What is a piano and what do we know about its evolution?
The piano is an acoustic stringed instrument, invented around 1700, most likely by Bartolomeo Cristofori from Padua, Italy. It is played by using fingers on a keyboard, causing hammers in the piano body to touch the strings. The Italian word piano is a shortened form of the Italian word pianoforte, which means “soft” and “loud” respectively. Its predecessor was the harpsichord.
From harpsichord to piano
The piano evolved from the harpsichord around 1700 to 1720. Harpsichord manufacturers wanted to create an instrument with a better dynamic response than the harpsichord. Cristofali, the holder of instruments at the court of Prince Ferdinand de Medici of Florence, was the first to solve the problem. The instrument was more than 100 years old when Beethoven wrote his last sonatas, around the time the harpsichord was replaced as the standard keyboard instrument.
Bartolomeo Cristofori
Cristofori was born in Padua in the Republic of Venice. At the age of 33, he was recruited to work for Prince Ferdinando. Ferdinando, the son and heir of Cosimo III, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, loved music. There is only speculation about what led Ferdinando to recruit Cristofori. The Prince traveled to Venice in 1688 to go to the Carnival, so maybe he met Cristofori who passed Padua on his return home. Ferdinando was looking for a new technician to take care of his many musical instruments, as the previous employee had died. However, it seems possible that the Prince wanted to hire Cristofori, not just as his technician, but specifically as an innovator in musical instruments. During the remaining years of the 17th century, Cristofori came up with two keyboard instruments before starting his work on the piano. These instruments are documented in a 1700 inventory of the many instruments Prince Ferdinando kept. The spinetton was a large, multiple chosen spinet (a harpsichord in which the strings are angled to save space). This invention is intended to fit into an overcrowded orchestra bowl for theatre performances while using the louder sound of a more chosen instrument.
