapted in some way by placing objects inside the instrument, or changing its mechanism in some way. Since the 1980s, digital pianos have been available, which use digital sampling technology to reproduce the sound of each piano note. Digital pianos have become quite sophisticated, with standard pedals, weighted keys, multiple voices, MIDI interfaces, and so on in the better models. 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 sympathetic strings with the struck strings. Since this resonance is considered central to a beautiful piano tone, digital pianos are still not considered by most experts as competing with the best acoustic pianos in tone quality. Progress is now being made in this area by including physical modelling synthesis of sympathetic vibration in the synthesis software. === Keyboard and pedals === Almost every modern piano has 88 keys (seven octaves and a bit, from A0 to C8). Many older pianos only have 85 (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 B�sendorfer pianos, some of which extend the normal range downwards to F0, with others going as far as a bottom C0, making a full eight octave range. On some models 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 keys are reversed (black instead of white and ''vice versa'') for the same reason. The extra keys are added primarily for increased resonance; 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 up the treble for a full eight octaves. The extra keys are the same as the other keys in appearance. For the arrangement of the keys on a piano keyboard, see Musical keyboard. This arrangement was inherited from the harpsichord without change, with the trivial exception of the color scheme (white for naturals and black for sharps) which became standard for pianos in the late 18th century. 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 is often simply called "the pedal," since it is the most frequently used. It is placed as the rightmost pedal in the group. Every note on the piano, except the top two octaves, is equipped with a damper, which is a padded device that prevents the strings from vibrating. The damper is raised off the strings of its note 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 permits notes to be connected (i.e., played legato) when there is no fingering that would make this possible. More important, raising the damper pedal causes all the strings to vibrate sympathetically with whatever notes are being played, which greatly enriches the tone. Piano music starting with Chopin tends to be heavily pedaled, as a means of achieving a singing tone. In contrast, the damper pedal was used only sparingly by the composers of the 18th century, including Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven; in that era, pedaling 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 action to one side slightly, so that hammers that normally strike all three of the strings for a note strike only two of them. This softens the note and also 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 it was possible at that time to use it to strike three, two or even just one string per note—this is the origin of the name "una corda", Italian for "one string". In modern pianos, the strings 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 also strike the string of the next note over. On upright pianos, the soft pedal is replaced by a mechanism for moving the hammers' resting position closer to the strings. This reduces volume, but does not change tone quality as a true "una corda" pedal does. Digital pianos often use this pedal to alter the sound of other instuments like organs, guitars, and harmonicas. Pitch bends, leslie speaker on/off, vibrato modulation, etc. all add to the realistic experience of the reproduction. The sostenuto pedal or "middle pedal" maintains in the raised position any damper that was raised at the moment the pedal was depressed. It makes it possible to sustain some notes (depress the sostenuto pedal before releasing the notes to be sustained) while the player's hands have moved on to play other notes, which can be useful for musical passages with pedal points and other tricky situations. The sostenuto pedal was the last of the three pedals to be added to the standard piano, and to this day many cheap pianos—and even a few good ones— do not have a sostenuto pedal. (Almost all modern grand pianos have a sostenuto; most upright pianos do not.) A number of twentieth-century works call for the use of this pedal. Over the years, the middle pedal has served many different functions. Some upright pianos have a practice 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 keys so that all the notes are greatly muted— a handy feature for those who wish to practice at odd hours without disturbing others in the house. The practice pedal is rarely used in performance. Irving Berlin's famed Transposing Piano used the middle pedal as a clutch to shift the keyboard with a lever. The entire action of the piano would shift to allow the operator to play in any key. === The materials of the piano === 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 [http://www.speech.kth.se/music/5_lectures/conklin/thepianocase.html 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, 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 esthetic 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. The numerous parts of a piano action are generally hardwood or plastic. The choice between these two materials is controversial. Some varieties of plastic, incorporated into pianos in the 1950's and 1960's, were clearly disastrous, crystallizing and losing their strength after one or two decades of use. The Steinway firm once used Teflon, a plastic, for some action parts, but ultimately abandoned the experiment. More recently, the Kawai firm has built pianos with action parts made of more modern and effective plastics; these parts have held up better and have generally received the respect of piano technicians. 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 laminated; i.e. made of plywood. Piano keys are generally made of spruce or basswood, for lightness. Spruce is normally used in high-quality pianos. Traditionally, the white keys were covered with strips of ivory, but since ivory-yielding species are now endangered and protected by treaty, plastic is now universally used. The Yamaha Corporation firm innovated a plastic, since imitated by other makers, that mimics the feel of ivory on the player's fingers. The requirement of structural strength, fulfilled with stout hardwood and thick metal, makes pianos 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). === HOW TO PRACTICE === 1. Look over items listed by your teacher in your assignment book 2. Play at least a half hour a day 3. Make sure you play the parts that you have trouble with an extra amount 4. Wrist motion is IMPORTANT in keeping your hands from becoming stiff or hurting! === Care and maintenance of pianos === :''Main article: Care and maintenance of pianos Pianos are regularly tuned to keep them up to pitch and produce a pleasing sound. Less often, their hammers are voiced to compensate for gradual hardening. Top-quality but aged pianos can be restored, replacing a great number of their parts to produce an instrument closely similar to a new one. ==Famous piano makers== * Baldwin (1890) * Bechstein (1853) * B�sendorfer (1828) * Broadwood (1783) * �rard (1777) * Fazioli (1978) * Feurich (1851) * Gaveau (1847) * Grotrian * Kawai (1930) * Petrof (1864) * Pleyel (1807) * Samick (1958) * Sauter (1819) * Schimmel (1885) * Steinway & Sons (1853) * Stuart and Sons * Yamaha (1889) * Young Chang (1956) ==Further reading== * The Piano Book by Larry Fine (4th ed. Jamaica Plain, MA: 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. * The pianist's guide to pedaling by Joseph Banowetz (Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1985) offers a history of the three piano pedals and covers the wide variety of ways in which they are used by professional pianists. ==See also== * Piano key frequencies (in equal temperament) * Innovations in the piano * Piano acoustics * Social history of the piano * Player piano * Lists of solo piano pieces * Piano practice * Tangent piano ==External links== * [http://www.ilearnmusic.com Free Online Piano Lessons, Flash Piano, Original Compositions] * [http://www.uk-piano.org/history/history.html UK Piano Page, Piano History] * [http://www.ashburnham.org/Frederickcollection/index.htm The Frederick Historical Piano Collection] * [http://www.pianosonline.co.uk Pianos Online] - History, technical information, and reviews * [http://www.ptg.org/tech.htm Technical information page from the Piano Technicians Guild] * [http://www.steinway.com/technical/caring.shtml "Caring for your Steinway"] from Steinway * [http://www.schimmel-piano.de/e/guter-rat.html Maintenance advice from the Schimmel piano company] * [http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=54tp00 88 Keys to Freedom: Segues Through the History of American Piano Music] by 'Blue' Gene Tyranny * [http://www.imarts.com/media/uploads/DelwinFandrichPianoDesignersNoteBook.pdf An essay on soundboards by piano designer Delwin Fandrich (PDF)] *[http://www.geocities.com/kumiko1400/ List of musical instruments software ] * [http://members.aol.com/cc88m/PianoBook.html Multilingual advice on professional piano practicing techniques] * [http://www.pianosociety.com Piano Society] A site dedicated to classical piano music, featuring a lot of recordings presented in MP3 format. * [http://www.gfsoftware.com/kbpiano.html KBPiano will turn your computer into a piano. You can configure the program to play chords by pressing just a key.] * [http://www.aldostools.com/piano.html Pianito MicroStudio virtual piano for your PC] Piano lv:Klavieres

Piano

==A glib too far== :''a baby grand is not for musicians, rather people wishing to be seen to own a grand piano'' While I completely approve of the supercilious tone, maybe this is a glib too far - John Cage, at least, had a baby grand (a Steinway model O, since you ask - he wrote his Sonatas and Interludes on it) and while many might not call him a musician, I don't think he cared much about being the big shot with the grand piano either ;) --User:Camembert : Yup, I thought it was a bit much even as I wrote it. Go ahead and tone it down -- I just wanted to remove the bit about "grand pianos are too large for domestic use" -- I have one :-) (model O isn't "baby", it's a 6-footer)-- User:Tarquin ::Hmm, I was parrotting back what I'd read in some CD booklet about the model O - I guess they mean it's "baby" compared to a model D. That'll teach me. --User:Camembert ==The nifty lid on Bosendorfers== I just added the bit about the lid on sub-bass notes on Bosendorfers (something which amused me no end when I was at college). Does anybody know for sure if ''all'' Bosendorfers with extended bass ranges have the nifty lid to cover the keys? I've only ever seen two, both of which did, but I have something in the back of my mind telling me they're not all like that. --User:Camembert : I've played Bosendorfers, but I don't remember the lid. They're ''wow'' -- really ''wow''. I was about 14 and learning a piece by Ginastera that involved lots of hammering in the lower octaves. The action is spectacular (the sound's great too, but as a pianist it's the feedback I care about) They're the only thing better than a Steinway. Anyone can have a grand piano in their home, providing they give up a trivial luxury such as a bed ;-) -- User:Tarquin 22:34 Nov 8, 2002 (UTC) :: I saw such a lid on the additional 4 bass keys of a 7'4" Bosendorfer from the 1960s, and I know they used to add it on the 9'6 Imperial for some time. It definitely looks somewhat goofy. Today, these models come without the lid. The additional bass keys are colored black to avoid confusion. Also, at the Imperial, the Bosendorfer logo on the fallboard is centered to the usual 88 keys, not to the full keyboard, thus moving it some inches to the right. User:luckyjo Dec 28, 20042 ::: One of my old teachers would sing the praises of Bosendorfers at every possible opportunity - he always used to cite this one particular Schumann song ("Ich grolle nicht", from the ''Dichterliebe'') where the left hand plays a descending scale in octaves that goes down to the bottom A and then has to jump up an octave to carry on with the scale - "now," he'd say "with a Bosendorfer, you just flip up this little lid, and there's nine extra keys so you can play it properly!" Never got to play one myself, unfortunately - they don't let pianists as poor as me within twelve feet of the things :) --User:Camembert ==Grouse spotted== All right, gang, this page needs work because it's disorganized, and lacks perspective. There's a bunch of minutae, yet important historical milestones are unaddressed. Further, there is considerable need for some context inasmuch as the piano played a key role in the devlopment of western music as well as having social impact in many ways. Finally, there is a series of articles on keyboard instruments with which proper linkage and division of infomation must be made. For example, the physical layout of the keyboard and its relation to the scale could best be described in the keyboard instruments article, keyboard instruments I believe. The player piano is a phenomenon in its own right and is deserving of more comprehensive treatment or its own... I did what I could but I have other Matters to Attend To at the Moment. I'll try to work on some of this later... User:Kat : sounds like a great idea! but remember, article titles are in the singular, so there may already be keyboard instrument. -- User:Tarquin 18:31 2 Jun 2003 (UTC) ::We already have player piano, too (it's linked to from this article). I have some notes somewhere on the development of the piano from its invention to Broadwood (or thereabouts), but, to be honest, it's not something I particularly relish writing about - looking froward to your work on this, Kat! --User:Camembert ==Why are uprights less responsive?== I have removed this text from the main article: : Secondly, because the hammers are travelling horizontally, a more complicated mechanism and more time is required to return them to their rest position, so an upright piano is not capable of playing repeated notes as rapidly. :To fit in the full length of the bass strings without making the piano too tall, these are sharply angled diagonally across the body of the piano. This also affects sound quality as the hammers do not strike parallel to the string, and causes problems in tuning due to the stresses on the frame at the transition point between string groups. Furthermore, the left-hand pedal's una corda function -- which on grand pianos moves the entire action, thereby making the hammers strike one string instead of three -- isn't possible, because the differences in string angle would not allow a consistent reduction in tone quality across the range of notes. The first statement is patent nonsense; the difference in repeated notes is due to the 'simpler' wipens without the repeat spring. While the second statement sounds plausible, I have never encountered any corroborating statements in my reading, and consider it suspect because of its proximity to the first. User:Kat 19:41 25 Jul 2003 (UTC) : I wrote most of the above, as far as I can remember. Firsat statement: I've been told that because on a grand the hammers only fall back, the repeat action is easier. I could be misinformed. Which are you calling the second statement? It's certainly true that the strings are at an angle to the hammers. It's also certainly true that the ''una corda'' is fact isn't, and therefore isn't as good. What are you contesting? -- User:Tarquin 19:49 25 Jul 2003 (UTC) ::<> I have a couple print books here, "Piano Servicing, Tuning, & Rebuilding" and "Piano Roles", Parakilas et al. Both have good descriptions of the repeating action, its evolution, and effect on playing. One makes mention of the handful of uprights that have been built with such actions. The conversations I have had with the tuners, rebuilders, technicians, teachers, and performers over the years corroborate these written sources. ::<<''una corda''>> Well, as they say, it's not the ''quid'' or the ''quo'' that's giving me trouble, but rather the ''pro''. ;) Yes, the uprights lack a true ''una corda.'' Yes, the strings are at an angle. But are these facts related? Strings in a grand are at an angle as well, and a fairly acute one on some of the really short grands. In contrast, the strings aren't angled all that much in a large upright, particularly not the treble strings where the ''una corda'' has its greatest effect. User:67.2.178.87 00:46 26 Jul 2003 (UTC) ==Overselling uprights?== I don't understand "The very best upright pianos are comparable in sound quality and responsiveness to grand pianos of the same size." Surely no upright is "the same size" as a grand - that's the point of an upright, isn't it? --User:Camembert I was referring to instruments where the speaking length of the longest strings is comparable. Steinway makes a fine studio upright, and I have played examples of them. These instruments sit about five feet high. Their string length is roughly comparable to that of a six foot (long) grand, since the length of a grand piano includes the keyboard. While not the equal of a concert instrument, the best uprights play well and have good sound. They are occasionally used in recording studios that do not have room for a grand. I believe that one of the European makers is said to make an upright considerably better than what we have available to us here in the Land of the Free and Right to Arm Bears, but I've never played the continental uprights. User:Kat 01:59 26 Jul 2003 (UTC) I had always assumed it went like this: strings at an angle to make them as long as possible -> una corda not possible, as shifting the hammers would make them miss some strings -> fake una corda used -> it sounds crummy. I think at least the last connection is right -- User:Tarquin 08:13 26 Jul 2003 (UTC) :I simply don't agree with your first connection. Leaving aside the lack of corroboration in the literature for the moment, let's just consider the construction of an upright. :In a grand, the action is removable. It sits on glides that allow the whole thing to slide left and right, and it can be readily removed from the instrument. The dampers are separate and remain in the piano. Because of the seperate, one-piece nature of the grand action, it is easy to design it to move back and forth for an ''una corda'' effect. The strings on a grand run at an angle, yet the ''una corda'' effect works fine. :In an upright, the dampers are an integral part of the action, and while the whole thing can be removed, it bolts into place and can't be made to slide back and forth because the dampers would no longer align with the strings. The string angles in an upright are no more of a problem than they are in a grand. ==Una corda an anachronism?== :With your last connection, you're leading into the Land of Piano Pedalling Discussion, from which few return. Many serious pianists consider the ''una corda'' an anachronism that dates from the times when there was a lesser degree of dynamic control available through changes in touch at the keyboard. While there is a change in timbre on a fine grand, the importance of this, and its musical relevance in the standard repertiore, is questionable. This topic and ones related are subjects of much discussion over at news:rec.music.makers.piano. User:Kat 02:55 27 Jul 2003 (UTC) ---- I wrote a bit about the soft pedal at mute (music) - I don't know if it would be best moved here, duplicated, merged, whatever. --User:Camembert ==What is a 'sound field'?== Thanks, Karada; I had rather imagined that digital piano designers would be working on the sympathetic vibration problem, but I don't know this area. I'm curious about "sound field"--what is it? Can you fill in the article for which you've made a link? :User:Opus33 19:02, 16 Oct 2003 (UTC) ==Tweaks== *Voicing and regulation images now credited to the Schimmel company *Correct the link to Yamaha Corporation (It's now two companies, motorcycles having been spun off.) *Uprights and digitals are no longer described as being as just good as grands. I don't think this view corresponds to expert opinion. *Plastic parts in Kawai pianos said by Larry Fine (who gets input from many other technicians) to be quite acceptable *Prepared piano now has its own article and doesn't need to be discussed at length in piano. *Remove a copyrighted image. *Editorial bits User:Opus33 17:55, 12 Jan 2004 (UTC) == Piano lists == Is there a list of composers and compositions for the piano? Broken down by style, nationality, time period, etc, just like how there's an "authors" list? :Not on the Wikipedia as far as I'm aware, no, though it may be interesting to have one as a sort of overview of piano repertoire. The closest thing we have is list of composers, which is just a general list. Feel free to start something! --User:Camembert == Picture == Did the piano in the first picture belong to someone special? It looks like its in a museum. User:68.33.8.107 I've taken this up with the User:Imran. Let's hope some light can be shed on this. User:82.92.119.11 21:29, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC) : hmm afraid I don't know the speifics, I think the piano is 19th century but don't know the maker. It's part of a historical collection of pianos owned by Bristol City Museum. --User:Imran 00:26, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC) ::This piano might appropriately fit into the later section of the article that covers history, but I don't think it's right for the "up front" picture, which should be a "canonical" piano. Perhaps someone competent in digital photography could find a nice, standard-looking black concert grand and take a picture of it? User:Opus33 15:18, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC) == Action Diagrams == Can someone who knows how pianos work provide diagrams of the action of upright and grand pianos? Maybe even animated GIFs that show what happens when a key is pressed? == Page move to pianoforte == I just reverted an cut-and-paste page move of this page to pianoforte, by an anonymous user, for the following reasons: # when you cut and paste a page into another empty page, you leave behind the talk page, as well as the edit history (you need to use the "move page" link); # I feel that a move as dramatic as this, which creates a spectacular number of redirects, should be at least discussed here prior to being done. While I think that there is a justification for moving the page to pianoforte (for example, the Grove Dictionary has the article under that title), I'd like a bit of consensus on it first. What does anyone else think about the idea? I'm fine with the page under either title. User:Antandrus 23:02, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC) : I think, going along with Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names)—which I do agree with—it should stay at piano. Looking forward to hear any other opinions tho --User:Sketchee 04:13, Feb 19, 2005 (UTC) ::Hmm, considering the Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names), it does seem that piano is the better title, since it is by far the more common word for the thing. User:Antandrus 04:21, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC) :Language is a motile organism. Common usage is the rule of the day here: we no longer refer to these instruments as claviers anymore, do we? --User:Bleh fu User talk:Bleh fu 15:56, Feb 20, 2005 (UTC) ::Curiouser and curiouser: ''Piano'' not ''pianoforte'' is undoubtedly the correct headword for this article, in fact my belief is that the English language has now moved to the point that the words are no longer even synonyms, see the new stub at pianoforte. User:Andrewa 20:06, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Non-neutral bias of damper pedal == ''The damper pedal is often simply called "the pedal," since it is the most important.'' Is it really the "most important" or is it just the most used? What about the other pedals? Aren't they important, too? :"most often used" would be better than "most important", I agree. That ''una corda'' is pretty darn important when you need it. User:Antandrus 16:12, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) == The actual range == ''A modern piano is supposed to have 88 keys - 7 1/3 octaves, but on this page it says the keys range from A0 to C7, while on the Piano key frequencies page it says they range from A1 to C9. Which one is correct?' :Neither; the piano keys range from A0 to C8. I'll fix it. :Note that middle C is "C4". There ''is'' another system in use, especially in the world of electronic keyboards and MIDI--the "Yamaha" system--in which Middle C is "C3". User:Antandrus 22:32, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==The separate article pianoforte== Someone has put up a pianoforte claiming that "pianoforte" designates a different instrument from "piano". I believe this is an error; "pianoforte" is simply the older and more formal term for "piano". To give some evidence: the New Grove places its article for "piano" under the title "pianoforte". The Grove Jazz encyclopedia places its article under "piano", but gives the full title as "Piano [pianoforte]". Neither work describes "pianoforte" as being a different instrument fromt the "piano". Can anyone provide any documented evidence (that is, actually citing something; not just your own intuition) that "pianoforte" means something different from "piano"? If not, I will return "pianoforte" to its former status as a redirect. Thanks, User:Opus33 14:26, 1 May 2005 (UTC) ==Boston link== The Boston link could do with updating to point to the appropriate Boston article, but I'm not sure which it is. --User:Jp347 23:10, 11 May 2005 (UTC) :Fixed; the New Grove had the answer. User:Antandrus 23:29, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Piano

Keyboard instruments Box zithers

See other meanings of words starting from letter:

P