History of Pianos

Part 3

Baroque (1600-1750) Keyboard Instruments:

Image courtesy of Gerard Janot

The History of pianos:

During the Baroque era, the popularity of “Basso Continuo” or an accompanying bass (often consisting of a Viola da gamba or the later Violoncello plus a Harpsichord or a Lute), meant the Harpsichord had to be refined to have a rather loud sound to be heard over the other instruments or the orchestra.

Did I mention also the increased popularity of the orchestra? During the Baroque era the orchestra developed.

Up to 20 people playing together was a rather new invention in Europe. Actually, the Harpsichordist was also conducting the orchestra!

The Harpsichord became a more favored keyboard instrument than the Spinets and Virginals.

It was a very popular instrument for which composers now wrote music both as a solo instrument, and accompaniment instrument.

The orchestra kept growing, and it became more and more interesting for composers to use dynamic effects in their compositions.

Dynamics had of course been used in the history of pianos much earlier, but the Harpsichords had a disadvantage- you could not really play loud and soft.

The harpsichord strings were plucked with quills, and so you could not change the dynamics gradually, but with a mechanism that plucks more or fewer strings you could at least create different sound effects.

Many Harpsichords came with two and even up to three keyboards or "manuals" and by changing keyboard as you played you could achieve different dynamics and sound effects, but gradually changing the sound louder or softer- crescendo or diminuendo- was impossible.

The Clavichord, which J.S Bach liked very much, had a metallic tongue, or “tangent” that pushed the strings rather that plucked them. This made it possible to change the sound a bit, and also to create vibrato! But- the instrument is very (for modern ears) soft, and therefore not useful in an orchestra.

So, who invented the piano?

Image courtesy of LPLT

The first historical "real" piano, which was basically a harpsichord played with hammers covered in leather hitting the strings instead of quills plucking them, was invented around 1709 by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1730), a well known harpsichord maker in Florence, Italy.

It was proudly called “Gravicembalo col piano e forte” or "Piano Forte" since it could be played both loud and soft!

His invention was not so popular in Italy, unfortunately for him, but even though we can say it was Cristofori who invented the piano, there were others working at similar inventions as well.

Gottfried Silbermann (1683-1753) in Germany was working hard at improving and popularizing the new instrument, later also named Hammerklavier by Beethoven.

J.S Bach never much cared for the new instrument; he loved his Harpsichord and the Clavichord. But he still helped Silbermann making some adjustments and improvements.

It wasn’t until after 1760 that the pianoforte became really popular. But Bartolomeo Cristofori who invented the piano sadly never lived to see the enormous popularity it would get later..

Continue to part 4

Other Resources:

The Clavichord (Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs)

The Well-Tempered Clavichord

Musical Treasures of the 17th Century: Elaine Comparone, Harpsichord & the Queen's Chamber Band

Ton Koopman Plays Bach

Return from History of Pianos: Part 3 to Piano History

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