The Pianoforte

Musical instruments with stretched strings, the fore-runners of the piano, can be traced back to the oldest recorded life of man. But that which distinguishes the piano from all other stringed instruments is that the action of the strings is manipulated by a keyboard. The piano is a keyed-string instrument. It is generally asserted that no trace of such an instrument is found anterior to the sixteenth century, but a much greater antiquity is also claimed. The clavier, or keyboard, was invented at the close of the eleventh century, but was only applied to the organ, a wind instrument.

The first stringed instrument to which a keyboard was attached was the clavicytherium, or keyed-cithera. The strings, stretched in the form of a triangle, were sounded by quills, attached in a rude manner to the end of the keys. It was fitted into an oblong box, with a lid, and, when closed, resembled an old-fashioned music-box. Very little is known of this primitive instrument, which was superseded during the Middle Ages by the clavichord (clavis, a key; chorda, a string). According to tradition the clavichord was invented by the Italians about the year 1300, and was imitated by the Belgians and Germans. The clavichord played an important part in the history of music for several centuries. It contained all the principles of the old-fashioned square piano:

The growth of these three principles marks the evolution of the modern piano. The clavichord was in general use during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it was manufactured in Germany as late as the seventeenth century. John Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) wrote music for every known instrument in his day, but his immortal works, the "Fugues," were written for the clavichord; and the clavichord formed a part of the baggage of Mozart wherever he journeyed. In shape it resembled an old-fashioned square piano, only very much smaller.

The next steps in piano building were the virginal and spinet. These did not supersede the clavichord, but were improvements upon it. The spinet was always triangular in form, resting upon three legs, and had the wires carried over a bent bridge to modify the tone. The virginal was an improvement upon the clavichord in having a string for each note, and the treble notes sometimes graded by gold, silver and silk strings. The virginal was called a royal instrument, Henry VIII. being one of its first patrons, and during the succeeding reigns of his children three virginal players were retained at court. Queen Elizabeth was a noted performer, and some trace the name of the instrument to the Virgin Queen, while others claim that the name originated when, in the twilight of convent halls, it served to lead the voices of consecrated maidens in vesper hymns to the virgin.

But the immediate ancestor of the Piano was the Harpsichord. The harpsichord in its maturity belongs to the eighteenth century. Its name is derived from the harp arrangement of the strings, and this serves to illustrate the statement that the principle of the piano dates back to prehistoric times. Upon the oldest Egyptian monuments the Egyptian harp is engraved. The virginal had but one string to each key. Another string was added in the harpsichord, giving it a more powerful and sustained tone. The two strings were in unison; but later on a third string was added, of finer and shorter range. A second keyboard, or clavier, was also added, that soft and loud effects could be obtained by going from one keyboard to the other.

The great Handel (1685-1759) possessed a fine Rucker harpsichord, made in Antwerp. In shape it resembled a grand piano; the case and lid were of ebony, with ornaments of gold and colored lacquer work. The sounding-board was also ornamented; upon a ground of pale green, with arabesques, a dozen monkeys were giving a concert. Upon the under side of the lid, inscribed in letters of gold, were the words "Sic transit gloria mundi" (the glory of the world vanishes as sound into space). On that part of the lid which turns back from the keyboard was inscribed "Musica donum Dei." (Music is the gift of God.) Handel's execution upon this harpsichord is said to have been marvellous. Public singers were mortified to find that the auditors were listening to Handel's accompaniments rather than to them, and a noted baritone is said to have stopped in the middle of his song on account of it.

Handel's harpsichord was left by his will to his friend and amanuensis, Smith. Smith in turn presented it to George III. as a gift fit for a king, inasmuch as its ivory keys were indented by the constant fingering of the great Handel, and as it was the instrument upon which the greater part of his immortal musical works had been composed.

The English harpsichords of the eighteenth century were infinitely superior to those constructed on the Continent. It is needless to follow the successive improvements of harpsichord makers to obtain superiority of tone, to do away with the jarring sound of "the quill" against the strings; suffice it to say that the grand desideratum was attained when the hammer-harpsichord appeared before the world in that charming and expressive instrument known as the Grand Pianoforte. Its name is its story: "piano" soft, "forte" loud. The object of centuries was accomplished when the quill, the bristle, the thorn, the ivory tongue, the leathern tongue, were banished, and a small hammer was invented to strike the strings and evoke a clear, precise tone, a tone regulated by the force of the touch upon the keys.

Various devices had been resorted to in order to obtain greater expression upon the keyed-string instruments. And it is a remarkable coincidence that three men in three different parts of the world, Italy, France and Germany, invented about the same time an improved key-action, the hammer-action, by which soft and loud effects could be obtained upon the instrument at the will of the performer. These three men were an Italian named Bartolome Christofali, who exhibited his improved hammer-harpsichord in 1711; a French harpsichord maker named Marius, who exhibited the same improvement in 1716, and a German organist named Christopher Schroter, who exhibited in 1717. The Italians claimed the invention, but upon evidence which was brought forward the three men were given equal credit, as all three were working out the same idea at the same time.

In the year 1767 the pianoforte was introduced on the stage of the Covent Garden Theatre, London, as "a new instrument." The pianoforte, from its invention up to this time, had been considered merely a household instrument. An old playbill records its first public announcement:

Charles Dibdin, born 1745, died 1814, has the honor of being the first public pianist. But Clementi was the first great artist who established the confidence of the musical world in the new instrument. He was born in Rome, 1752, and died March 10th, 1832. He was buried in Westminister Abbey.

The pianoforte was now firmly established in public favor, and the death-blow was given to the old harpsichord in the year 1800, when Clementi began the manufacture of pianofortes. Thus the artist and the artisan joined in the production and perfection of the instrument which is now a household friend and a public servant. The zeal of a great pianist, coupled with the inventive genius of a skilled mechanic in Clementi, gave to the world in 1800 the real pianoforte. It only remained for the nineteenth century to perfect it.