Pi-a′no-for′te.
（
Music.) An instrument with a key-board and metallic strings put in motion by hammers.
Its usual compass is about seven octaves.
Its music is written on two different clefs at once, the F clef for the left hand, the G clef for the right hand.
Its strings are stretched upon a harp-shaped frame, and are struck by hammers moved by keys.
The strings are of graduated length, thickness, and tension; are stretched over bridges, and fastened at their respective ends to pegs and tuning-pins, and are arranged, two or three to a note, in a plane parallel to the sounding-board, by which their sonorous vibrations are propagated and enhanced.
It is distinguished from its predecessors in the same class by having a hammer to strike the string; the hammer being moved through the intervention of a jack, and retiring from the string immediately after delivering its blow.
“The piano is now, beyond all question, the first of
musical instruments, both to the profession and to the cultivated classes of society.” — Thalberg.
Another might say the organ, so far as power and capacity and variety of expression are concerned
In tracing the rise and progress of the instrument whose qualities warrant such exalted praise, we shall have to go back to the primitive stringed instruments which had a few strings, representing as many notes and tuned in unison or harmony, as the case may be, with a degree of skill depending upon the ear and attainments of the performer.
We may fairly suppose that the first instrument of this kind was played by the fingers.
In process of time, as it was discovered that either thickness, length, or tension would effect the object of a difference of tone, the frame would assume a somewhat triangular shape, the longer strings being the nearest to one side, to which all the strings were parallel.
We have then arrived at the
harp, which must have been used for ages before it attained the splendid proportions and finished appearance of those found represented in a tomb of the time of Rameses III., 1235 B. C. These figures are called
Bruce's harpers, from their discoverer, and are illustrated under the section treating of that instrument.
See harp.
The Old Testament Scriptures abound in the names of instruments of the harp kind; the
lyre, the
psaltery, and instruments of 10 strings.
The
Egyptian harps had from 4 to 14 strings as long ago as Amosis, about 1570 B. C., 900 years before
Terpander.
The form of the harp-frame, as we have seen, arose from the mode of varying the tone by giving different lengths to the strings, which were of catgut or tendons; to this was added another variation by the thickness of strings.
At a very early age, still another mode of varying the tone was discovered; this was by pressing on the string, and thus temporarily shortening it, raising the tone.
We have thus arrived at the guitar, which was common in
Egypt.
We find it represented on the temple and sepulchral paintings of
Thebes, on the obelisk brought from
Egypt by Augustus, and which was placed on Guglia Rotta at
Rome: also on the sculptures of Nimroud.
These guitars had necks, but no frets.
The
guitar is in name and fact closely allied to the harp, its
Greek name
kithara being the original of the word
guitar, and meaning an instrument of the harp kind.
See Guttar.
The
'ood of the modern
Arabs is much like the ancient
Egyptian guitar; a neck without frets, a hollow oval body, and perforated sounding-board.
The tuning-pins of the
Egyptian instrument are clearly shown on the obelisk imported by Augustus and upset by the
Constable Bourbon in 1527.
After the
harp and its congeners, the
guitar kind, whose strings were vibrated by the fingers and thumb, or by a
plectrum, we find the stringed instruments diverging in two directions, a device being employed in each case to vibrate the strings.
We regard the
plectrum as being, in the main, merely a mode of saving the fingers.
The two devices referred to, which characterize separate families of stringed
musical instruments, are the
bow and the
hammer. Of the first, we have the
violin series:
viola, violin, violoncello, violone, or
double-bass. Of the
hammer series, we have the
dulcimer, virginal, clavichord, hammer-harpsichord, and, lastly, the supreme
piano-forte.
Of the
bow series, the instruments have necks and the strings
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are capable of sounding various notes by being stopped to vary their lengths.
Of the
hammer series, the strings, like those of the
harp, express but one note each, and are numerous accordingly.
The harp was, for convenience, laid prostrate, but retained its shape as it does practically to the present day.
We shall have to notice two variations presently: one in the
substitution of quill-jacks for the hammer, the other in
uprighting the harp-frame, as in the upright piano.
The
bow series divaricates from our present subject, and we dismiss it.
First of the hammer series, we notice the
dulcimer. This has a series of strings tuned to the chromatic scale, and having a compass of two or more octaves.
The strings are stretched over a bridge at each end of the box-cover, which forms the sounding-board.
The
hammers are pellets of cork on the ends of elastic rods held in the hands of the performer.
This may be the
psaltery of the Hebrews: it is hard to tell.
The
citole, or little chest, was a box with stretched strings which were played by the fingers.
Now for a long step: The first stringed instrument in which the hammers were mechanically operated seems to have been the
clavicytherium, or keyed cithara (
clavis, a key). (See consecutive statement accompanying Plate XL., page 1692.) In this illustration of the sequence of instruments are also shown the
clavichord or
monochord and the
virginal, all of which preceded the
spinet, harpsichord, hammer-harpsichord, and
fortepiano, as it was first named.
Keys were applied to organs in the eleventh century; centuries before they were used on stringed instruments by Guido, of Arezzo, who originated the
clavicytherium, or
keyed cithara.
The history of the piano-forte as we have seen, involves the early history of stringed instruments, as the piano is but a prostrate harp with strings in groups and struck by keys.
Plate XL.
shows the series of improvements, beginning with the
lyre, the invention of which is credited to
Hermes (Mercury).
Fig.
a is from an Egyptian tomb at Beni Hassan, the painting being supposed to represent the arrival of Joseph's family in
Egypt, the tomb being contemporary with that event.
b is from a lyre in the
Berlin Museum, which is perfect except as to its strings.
c is a drawing from a painting in
Thebes, showing the use of the invention.
d is a square lyre from a painting in
Herculaneum, the figure holding a plectrum.
e is a bow-shaped twelve-stringed
harp, from an Egyptian painting copied by
Wilkinson f is from an Egyptian picture representing a figure playing on a harp with triangular frame and perpendicular strings.
(See harp, for cut of
Bruce's harpers.)
g is a medieval
cithara.
h is a
psalterium, from an illuminated Ms. of the fourteenth century.
i is a
dulcimer, from the “Musurgia seu Praxis Musicae,” by Ottomarus Luscinius,
Strasburg, 1536.
The dulcimer of old Assyria had strings of varying lengths passing over the sounding-board, and was slung by a strap in front of the performer while marching.
It was played by a plectrum.
It is known as the
kanoon by the Arabs and Persians, who twang the lamb's-gut strings with small plectra, one attached to the forefinger of each hand.
The dulcimer played with mallets is used in rural fetes on the Continent of
Europe, and known as a
hackbret (
hackboard, or chopping-board, the shape of which it resembles);
sackbut, in our translation of
Daniel.
j, a
citole, from a drawing preserved in the British Museum.
“A
citole in hire right hand hadde she.”
Chaucer.
k, a
clavicytherium, or keyed
cithara, which had quilled plectra attached to the keys; the strings were of catgut.
The illustration is from the “Musurgia,” just cited.
The
clavichord, also known as the
monochord, was a square instrument, and had keys on which were vertical pieces of brass pin-wire which could be pressed against the strings, which were also of brass.
These pins, therefore, formed wrest-pins for the strings, which vibrated only while the key was held down, a close damper being fixed behind which acted upon the string when quitted by the pin, the key, in fact, forming one of two bridges, between which the strings vibrated.
This instrument played an important part in the history of music for six hundred years. It was
Bach's favorite instrument; it formed part of
Mozart's traveling equipment.
It is said by
Blount ( “Glossographia,” 1656) to be so named “because the strings are wrested up with a
clavis, a key.”
l is the
clavicymbal, in which the strings are disposed harp fashion.
Its strings are of steel wire, sounded by quill plectra on the keys.
The illustration is from the “Musurgia.”
m is the
manichorde, from a drawing by Mersennus, 1636.
It was a superior form of
clavichord, with 49 or 50 keys and 70 strings, which rested on 5 bridges, some of the strings being in unison.
It had a hammer of brass and a cloth damper to stop the vibration after the note had been struck.
It was long and narrow, and the sounding-board took up half the length of the instrument.
n is a
virginal, taken from a stained-glass window of the Elizabethan period.
It had strings of various lengths, one to each note, of iron or steel.
The strings were struck by small pieces of quill affixed to minute springs adjusted in the upper part of the jacks, which were planted in the keys and directed perpendicularly upon the strings.
The name is derived from the instrument being deemed suitable for girls, or from its being used in accompanying hymns to the Virgin.
o is a triangular
virginal from the “Syntagma Musicum” of Praetorius.
The instrument is frequently mentioned in works and inventories of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Shakespeare refers to it.
p is a curious drawing of an upright virginal from a collection of pen-and-ink drawings of ancient
musical instruments, executed at the latter end of the sixteenth century.
The virginal of
Mary Queen of Scots was of oak inlaid with cedar and elaborately ornamented with figures of warriors, ladies, and birds.
The colors are yet bright.
q is the
spinet, named from
spina, a thorn or quill, the tone being produced by a crow's quill inserted in the tongue of the jack.
As described by Mersennus ( “Harmonicorum,”
Paris, 1636) it had 49 strings, of which the lower 30 were made of latten (flat brass wire) and the remainder (19) of steel or iron.
The note depended on the size of string and tension, there being one note for each string, and but 5 or 6 sizes of strings.
The
spinet was always triangular, and had the wires carried over a bent bridge; the strings of the
virginal usually went direct to the screw-pegs.
The illustration is from
Bonanni's “Gabinetto Armonico,” 4to,
Rome, 1722.
r is the
harpsichord, which is, in fact, a largesized
spinet, but it differed from the latter and from the
virginal in having two strings to a note.
The illustration is from the work of Mersennus just quoted.
“The action of the harpsichord was simply a key and what is called a jack, which is a piece of pear-tree with a small movable tongue of holly, through which a cutting of crow-quill was passed to touch the string when the jack was in action.”
（Burney.) Thus the mechanism of the jack was similar to that in the virginal and spinet.
Hans Ruckers joined to the two strings in unison a third one of shorter and finer range tuned an octave above the others.
He mounted his instruments partly with catgut strings and partly with steel wire; he added a second key-board to reach but a single wire, and extended the compass to four octaves.
Pedals were introduced about the middle of the eighteenth century, to work
stops, as they were termed (pedals were previously used on organs), — the
forte stop, which raised the dampers; the
soft stop, which partly stopped the vibrations of the strings; and the
buff stop, which interposed a layer of cloth or soft buff leather between the strings and the jacks.
Tarquin of
Paris first substituted buff leather for the quills in 1768.
Schobert had a double tier of strings with additional sounding-board.
Wieglet introduced metallic tongues in 1724; Silbermann, a mechanism like the clavichord to strike the string at its midlength, by which the harmonic sounds were heard at the same time the whole string was sounded.
Stein invented the
vis-a-vis, or double harpsichord, which was played by a performer at each end.
Burney refers to a transposing harpsichord of 1760: “By drawing out the keys the hammers are transferred to different strings, by which means a composition is transposed half a note, a whole note, or a flat third lower at pleasure.”
In 1730
Harris took an English patent for his harpsichord, “with two sets of strings, on which may be played either one unison or two; or two unisons and an octave together, and the Fortes and the Pianos,” etc. Plenius, in 1741, also refers to the “forte and piano” capacity of his instrument.
In 1774, the patent of Merlin described a “new-invented kind of compound harpsichord, in which, besides the jacks with quills, a set of hammers of the nature of those used in the kind of harpsichords called
piano-forte, are introduced,” etc.
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Piano-Forte movements.
- A, Bartolomineo Cristofori of Florence, 1711.
- B, Mason, London, 1755. C, single action.
|
The
hammer-harpsichord, so called from the substitution of hammers for plectra, was the first
piano-forte, and invented by Cristofori of
Florence, 1711.
It had a row of leather-topped hammers, which vibrated on a rod and struck the string from below.
A projection on the hammer near its axis was struck by “a tongue of wood placed upon a lever that meets the key
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Pictorial history of the piano-forte.
From the Lyre of Egypt, 2000 B. C., to the Harpsichord of the 18th Century A. D.
(From authentic sources.) |
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1693]
and that is raised by it when pressed by the key.”
(See Rimbault's “Piano-forte,”
London, 1860.) A long description by Scipione Maffei and a cut were published in the “Giornale dea Litterati d'italia,”
Venice, 1711 (Tom.
V. p. 144).
In
A,
Fig. 3686:
a, string;
b, frame of key-board;
c, key with a pad on the end which comes beneath the lever
e, which has a jack or hopper to force the hammer
o upward when the key is depressed;
m, the hammer rail;
r, the damper which leaves the string when the key is touched and returns when the pressure on the key is removed.
The hammer is leather-faced, and is caught by a silken string.
Marius of
Paris submitted four of his instruments for examination by the Academy of Sciences in 1716, calling them
clavecins d maillets. The hammers had leathern faces, and in one the hinged hammer was impelled against the string by the key and retreated from it, although pressure on the key remained.
Schroter's claim dates in 1718.
The hammer was leatherheaded and moved on a pivot, and rested near its axis upon a leather-headed pin screwed into the farther end of the fingerkey.
When the key was struck, the hammer was thrown up against the string and then retreated, allowing the string to vibrate.
A clothed hammer being made to strike the strings, the
jack no longer acting as a hammer, but transferring the motion of the key to the hammer, making the jack a
hammerlifter instead of a striker.
In each of these cases the particular value of the invention was the command possessed by the player of giving a sound more or less forcible by the force of the blow on the key, — a thing scarcely possible in the spinet and harpsichord, where the string was twanged by a passing crow-quill.
The ability to modulate the sound was spoken of as capacity for
forte or
piano effects, and the transposed words in the article in the Venetian journal (1711), quoted above, which speaks of “the
piano and
forte” as being heard, and also “gradations and diversity of power, as in a violoncello,” refer to the same versatility of expression.
The name
forte-piano occurs in
Harris's English patent, 1740, but the instrument was a
harpsichord.
Silbermann made two hammer-harpsichords in 1736.
His instruments, called forte-pianos, were played by
Bach at
Frederick the
Great's palace at
Potsdam.
Bach regarded them as too coarse, and preferred the clavichord, “which was,” as Forkel says in his Life of
Bach, “poor in tone, but on a small scale extremely flexible.”
After Silbermann came his pupil
Stein, upon whose piano-fortes
Mozart so loved to play (1777). Frederici, a fellow-pupil of
Stein's, made the first square piano.
The farther history of the piano introduces the name of
Sebastian Erard of
Strasburg, who invented the
escapement, which effected precision in the stroke of the hammer.
He died in 1831.
Ignace Pleyel, another noted maker of pianos in
Paris, died the same year.
Zumpe made large numbers in
England, 1766, and following years.
The movement invented by
Mason, an English clergyman, about 1755, is shown at
B (
Fig. 3686).
a is the key rocking on a round bar and kept in place by a pin;
d is the mallet with a hinge of vellum;
f is the string on which rests the damper
g, except when the key is depressed, raising the pin
i beneath the damper-lever, which has a vellum hinge.
The names of
Broadwood.
Stodard, and
Collard are familiar as English inventors and makers in succeeding years.
Gieb, in 1736, invented the
grasshopper action. In
America we have
Steinway and
Chickering, Knabe and many others, who have made improvements in details of construction and produce instruments of a high class.
The illustration (
C,
Fig. 3686) shows what is known as the
single action, in which the hammer
h is hinged to a bar and is operated by the lifter
b on the inner end of the key
k. At the extreme end of the key is the
sticker, which raises the damper
d when the key is struck.
As the key is restored to its normal position, the damper falls and hushes the sound of the string
s.
The damper existed previously in the clavichord, but was not movable vertically so as to leave the string when the hammer struck.
The
piano-forte, as such, was introduced to the
English public on the stage of Covent Garden Theater in 1767.
On a playbill of that date occurs the following: —
“
For the Benefit of Miss Brickler, 16th
of May, 1767. At the end of the first act
Miss Brickler will sing a favorite song from ‘Judith,’ accompanied by
Mr. Dibdin on a
new instrument called the piano-forte.”
From this time its success was assured, and the harpsichord, makers changed their movements, substituting
hammers for
plectra, percussion for
twanging.
There are three forms of the piano-forte, viz., the grand and the square, in which the strings are placed in a horizontal position, and the upright, in which the strings are vertical.
The form of the grand piano is the same as that of the harpsichord, and was suggested by the varying length of the strings.
This form is well adapted to the introduction of the best kinds of mechanism, and is always chosen for first-class instruments.
Each note is produced by the simultaneous vibration of three strings; but, in order to lessen the cost of the instrument, a form of grand piano has been constructed, in which there are but two strings to each note; such are the bi-grand and semigrand. There are also boudoir or cottage grands, which have shorter strings and occupy less room.
The form of the square piano is oblong rectangular, the same as the German clavichord, and is probably the first shape in which the piano appeared.
It remained an inferior instrument until the mechanism of the grand was introduced into it, thus leading to the variety called grand-square. It is difficult, in this instrument, to strengthen the framing sufficiently, and the oblique position of the action with respect to the strings and keyboard is also an objection; nevertheless, this form is the best substitute for the grand.
The upright piano was patented by Stodart in England in 1795.
It was at first a grand, set on end, raised on legs two or three feet above the floor, and struck at the lower end. This, the upright-grand, as it was termed, was unwieldy from its great hight, and was superseded by the cabinet, invented by Southwell in 1807, in which the frame was brought down to the floor and the blow given at the upper end of the strings by means of levers and long vertical rods communicating from the key to the hammer.
It formed an elegant piece of furniture, and continued long in favor.
Still, however, its great hight (6 feet) and length of action were unfavorable to delicacy and ease of touch.
About 1812, Mr. Robert Wornum introduced an upright piano-forte, the hight of which was from 4 to 5 feet; this was the harmonic, a name afterward changed to cottage. In 1827, its hight was still farther reduced to 3 1/2 feet from the floor, forming the piccolo, which has served as the model for many others of different names and about the same size. — Tomlinson.
The square piano is much more generally used than any other in this country, while in
England and on the Continent the cottage form appears to meet with most favor.
The piano-forte comprises four distinct parts: the
framing and
sounding-board; the
stringing; and the striking mechanism, or
action.
The framing, having to resist the tension of all the strings, equivalent in a full-sized grand piano to a force of about 25,000 pounds, requires to be made of great strength.
It was formerly constructed solely of timber; the strings were looped at one end around studs driven into a block of wood termed the string-block, their other ends being wound around a series of iron
wrest-pins, inserted into another piece termed the
wrest-plank. These were separated by a trussed framing, arranged so as to resist as completely as possible the tendency of the strings to draw these two parts together.
It was, however, found that, owing to the great strain, even the most seasoned timber was liable to become distorted, causing the instrument to get out of tune.
This defect also precluded the use of heavier strings for the purpose of increasing the power of the instrument.
As a remedy, the system in general use of combining wood and metal in the framing was invented.
This was adopted in part by
Broadwood in 1808, and in 1820 Stodard patented the first complete system of metallic bracing, also including a means of counteracting the expansion and contraction of the strings under varying temperatures by means of a series of tubes which expanded or contracted simultaneously with them, but in an opposite direction.
The general features of the combined framing of wood and metal, as applied to a grand piano-forte, consist in attaching the studs to which the rear ends of the strings are secured to an iron plate curved to the form of the hollow side of the instrument, and called the
string-plate. From this metallic bars extend parallel with and above the strings to the
wrest-plank. The bars are firmly connected at their ends to the string-plate and wrest-plank, and secured at intervals throughout their length to the timber framing below, to which the string-plate is also firmly fastened; both the bars and string-plate are usually of wrought-iron or steel.
Seasoned and well-dried oak glued up in several thicknesses to insure greater permanence of form is employed for the wooden parts of the framing.
The cast-iron string-frame is credited by the
English writers to Pleyel & Co. of
Paris.
In order to enable the hammers to strike the wires, an opening is necessary completely across the wooden framing under the strings; this is spanned by small thin arches of metal abutting on one side against the wrest-plank and on the other against a transverse rail, called the
belly-rail, which forms a portion of the main body of the framing, taking the thrust caused by the tension of the wires.
Of late years, framings entirely composed of metal have been extensively employed in the
United States.
Owing to the wide and deep space required for the keys and action in square pianos, the strengthening is effected by bolting down the wrest-plank and string-plate upon a strong bed of timber extending from beneath the keys, so as to form the bottom of the instrument.
One or more metallic bars above the strings also extend from the wrest-plank to the string-plate.
Framings exclusively of iron are also used in this class of instruments.
The upright piano requires no aperture for enabling the hammers to strike, and its framing is, therefore, simply sustained by vertical bars at the back of the instrument, to which the wrest-plank and string-plate are attached, and which receive the force exerted by the tension of the strings in the direction of their length.
Iron braces behind these are sometimes added, or they are replaced by metallic tubes.
The
sounding-board or
belly is a boarding of light wood about one fifth of an inch thick, occupying in a grand piano the whole area of the instrument, in a square piano about two fifths of
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its length, placed below the strings, or, in upright instruments, behind them.
It must be made of wood free from knots or imperfections, and cut in a particular direction of the grain.
Its edges are attached to the framing leaving its middle free to vibrate under the impulse received from the strings.
It is supported by bars glued on to its back; but if these are made sufficiently strong to resist the tension of the strings, it is so stiffened as to prevent the requisite vibration; if otherwise, it is gradually forced out of shape so that its surface becomes curved, impairing the tone of the instrument.
To remedy this,
Mr. Dreaper of
Liverpool applied hollow chambers to the back of the sounding board, adjusted to any desired pressure by screws.
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Piano-Forte actions. |
M. Pape, for this purpose, placed the sounding-board at the lower side of a frame to the upper part of which the strings are attached, so that their effect should be to extend rather than compress the sound-board.
This arrangement also admits of its being made of larger size, so as to increase the resonance.
The pitch of a note depends on the number of vibrations communicated to the air in a given time.
In the piano-forte the vibrations of the various strings, their intensity of sound, and their quality or timbre, are regulated in three different ways: by varying their length, their weight, or their tension.
It is an established fact that of two strings of equal weight and tension, one which is half the length of the other produces a sound an octave higher, the intermediate notes between these being produced by strings varying in length according to a scale which has been ascertained by experiment.
The same result may be attained by varying the tension: in this case, the vibrations are in proportion to the square root of the force employed in stretching the strings.
In strings of the same length and tension, but differing in weight, the vibrations are in direct inverse proportion to the respective weights of the strings.
The relative pitch may be obtained by either of these modes, but in practice the piano-forte maker adopts them all, in order to produce the proper timbre and volume, as well as the required pitch.
In a grand piano-forte there are fourteen different thicknesses of steel wire, those for the bass being wrapped with thin copper wire, and each diminishing, but not uniformly, in length and tension, as well as in thickness, from the lower to the upper notes.
Three strings were formerly employed for each note in the grand piano and two in the upright.
Latterly, however, it is common to have but two strings for each middle and one for each lower note in the grand piano.
Uprights have usually two strings for each note.
In 1827,
Messrs. Collard patented a mode of applying the strings, differing from that previously in use; it consisted in employing but one hitch-pin of double the usual size, and passing the string from one tuning-pin to the other around this hitch-pin in one continuous piece of wire.
By this the wires are prevented from twisting, and it obviates the danger of their snapping at the noose around the hitch-pin.
Another improvement consisted in giving the string an upward bearing at the striking end by employing perforated plates instead of the common form of bridges over which the string passed, the distance between them regulating the length of its vibrating part.
The free end of the string was extended upwardly after passing through the perforated bridge, so that the upward blow of the hammer tended to force it against its seat in the bridge, instead of lifting it therefrom, as before.
Wornum, in 1819, reduced the strings to a uniform size and tension, wrapping those of the lower notes with wire to produce a lower tone.
This system, though possessing some advantages, never came into general use.
The mechanism by which the impulse is given to the key by the finger of the performer is termed the
action. Those first employed were of the simple construction just described, known as
single action. In this the hammer would not reach the string unless the key was struck with considerable force, so that it was impossible to play very
piano, while, if it was attempted to remedy this defect by bringing the hammer nearer the string, there was danger of its not falling back, technically called
blocking. This difficulty was obviated by the invention of the
hopper (
b,
Fig. 3687). This is an upright jointed piece attached to the back end of the key, which, when the key is pressed down, engages in a notch on the under side of the hammer, lifting it so near that a very slight additional pressure causes it to strike; at this moment the upper joint of the hopper coming in contact with a fixed button, escapes or
hops from the notch, allowing the hammer to fall away from the string.
This is termed the
double action, and still continues to be used in square and upright piano-fortes.
In case the key was struck with too much force, however, the hammer was liable to rebound from the bed on to which it fell and strike the string a second time, impairing the tone of the note.
To remedy this, a projection, the
check, was fixed to the back end of the key, catching the edge of the hammer as it fell and preventing it from rising again.
These actions, however, did not admit of the same note being struck twice in succession until the key had risen to its original position, so that the hopper could again engage in its notch.
Various contrivances have been devised for enabling the quick repetition of the same note, all of which effect the object by holding the hammer up close to the string, while the key rises so that the hopper may sooner engage with it and repeat the note with less effort of the finger and greater rapidity.
Fig. 3687,
A illustrates the square piano-forte action with the
Irish damper, so called from its inventor
Southwell, an Irishman; and
B, the operation of the
check and crank-damper.
a is the key;
b, the hopper;
c, the string;
d, Irish damper;
d′, crank-damper;
e, under-hammer;
f, hammer; and
g, check.
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1695]
The common
grand action is shown at
C. D represents
Broadwood's grand action, and
E the improvements thereto by
Southwell a, key;
b, lever;
c, button;
d, check;
e, damper;
f, string;
g, crank for damper;
h, damper pedal-lifter;
i i i i, rails and socket;
k, spring;
l, hammer;
m n, block passed through the hammer-butt;
o, a spring pressing against
n, so that when the lever passes the notch in the foot of the hammer it is caught by
m, retaining the hammer at the proper hight;
p, a spring which determines the force with which the hammer shall strike.
Collard's (properly,
Stewart's) grand action is shown at
F.
a, key;
b, hopper;
c, button;
d, hopper-spring;
e, hammer;
f, check;
g, hammer-rail;
h, damper;
i i, rails;
k, crank for damper;
l, damper pedal-lifter.
G is Erard's grand action.
a, key;
b, lifter;
c, hopper-lever;
d, hopper;
e, hammer-sustaining lever;
f, spring stop;
g, hopper-button;
h, butt against which the hopper strikes;
i, two small wire stops which act against
e; k k, springs acting upon hammer-lever and hopper-lever;
l, check;
m m, leaden balanceweights;
n, damper;
o, hammer;
p, hopper-rail.
In addition to these may be cited two actions of
Wornum's, designed for upright pianos; the first,
H, known as the
unique, and the second,
I, as the
double or
piccolo action.
In the first,
a is the key;
b, hopper;
c, string;
d, hammer-rail;
e, hammer;
f, damper and wire;
g, damper-rail;
h, ruler;
i i, springs.
In the latter, or double action,
a is the key;
b, hopper and springs;
c, hammer;
d, hammer-rail;
e, tie and wire;
f, check;
g g, damper and wire;
h, setting-off screw.
Many other forms, based on general principles similar to those illustrated, have been devised by inventors both in
Europe and
America.
Prominent among these is the improvement of
Pape, which consists in placing the action mechanism above, instead of below, the sounding-board, so that the blow of the hammer acts on the string from above, and no opening is required in the soundboard; by this arrangement a superior quality of tone is produced and the strength of the instrument increased.
In this the hammers are placed under the keys, and are worked from their front ends immediately below the part struck by the fingers, so that the thrust is transmitted directly downward in a nearly vertical direction.
This arrangement also allows longer strings to be employed in proportion to the length of the case, or a shorter case with the same length of string, than in the usual piano-forte actions.
J K are, respectively, the horizontal and upright piano-forte actions of
Steinway and Sons.
Others might be mentioned would space permit, embracing the peculiar constructions of instruments whose fame is wider than the continent, such as the Chickering, Knabe,
Weber,
Hallet and
Davis, Schomacker, and others.
On the stringing and construction of pianos, see “Lehrbuch des Pianofortebasses,”
Weimar, 1872.
In
Pepys's diary, October, 1664, another form of stringed instrument played by keys is thus described: —
“To the musique meeting at the post-office, where I was once before.
And thither anon come all the
Gresham College, and a great deal of noble company; and the new instrument was brought called the
Arched Viall, where, being tuned with lute-strings and played on with keys like an organ, a piece of parchment is always kept moving; and the strings, which, by the keys, are pressed down upon it, are grated in imitation of a bow by the parchment; and so it is intended to resemble several vialls played on with one bow, but so basely and harshly that it will never do.”
The self-acting piano has a pin cylinder turning horizontally on its axis, acted upon a coiled spring, and regulated by a flywheel.
The pins have a determinate arrangement on the cylinder, like those of a barrel-organ or musical box, and act upon levers which actuate the hammers.
Certain adjustments are made for piano and forte effects.
Rolfe's English patent specifies a number of improvements.
The
violin attachment for piano-fortes was patented in
England about thirty years since by
Todd.
It is attached in addition to the usual hammer action, and is brought into use as required, being intended to confer upon the strings the violin tone, as a pleasing variation or accessory.
This is effected by the pressure of the foot of the player upon a pedal, which puts in motion an endless band covered with resin, the band being made to rub against the particular wire appertaining to the key which is depressed by the finger of the player.
A writer has taken the trouble to give the actual material used in constructing a piano-forte: In an ordinary instrument there are fifteen kinds of wood, namely, pine, maple, spruce, cherry, walnut, whitewood, apple, basswood, birch, mahogany, ebony, holly, cedar, beech, and rosewood, from
Honduras,
Ceylon,
England,
South America, and
Germany.
In this combination, elasticity, strength, pliability, toughness, resonance, lightness, durability, and beauty are individual qualities, and the general result is
voice. There are also used of the metals, iron, steel, brass, white-metal, gun-metal, and lead.
There are in an instrument of seven and a half octaves 214 strings, making a total length of 787 feet of steel wire, and 500 feet of white (covering) wire.
Such a piano will weigh from 900 to 1,000 pounds, and will last with constant use (not abuse) fifteen or twenty years. The total manufacture of pianos in New York alone averages 15,000 per annum. —
Exchange.
Fig 3689 illustrates an instrument patented July 11, 1871, by
Messrs. Atkins and
Drewer, in which steel hooks
a b, having one or more prongs, are employed in place of strings, the general arrangements of the key-board, action, and sounding-board resembling those of the upright piano.
The hooks are attached to a metallic frame
c, composed of two bars connected by pillars which alternate with the hooksupports, and cause the sound-board to vibrate by striking against it. When the hooks have more than one prong, each prong must be tuned to a different octave.
A kind of
glockenspeil.
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Steel-bar piano. |
