Perhaps the most ubiquitous musical instrument, after the guitar, is the piano.They come in all shapes and sizes, from a small spinet to a huge 9-foot concert grand, upright, console, grand, electric, digital reproducing.
Piano is an important part of an western music. The path it took to get to the instrument we know today is a long and interesting one. Time, space, and, quite frankly, scholarship prevent me from bringing you the entire history, but we will look at some of the highlights and milestones in the development of the modern piano.
The earliest musical instruments were drums—of a sort. After the drum, it is thought that the oldest instrument is probably the flute. Through some happy accident, some early man (or woman) found out that blowing across a tube, such as a reed, produced a whistling sound, and that changing the length of the reeds changed the sound of the pitch. The story goes that the demi-god Pan was chasing the nymph Syrinx, and as she fled, she found herself at a lake or pond and could run no further. The gods saw her plight, and to save her from Pan, turned her into a growth of reeds. Pan, coming to the scene, pulled the reeds up and made a flute—the instrument we now call the “Pan-flute” or, in some countries, the “Syrinx.” From that point, things started happening a bit faster. From blowing across the top of a tube, it was discovered that one could create a whistle in the tube, blow INTO the tube, and vary the pitch by putting that one could create a whistle in the tube, blow INTO the tube, and vary the pitch by putting holes in the tube and closing or opening them.
The organ grew from its primitive beginnings, string instruments were becoming popular. The earliest being the harp. The early harps had strings strung in a c-shaped bow, and each string tuned to a different pitch. An improvement on that was the Psaltery, which was a harp that was actually on a sounding board, with bridges on the board for each string to change the pitch. It was still plucked with the fingers. It took some time, but eventually, someone figured out a way to pluck the strings mechanically, in much the same way as the organ was played. It was reported that in 1397 a fellow named Herman Poll created what he called the “clavicembalum,” which was actually, the first harpsichord. A mechanism was developed that would allow the player to touch a key, and in so doing, pluck a string.
The earliest musical instruments were drums—of a sort. After the drum, it is thought that the oldest instrument is probably the flute. Through some happy accident, some early man (or woman) found out that blowing across a tube, such as a reed, produced a whistling sound, and that changing the length of the reeds changed the sound of the pitch. The story goes that the demi-god Pan was chasing the nymph Syrinx, and as she fled, she found herself at a lake or pond and could run no further. The gods saw her plight, and to save her from Pan, turned her into a growth of reeds. Pan, coming to the scene, pulled the reeds up and made a flute—the instrument we now call the “Pan-flute” or, in some countries, the “Syrinx.” From that point, things started happening a bit faster. From blowing across the top of a tube, it was discovered that one could create a whistle in the tube, blow INTO the tube, and vary the pitch by putting that one could create a whistle in the tube, blow INTO the tube, and vary the pitch by putting holes in the tube and closing or opening them.
The organ grew from its primitive beginnings, string instruments were becoming popular. The earliest being the harp. The early harps had strings strung in a c-shaped bow, and each string tuned to a different pitch. An improvement on that was the Psaltery, which was a harp that was actually on a sounding board, with bridges on the board for each string to change the pitch. It was still plucked with the fingers. It took some time, but eventually, someone figured out a way to pluck the strings mechanically, in much the same way as the organ was played. It was reported that in 1397 a fellow named Herman Poll created what he called the “clavicembalum,” which was actually, the first harpsichord. A mechanism was developed that would allow the player to touch a key, and in so doing, pluck a string.
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