THE PIANOFORTE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 87, 14 April 1941, Page 5

THE PIANOFORTE.

HOW IT WAS BORN. I I STORY COVERS CENTURIES. , The piano is the <le-ven<lant of a long] ; line of similar instruments. For two' jcenturies and a half the nation's ances-j .tone were content with the tinkling music of the clavichord, itself the child of the monochord. For another hundred , .ami fifty years the clavicymba] held j pride of place, with the spinet and harp-1 j-dchord for rivals. These instruments ■idiffered from the piano in one important j particular. While they were provided I with points of quill or hard leather j which plucked the wires, producing a i harp-like sound, the piano wires are set ill motion l>y blows from hammers. ! It was not until late Stuart (lavs (in IiiOO) that Hart oloinco Oristofali. a harpsichord-maker of Padua. Italv. introduced the pianoforte. What a splendid workman Bartolomeo was is proved by the fact that two of his pianos, dated respectively 1720 and 172tJ. j still survive. ] Nearly eighty years elapsed before , the piano made its public debut in Finland in J7<>7. The sccne was the Theatre j Royal, C'ovent Harden. and the occasion la ]>erformance of (Jay's "Beggar's ;Opera" for the benefit of Miss Briekler. I who played the part of Polly Peachiim. j "Miss Briekler."' the bill runs, "will , sing a favourite song from ".luditli." accompanied by Mr. l)il>din on a new instrument called Piano Forte." How Pianos Are Made. Years before, however, the piano was known in England; it was first introduced J by one Burkhard Tschudi, an ex-joiner. | W hen Tschudi retired, his mantle fell | on the broad and capable shoulders of i John Broad wood, a Scotsman who had i served his apprenticeship to the enterprising Swiss. 1 bus in 177-'{ we find Broad wood advertising himself as "Harpsichord and Grand and Small Pianoforte Maker to His Majesty." More than 10,000 rpieces of wood, metal, felt, cloth, and -so on, go to the making of a piano. Before it is finished

i it passes through some eighty pairs of j hands. The timber used includes spruce j ideals from Canada, beech from English! forests, oak and whitewood from) America, and mahogany from Honduras.! i After the wood is seasoned and cut toj I the sizes required, it is passed into a heatinjr chamber, where it remains.l under gradually increased temperature.; I for three or four weeks until the last: j vestige of moisture is dried out of it.] I After a further period of drying, the ] pieces of wood are taken to the woodi working shop and shaped. j Then follows process after process— ! glueing, veijeering with various woods, etc.. until the sounding-board, the most d'licate and vital part of the instru- | lient. made from Swiss pine, is fixed in l' place. | The steel wires, of the finest temper ( iand able to l»ear an aggregate tension of ] twenty to thirty tons, are stretched in I; their places: the keyboard is added, and .jthe piano is ready for its case.